Friday 21 May 2010

MAF Playground

There was great excitement amongst the children of MAF this week.
Over the past 10 weeks, 2 Swiss volunteers have been working hard to create a playground for the children of MAF. There is little in the way of entertainment centres for children in Dodoma, so the creation of a play area saw the completion of a dream for MAF families that have lived in Dodoma. Yesterday, we had the Official Opening Ceremony for 16 MAF children and 3 other children who live on the MAF compounds. Here is the finished play area:


The playground has been sealed off for weeks, while our friendly volunteers shaped the apparatus and created a play area to rival any. Yesterday, a yellow ribbon marked the boundary line where this playground seal has been.


The children gathered with eager anticipation to see whose name would be pulled out of a hat and chosen to cut this yellow ribbon- and so open the playground! However, before the all-important "Cutting Of The Ribbon" could take place, there were speeches and tea and a presentation for Ronnie and Ben, our Swiss volunteers.

It was quite an event!
At 4pm, we started with Musical Statues while we waited for everyone to arrive.
Then came a time to sit down and thank Ronnie and Ben, and present them with a personal book, literally "hand-made" by the children, as it contained a colourful collection of hand-prints of each child who will use the playground.

Next came jelly and ice-cream for all the children at their little tables (it's amazing how versatile our lounge coffee-tables can be!).




Finally, the big moment came when a name was pulled out of the hat! The little one who was chosen is almost 2 years old- she was a little confused by all the fuss- and even more confused by the enormous pair of scissors, which almost dwarfed her! However, with a bit of help from the older children, the ribbon was cut, while her miniature audience carefully monitored every detail of the event:


And then came the moment they have all been waiting for for many weeks! There were great cheers as the children stormed the new play area and leapt onto the equipment! A fun afternoon followed, while the children put each and every piece of playground apparatus to the test.




The parents seemed to enjoy themselves just as much as the little ones- except when the dreaded time arrived to prise unwilling children off the play equipment and convince them that they must leave for bedtime!

3 comments:

  1. What a fantastic job your two volunteers have done .The children obviously had a whale of a time at the opening ceremony and with hours more fun to follow.Which organisation were the two Swiss young men with? Could Esther be trying to pick the sweets from the top of her cake,she looks very absorbed in whatever she's doing and Ben seems to be having quite a conversation at his table. m

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  2. I'm most impressed by the professional workmanship of the new playground. Everything is so well made. Where did they get all the equipment and tools from? No wonder the children are so excited by such a good play area. Has Andrew had a play yet? Granddad.

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  3. What a lovely Everton top Ben has! I wonder where that came from!!!

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