The sands of time

So I promised some follow up to items mentioned in my last blog but unfortunately the internet service has been very weak lately and I have not been able to follow up  on that.  So here is the first one and I will get the second one out when I return from this trip to the village probably end of this week.  This trip is dedicated to double checking all measurements for screening the windows and our first attempt to seal up the building attic spaces against bat intrusions.  

During one of my last visits I talked about repairing the playground equipment and hauling sand up from the riverbed to place around concrete footings and hard soil to make the playground area a little safer.  I expect this will be something that has to be done on a regular basis as sand will disperse from the area rather quickly.

Zachariah helping by carrying the shovel

selfie carrying the sand

First a quick primer on the project.  The playground equipment was installed between my visit in 2010 and leading a team over in 2011.  It is a basic set of playground equipment:  A swing set with three swings and a separate metal slide.  The swing seats are wood planks with bolts through them connected (welded) to chains.  The original hole drilled was just large enough to get the bolts through.  However through use and exposure to elements not to mention the occasional termite, the holes are now larger than the nuts.  Unfortunately no washers were used.  So the process for fixing this was actually several steps.  Because several of the nuts were now missing I needed to buy new ones but I needed an old one first to check size.  So the first thing I had to do was buy WD-40 or some knock off to get a nut off one the remaining bolts.  Finding this product took a lot longer than expected as no nut &bolt store (there are 14 of those) carried it, no hardware store (20 of these) carried it and finally the 6th motorcycle parts shop I looked at carried D-4 in what was unmistakably a WD-40 can.  So now back to the site and loosen up the bolts.  I went ahead and repaired the ones with bolts by adding washers I had already purchased (two each in stepped sizes to cover future wear up to the point they need to be replaced).  I was able to put one swing back up and running doing this.  Back to town and look for the correct nuts which I found at the second nut & bolt store (the first only carried large size nuts but everything else in the size I was looking for).  Back to the site to finish the job and have three kids immediately attack the swing seats and give it a try.

Slide before adding sand

Next up was sand for the playground equipment area.  The process reminded me of the work the first year at the Kimo camp site in Peru with Scripture Union of Peru.  The jeep was not working so the bags of concrete had to be hauled up the mountain on our backs.  Fortunately I had no mountain to climb but I also did not have my team full of good cheer (little bit of sarcasm) at doing the task and most importantly the loading crew which is those who work as a team to pick up the bags and place them on the shoulders of the carrier because this task by oneself is the most likely to hurt your back-NO that is not a prelude to telling you I hurt mine.  

Slide after sand

I had no wheelbarrow yet but I did buy a canvas bag used to carry charcoal or produce to market.  So I went to the nearest riverbed that was dry and and filled up the bag about 1/4 full and then carried it back to the playground.  I measured the distance between the two at just under 1/2 mile counting my steps.  I estimate I had between 30 and 40 lbs in each bag carried.  That equals roughly 1/3 of a cubic foot of sand.  I needed 10 cubic feet so 30 trips it was going to be.  I finished about 4 PM that same day.  Once again kids pounced and checked my work-it got a thumbs up.  So roughly I did 15 miles over a day and close to 1000 lbs of sand.

The last part of the equation was trimming the thorn trees so they were all above the height of the tallest child going to our  pre-school and hiring a couple of locals to cut the grass around the Pre-school, latrine and playground equipment.  All in all it was a productive three days on site.