Week 10. The grande finale!

Because last weekend was ‘Wien Tian’, an important Buddhist celebration and national holiday, everyone took well earned rest. When we visited the community to put up posters about the weekend off we saw the progress that Pi Un, Gop and others had made finishing the retaining walls. This will keep in the sand (a much gentler and more economic alternative to asphalt) and also leave a space by the existing house for emergency use in flood or fire. This wall will also be used as planter beds for more plants in the week to come.


Each time we come to the community more people greet us and more kids run out to see us and help put up the posters. It seems like we are gaining popularity and have the people’s trust. The kids have even begun to call me ‘Pi Hugo’, a title of friendly respect used for addressing older people.


The workers at CON CASE are helping us make the new structure for the playground. Although the budget is not enough to build it exactly to the kids design, we have designed it to incorporate plenty of their ideas (like the hang and swing bridge).



When we go to the community to advertise this week’s ‘closing ceremony’ we see the planter beds have been filled and planted, the place looks amazing! The flowers of the plants we planted have also begun to bloom.


The night before the party and we are all working overtime to get the structure finished in time for the party.



The day of the party arrives. The community has set up chairs and a marquee, food has been brought by CASE and the volunteers. We set up a projector in the shopkeeper’s warehouse to show the painting day movie and slides of all the work we have all done over the last 10 weeks.





Everyone has a great time, there are games and gifts for the kids. Gop is on the music. The head of the community, Khun Pa Sunee, gets the names of all the kids who helped in the project. She is going to take them on a trip to reward them for all their hard work for the community.





It has been wonderful to see the way people in the community have got involved, more and more each week, taking control of the project and really making it their own, a common effort to be really proud of. Pi Un enjoyed the process so much that he offered to help out in the future on CASE’s next project!


It is hard to believe that it’s all over! It’s been such an amazing effort by so many people and in the end it looks fantastic! But even more important than the physical improvement is the connection that the people have made to this place, what was a burnt out wasteland has become a real community space. A place for kids to play, adults and teenagers to play football or just sit in the shade by the canal to relax and chat with friends and neighbours. It has been their efforts which made this place, so it is is somewhere they will always be connected to.

Before....

...and After

During the week we went to the community to show the kids the video we made of last weeks painting work. They really enjoyed the movie and wanted to watch it again, unfortunately it started to rain so we all had to run home.


Two days later we returned to show some more kids the movie. This time we also did a small workshop to get the kids ideas on the design of a new structure for the playground that we will get built. We made a model of pieces of the structure that we could make, platforms, bridges, ladders and so forth. While the kids played we wanted to get them to really think about the design, without giving them the ideas of what they should do. So we asked them lots of questions: ‘if you do it like that, how do you get up there?’, ‘what if it’s too long for the space? can we make it fit?’.

While we are there Pi Un and Ploy discuss making a low wall around the playground, this is Pi Un’s idea of how we can keep the sand from washing away.

We bought some plants and on Saturday everyone helped to plant them, the volunteers also brought some from their own gardens. This week even more members of the community are getting involved. More sand has also been delivered and more and more of the site is now covered. The place really looks great!

Old Minburee Market Playground: Week 7

When we visited the site to put up posters this week we saw that another load of sand had arrived and that Pi Un and other members of the community were already shifting the new sand onto the playground! These guys never take a break!



Over the past week some of the construction workers at CASE have built some timber benches for the playground.

This morning we are taking them to the site for the kids to paint them.
Its going to be a competition, the team with the most spectacular bench wins! The kids rush to form teams and claim their benches for painting. Some GE volunteers help the kids mix the colours they want and everyone starts painting.

All the teams have different strategies, some start with painting on a base colour, others try stripes or get straight into painting a beach scene!
Now it’s time for the finishing touches: the kids are very inventive with their methods of decoration, circles are made by dipping the base of a bottle in paint and using it like stamp, leaves and flowers are used as stencils and sand is used to really bring the beach to life!

Meanwhile the other volunteers have been busy sanding the old pieces of play equipment, preparing them for a fresh coat of paint while others have continued levelling the ground under the direction of the unstoppable Pi Un.
The benches are finished and all look amazing! We have to wait until the playground opening in three weeks time for the winners to be chosen.
Now its time to paint the old playground swings and slides. The kids chose the colour schemes (after some fiery debate!) and everyone pitches in to paint. Pretty soon they are done, they look great, better than new!

Finally everyone cleans up and takes another look at their masterpieces. It really show how creative and talented these kids are, its something for the whole community to be proud of.