East African Playgrounds

Well what an incredible start to EAP’s second project, one week in and we already have three swings sets cemented in! The volunteers arrived early Sunday morning, slightly blurry eyed, not knowing what Uganda had waiting for them. After breakfast we started our journey to Masaka, stopping at the equator along the way for the compulsory photo! Once arrived in Lwannunda, the village the volunteers are staying in, the volunteers soon got themselves equated with local life, the boys playing football with the kids whilst the girls playing chatting with the locals.

Work began on Monday morning where they we introduced to their new best friends … a pick-axe, hoe and big spike! The group stormed though digging the first few foundation holes, Harri and Markus’s hole took quite a bit longer due to the underground wall they had to dig through, but luckily this time no water pipes! Work this week has continued to be very fast and efficient, mainly due to the determination and high sprits of the group but also helped by the equally enthusiastic school children that are so egar to help! Mixing cement Uganda style came as a bit of a shock to some as took some, it’s a bit more like hard work here, nonetheless everyone got stuck in and dirty!

The volunteers have also enjoyed a taste of local life throughout their first week. Ugandan food getting mixed reviews some not being able to get enough and others happy to stick to rice! The school children have been a huge part of this project, introducing themselves to us straight away. The children have learnt the Macarena amongst other fantastic English dances!

Due to such a successful week the volunteers are currently enjoying a 3 day weekend in Masaka town and Lake Nabogabo. They are enjoying the relaxation of Tropic Inn swimming pool, the buzz of the Friday market and the friendly vibe of a Ugandan bar. This afternoon we are off to Lake Nabogabo to enjoy the beautiful view and playing some games.

Thanks guys for a fantastic week, looking forward to many more like it!

Two of our volunteers, Helen and Sami, are keeping a blog, so to see what is really going on, check theirs out.
http://a-f-r-i-c-a.blogspot.com/2011/07/week-one.html
http://blogs.statravel.com/samik16

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We are in Masaka, Uganda building two playgrounds in one month. We have built two small playgrounds, one at St Joseph’s Primary School, Lwanunda and the other at Step Up Infant school in Nyendo. We thought it would be tough and tight for time, but in fact we have finished early, thanks to our speedy team!

Our team of 8 volunteers have been staying at the rural school, St Joseph’s, where we have been made welcomed by the staff at the Primary school and the local Women’s group. We came to build here after being shown a, once-was fantastic, playground that had decayed over time. Using the ideas and some of the materials of the original playground we built; a baby swing set, a big swing set, a slide, a seesaw, a rope climber and a rope v-bridge. The rope work is new to our playground design thanks to the UK playground company Rubicon. The whole community is really excited about the build and all the children cannot wait to get a play on it, on our open day this Wednesday 13th July.

At the same time as building at St Josephs we have been building at the town school of Step Up Infant School in Nyendo. They also had a playground that was not in full working order, so it was agreed that EAP would take out the old and replace it with a higher quality version. On this site we built a seesaw, a swing and a baby complex with slide, climbing wall and steps. We also painted a mural on the wall. The volunteers went into class’s to find out what the children wanted on the wall and then once it was drawn out, we got the children to help paint, the younger ones did hand-print, it looks fantastic!

We had an interesting start to this build, as always we started the build by asking the school if it was safe to dig there and if they knew of any water pipes below, the school assured us that there was none. But sure enough on the first hole we dug, we managed to burst a water pipe! Opps! Luckly the school had just brought an extra bit of land that was actually more suitable, so work began again there! However we had agreed to paint a mural on the wall next to where the original playground was meant to be, so now we have a pretty painted wall one end of the school and a playground the other end! Oh well!

The volunteers have had a fun-filled and busy stay with us, every Wednesday afternoon we have held a women’s group and a kid’s club. The ladies have taught our volunteers a variety of things such as local language, songs, dances (lots of bum wiggling!) and craft making, they all have made some great friends and had lots of laughs! In the Kid’s club we taught cricket, dodge ball, british ball dog, rounder’s and duck, duck, goose (now named chicken, chicken, LION!). The children were fantastic at cricket and continue to ask everynight after school ‘cricket? Cricket?’! The volunteers have also enjoyed three weekends away at Nabogabo, Ssese Island and Lake Bonyoni. They have been a fantastic bunch of volunteers, providing us with lots of giggles and games.

The volunteers on this project have been helped along by Lydia Gill and Brad Reed, two Group Leaders that came out with us last summer on the Buwagi project. These two have been priceless to the whole group and a real asset to EAP. We hope they can continue their work with us in the future.

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… then take a look at our new page and contact form, which let’s you know how EAP can help you build a playground.

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EAP has a brightly coloured assortment of jewellery for sale in order to raise funds for our work in East Africa. All of the jewellery we sell has been handcrafted by a women’s cooperative in Uganda, and bought at a fair price, thus supporting the local economy of the community we work alongside.

We charge:

£10 for a full set of necklace, bracelet and earrings;

£7 for a necklace;

£5 for a bracelet;

£5 for a pair of earrings.

The pictures above are a representation of the jewellery available – there are a number of colours and styles in stock.

If you would like to make a purchase, or if you are interested in selling jewellery as an EAP fundraiser, for example through holding a party or running a stall, please do get in touch with us via our e-mail address at info@eastafricanplaygrounds.org or by using the contact form on the website.

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The last couple of weeks has seen some really hard work – getting everything cemented in, painting, levelling and filling the new sand pits. The team have been pulling 11 hour days to get all the work done. Thankfully their massive efforts have meant that we have now finished our most challenging and unique playground yet. The playground is on a hill, with sections levelled off and marked out with tyre sandpits. We have also managed to build a seperate area for the toddlers and little ones. Tomorrow is our open day and the team all head off for their travels on Monday.

But don’t worry, it hasn’t all been work, work, work. Everyone had Sunday off and some headed to Nairobi for shopping whilst the rest went to see some Kenyian Premier League football, brilliant fun. We also all had a couple of days off this week to rest and get ready for the final push.

We will be back in the UK soon, and we are now recruiting again for playground builds in the summer of 2011, so if you are interested then please do get in touch.

The EAP Team

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