Aga and I are back to Mbollet-ba in the middle of December to finish the co-creation of the playground there. 

So to recap what has happened so far....

In 2016, Aga and I took part of in the building of the nursery classrooms as part of OGS. We noticed that the children started to play with the way the space had changed and we made some trial tunnels and hills which they loved.  Since then we have worked with children and adults in a series of creative workshops over 3 weeks in April 2017. We also worked with the villagers to create further prototypes for the tunnels and hills. Children explored the existing spaces as well as being introduced to new forms of play. At the end of the 3rd week we created a proposal based on the children’s ideas and we held an exhibition to share the ideas with the whole village. 

Then at the end of last year, St James Place Foundation generously donated £2500 to OGS to build the ideas generated with the villagers.  The villagers will be central to the next stage of turning ideas into reality; designing and building the play space for the children. Aga and I will be visiting the village in December and working with villagers to make the visions come alive. 

An important aspect of the project is the use of locally sourced and sustainable materials – like palm leaves, bamboo, earth blocks and soil.  We don’t want to build a ‘western’ type of playground, rather we are proposing something sustainable, cheaper and easy to maintain, which protects  local environment.

We plan to reuse existing structures and  recycle unwanted materials – like car tyres. Lots of those materials are abandoned and unused in the fields around the village. This will allow us not only to reduce the costs of the construction, but will also bring positive change by cleaning local area and introducing recycling ideas in the village.

Through play young children learn valuable skills for a rapidly changing world - skills such as problem solving, empathy through role-playing and collaboration. We want to make a safe space for nursery children to play, so that they can extend their skills. Ideas which have been developed with the village include:

• Role-play areas such as a hut and a boat which reflect the location of the village which is near to swamps and marshes, which open to the sea. Children were very excited when we showed them photos of boats to play in and started offering very creative ideas for play.
• Hills, tunnels and ramps will offer children to move in different ways and extend their imaginations. They will be able to make dens and play spaces within this area as well with items from the Mobile Play and Storage
• A mobile play set made from woven palm. This will be  be used by teachers and  can be moved around the playground. This is based on the trials where children were seen to use a woven palm tunnel, baskets and fabric with great imagination and the teachers saw many opportunities for how these materials can be used to link learning inside and outside.
• Speaking tubes to encourage children to communicate in new and different ways.
• Swings  designed to encourage children to use them collaboratively.
• Large blackboards and quiet comfy spaces for reading and writing - we observed children outside of the classrooms wanting to read and write, so we want to create spaces which will support and encourage this. Spaces may be contoured by moving sand or creating small seating areas. 
• OGS’ purpose is to promote and sustain the practice of global educational exchange between developed and developing countries. We do this through supporting educational establishments to deliver high-quality international learning exchanges that fulfill goals in formal and informal learning. We aim to benefit young people, teachers, and education institutions in developed and developing country settings.

We are looking for further funding to make sure we can include as many ideas as possible. To support this please go to my Justgivng page here https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/vicky-cave1

Reflections on the exhibition by Aga

‘Ideas are like rabbits. You get couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen’. John Steinbeck

I think this quote from John Steinbeck explains a lot about our work in Mbollet. Everything started from one small idea which later got adjusted, expanded ‘reprogrammed’ and evolved in ways we  didn’t expect. It turned out that trying to establish ownership, mutual respect  and cooperation is not an easy task, but is definitely worth the hard work and effort.

Our three weeks of work in The Gambia concluded with a 3-day-long exhibition, which was part of the consultation with community process. We presented the construction of the tyre prototype, the photos and drawings from the workshops with the children and initial ideas for the playground. There was lots of printing (which turned out to be not an easy task and quite expensive), pinning, taping, hanging, cutting. Grade I and II children helped us prepare an ‘interactive’ map of the playground where different elements can be moved around according to the wishes and visions of each person. I need to say – it was great to have them working with us, we would not be able to prepare everything on our own. It also allowed us to involve more people in the preparations.

The aim of the exhibition was to present the ideas and have a conversation about the next steps.
On Thursday 27.04 we held a meeting with women from the village – mothers, aunties, grandmothers. The main reason for us to do it was to understand the issues and worries that women might have about the playground. Our conversation soon changed and involved different ideas about the design and construction. We received very valuable feedback about the sand we used for primary idea – the sand hills made in December. It was great to get to know new faces and to see the women we had worked with with before.

Unfortunately the attendance during the other two days of the exhibition was not as high as of Thursday mainly due to lots of marriage ceremonies in the village. Another group of women came, and few of the parents. Similar conversations were carried out as during the first day. We were told how much people appreciate that we involved them in the design process and considered their opinions.

