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!