Easter in Salajwe

Our little friend Kgosi turned eight years old on April 21, the week before Easter. Lucas and I offered to throw a birthday party for him and his friends. Kgosi lives with his grandmother who is a teacher at the primary school.

Lucas and I decided to share a little bit of America by hosting an Easter eggs hunt and piñata. Lucas hard-boiled 11 eggs. Since we didn’t have food dye, we decorated the eggs with markers. I soaked strips of newspaper in a water/flour mixture and wrapped around a balloon to make a piñata. We filled the piñata with candy and toys, and sewed a string threw the sides so that it could hang from a clothes line.

We met with Kgosi’s grandmother so that she could explain the rules of the egg hunt while we hid the eggs. Kgosi’s grandmother lives in a small, square compound on the primary school grounds. There are no bushes, no grass. We struggled to find hiding places. We slid some in random bricks laying in the yard, in window sills, and holes in the ground. It seemed pretty obvious where eggs where hiding but for kids who have never played, it was a bit difficult. The kids would move as a group rather than spreading out. When one egg was found, the rest would dig in the ground like dogs looking for the rest. When an egg was found, the child would peel the egg and gobble it down. There were enough eggs that every child got at least one. It was a big hit.

Lucas and I passed out cake and watermelon and gave Kgosi a gift. He is a huge fan of match box cars. So we wrapped up five cars that had never been used and gave them to him as a birthday gift.

For the final game, we taught kids how a piñata works. Lucas would tie a bandana around a kid’s eyes, spin him around a few times, hand him a broken broom handle and give him three swings. I was surprised most of the children were reluctant to try. In fact one kid waited until he was finished being spun around and just pulled off his bandana without taking any swings.

When the piñata was finally knocked down, there was a stunned silence instead of the normal chaos of American children rushing to collect candy. I picked up the piñata and poured all the goodies on the ground. Then they got the idea. Even the grandmother was collecting some candy.

The next day Lucas and I left to meet up with some Peace Corps volunteers who had friends visiting from Spain. Their friends offered to cook an authentic Spanish meal for everyone. The next morning those who were interested ran a 6-mile “Easter Bunny Fun Run.” I hadn’t run since the 4-mile “Turkey Day Fun Run” at Thanksgiving. But I still gave it a go.

I had been suffering from a head cold for almost a week so Lucas and I called it an early weekend and traveled back to Salajwe. Before heading back, we gave each other a P100 budget (~$14) to give each other an Easter basket. We exchanged the Easter baskets in our family’s traditional way. Lucas’ basket was waiting for him in the morning prepared in a mixing bowl with a scarf as “grass.” Lucas hid my basket. Very fun but I am horrible at hiding games. I was never really good at Easter egg hunts…

A Daycare Playground was Born

This building with wonderful paintings and letters scrawled on its sides stood empty for our first year of service. It was sad to see a daycare facility empty with the amount of little village kids running around. To our desires, the daycare was soon opened and filled to capacity. 30 kids running around, singing to Katie, chasing each other, playing with rocks, learning and taking naps were a handful for the staff of 2. I could see that climbing trees wasn’t going to last forever so I asked the teacher how I could help. She told me that the kids didn’t have much to play with and that’s when the idea of a playground was conceived. I went home drew up plans, built a scale model and started getting professional opinions from an architect in our group (Ryan Mannion). It took some generous funds, donations, and helping hands to get the materials and start the project. Finely, something I can do with my hands, see with my eyes, and strengthen my muscles. It was hard work but just seeing it come together, an idea of my own, was a magical and rewarding thing.

With the raised funds I bought the wood (gum) poles and collected all the tiers. The tires were easy as pie to get; I guess almost everyone has an old tire lying around. The slide I cut from a rain water storage tank that has ruptured and fallen down. The Lempu junior secondary school had the jig-saw, drill and drill-bit that I needed to do the technical parts of the construction.

The key to child proof success was to first build it loosely in my yard. Our house has electricity for one, but by doing it at home none of the anxious kids would be playing on it early. With Kaite, a PCV John, and my dad’s help we got the model formed. With out the ratchet my dad brought, we would have had a heck of time finishing. The slide and monkey bars can even hold my weight so we must have done something right. I made sure to sink all dangerous bolts, curve all plastic and cover all nails before I took it apart to move.

In one day with the help of a local friend named Taylor, we took apart and transported the entire structure over to the daycare. The re-assembly was a little bit trickier, seeing as everything in a re-build never quite lines up. Piece of advice, having the right tools for the job makes that job that much easier –Scott Scharmer. It’s so true, using a screw driver as a chisel and a hatchet back as a hammer just don’t work as well.

With it finely assembled and up, we blocked it straight. We pushed into level and upright position in each of the gaping post holes before we poured in the concrete. The concrete was mixed and poured, no moving it after that little trick. It looked great, even with out kids climbing all over it.

While we waited a few days for the concrete to dry, Katie painted the most wonderful patterns on the 4, 2X4 planks that would soon become the swings. They look great. I think they’re the best part about the pay ground. With the teachers help, we kept the kids off the jungle gym until it was dry.

Once released for pay, they were obsessed. Up the tires down the slide, like 100 times each. (the little ones are still nervous about the slide) They didn’t quite figure out the monkey bars until we put the swings up and we showed them how the monkey bars worked. They loved it and the teachers loved it too. She must have said thank you 8 times.

This Blog is dedicated to all those generous donors at Rejoice Lutheran and to those individuals who assisted in its building or gave goods to make sure this playground was born. Thank you!