As for Vicky and me every now and then we had to stop ourselves from pushing for our own opinions and ideas and make sure we follow the line we both agreed for at the beginning – to listen to others.

Now back to drawing board! Vicky in UK and me in Senegal for next few weeks.

I am very grateful for the eye opening experience this time, both in Mbollet and in Senegal. This time I had a chance to meet more people and understand more about the living conditions and daily struggles. Now when I write this post I think about ‘Heal The World’ by Michael Jackson – song that I was listening to when I was growing up, we all can make a difference, as long as we will realise we need to respect each other. We are all one. As someone told me in Senegal ‘Africa system: when I can I will help you, because one day I might need your help also’. Big THANK YOU to everyone who helped me to understand what is important

The rest of the week 3 and workshops

 

The rest of the week we ran workshops with all the nursery children and also with Mr Corr's Grade 1 and 2 classes. We played outside using tape measures, magnifying glasses, took photos, drew pictures, made dens, and made models for a map of the playground.

Here's a snapshot of what we did

Week 3 - Monday 24th April

Well it was a pretty busy week, but we knew it would be! We had a great time running workshops with the nursery children and started off by observing them in their playground on the first day back at school. All the children were in great spirits, happy to see each other again after the Easter break. We observed them playing in the tunnels, on the tyres and then slowly introduced different elements that we had been playing with in the previous weeks. The fabric was the first to come out and was a huge success - for about 20 minutes most of the children were all under the three pieces of fabric, parading around the playground chanting different songs, and playing games with each other. It seems hiding and moving around is big hit.

After that we brought out the woven palm baskets and cardboard boxes. The children were pretty inventive, imaginative and collaborative, playing games and experimenting with different ways to use the items. They covered themselves with the fabric inside the baskets, put the baskets inside the tyres and climbed in all together and played games. The idea of enclosure and feeling snug seemed to appeal.

Because it was the first day back at school, many of the other classrooms were being prepared and so children from other classes in the school started to come into the playground as well as the nursery children over the course of the morning. It got fairly busy and raucous and really highlighted the need for a fence to protect the space for the younger ones. It also made us very aware of the fact that older children were really keen to play (they loved the tyres and making games with them) and started us thinking about the need to create something for older children outside of the nursery playground. One of the teachers, Modou Corr, said that he thought that if there were tyres the children could come up with their own games and ideas for play in another part of the school.

We also noticed that the youngest children wanted somewhere to read, write and be quiet. some of them were sitting by a fence, a small group were writing balanced on a tyre and another boy quietly observed the proceedings in the playground from his snug position in a cardboard box!

We also tried out the 'speaking tube' which is in fact a length of bendy plastic tube around 20-25 metres long where children can speak in one end and someone else can listen at the other. The children had a lot of fun with this, singing songs and chatting to each other. They also turned it into a game and started skipping and jumping over it. This made us think about making one out of metal which could be played with like this.

Week 2!!

Monday started with lots of planning for the next week ahead. Timetables, plans of action and workshops.  By now we knew that most of our plans will be changed and adjusted as we go – it is hard to plan your ‘program’ in The Gambia.

On Monday evening we held a meeting with workers who volunteered to help us with construction of the tyre structure for the playground. Out of 5 people who agreed to come only 2 came to the meeting, but despite that we had other people joining us which resulted in 5-7 people on site each day - Aliou, Freedy (Mussa Corr), Ebou Jawara, Kebba Senghore, Modu Corr, Faye Modu, MJ.

We asked everyone to help us with the construction plans and ideas, as we believe local community knows their weather conditions best. After  few minutes of conversation we were able to come up with the construction plan and even get more ideas for different structures and play spaces, sketching, conversations about materials, but mainly respect for each other and each other’s ideas.

Vicky and I didn’t come to Mbollet ba to proceed with our own vision and idea, rather to work together with local community on ideas and final outcome.  I was surprised how much more we were able to achieve just by listening and communicating with people.

Construction took 3 half days of work (8am till 1pm), and ended in trying out of 2 different ideas using tyres, on two sides of concrete tunnel. Right now what is left is cleaning and painting the tyres (as requested by the community). Our team volunteers from the village  took the initiative starting from planning all the way through design and  construction. I believe we wouldn’t be able to proceed with works so quickly if the final idea was based on the sole vision of 2 individuals coming from abroad. In fact this week made us even more aware of the work we need to do and the ways of doing it better – by working with community.

Over the weekend we visited Albreda-Juffureh Tourist Information Centre and managed to have long and honest conversation with Nuria Sanchez (one of the architects working on the project) about participatory design and community involvement in the building process, not only in Albreada but in different places In Africa. We knew that there are lots of projects which don’t consider communities needs and issues. This conversation helped us to asses our current work even more and come up with more ideas for the feature. Thank you Nuria for the great conversation and your time!

In the afternoons we organised several workshops with the children. On Tuesday we were making spoon puppets and played with them in a house made out of fabric. We realised that kids like the process of making, puppets got designed, named and later we held a ‘dance party’.
Another trial that day was a ‘den making’ which at the end turned out into something very different than we expected. Our den fabric was used to hide under, making tents, running under and on top of it, or playing a dragon. 

The same scenario was used on Wednesday when we added big mango baskets and cardboard boxes to the whole mix. There was hiding in the baskets – in side and under, imaginary car rides using boxes, woven tunnel with colourful plastic paper to look through, den making. Workshops were scheduled for around 45min, but in the end it lasted 1.5 hours. We also had conversations with the kids after every workshop, asking what they liked, what they didn’t and what else they would like to have in their own play space.

In the society where kids are expected to work and help with household duties from a very young age we discovered that given the opportunity every child can PLAY, IMAGINE, DRAW and they are more than capable to feed into the  design of their own play spaces.

Next week we will run more workshops involving older children as well  -  to help us design the play space. And over the weekend we will held the exhibition where we will show everything we did to the community so that they can decide what they like or not, what are their worries and finally help us design the space. TEAM WORK! But that’s for next week... 

Aga and I arrived fresh from England on Monday afternoon. It seemed amazing and ridiculous that a 6.5 hour flight can transport you so easily and yet so far; as we flew over the dry desert dotted with glinting remote villages and roads carved out between them, it all seemed so different and far away – and not just physically! At the airport everything felt new but still familiar, like putting on an old pair of gloves after a while. And then we were met at the airport by our friend Appapa, and it was like as if we had never left! Arriving in the village was amazing - we had lovely welcomes from all the friends, families and children and many stories to swap.

Since then we have been quite busy, but feel like there's lots more to do!!

o      We ran an initial workshop with a group of about 8 children of various ages to develop ideas. We started with the children taking photos of the playground and the things they liked. 

We then went on to explore making spaces to play. 

• We found out the following things:The suggestion of making a ‘house’ was taken very literally; after using some materials to make a ‘room’ by the tunnel, the children fetched water from the well and made a model house with sand and water. The children enjoyed playing with the sand and water – all ages. Include a space for doing this sort of play (a hard surface, near a tap – where is the tap going to be? Is this a good idea when water is a problem in the village?)

o   This led us on to think about what materials we can try out to facilitate  younger children to make dens. We have seen that chidlen find materials around the site and take these to add to the tunnels. These materials are large, heavy and sometimes unsafe materials (due to sharpness) such as pieces of corrugate, half a metal bin, a large woven panel made of palm leaves, bits of wood…

We have started to think about other materials which would be safe and durable and suitable for younger children such as:

§  palm leaves

§  woven baskets

§  Pieces of light wood cut small?

§  Fabric – need to get something cheap

§  String/wool and pegs

§  Coloured cellophane (E really enjoyed trying on my glasses – looking through different materials could be interesting)

·      We have made a model to help us work with everyone to design the prototype hill and tunnel

o   The model has helped people like Kodou to understand what we plan to do; she said ”Ah.. now I see what you are planning – there is a place in a school for the deaf (St John’s) where you can see the water going underneath.”  This started us to think about how we can find ways for the water in the rainy season to flow around the structure/shape, rather than trying to make the structure strong and secure enough against the flow of water

·      We have had some informal chats with village members (Abdou, Koudou, Alagie Faye, Sidifor, Ebou Jobe) about the process of including them in the process of planning the playground and had very positive feedback. We have also shown some images to villagers (Sidifor, Maget, Abdou) and got the following feedback.

·      Materials to be strong enough to withstand the harsh climate and the way children use them

·      Secure so they cannot be stolen/taken

·      How to make sure that the youngest children can benefit from the playground as out of school hours older children like to use the site.

·      A fence around it?
Make other spaces/spots for older children to play around the village?

·      They seem to like swings and slides, as well as structures made from tyres.

           We have sorted the tyres for the prototype of the tunnel. An assortment of small, medium and larger truck tyres were delivered free to the school on Saturday 15^th April (with help from the Gambian Army!)

·      We held a meeting with the Al-Kallow, the school committee and the villagers. Issues that came up included: 

o   Fairness: in selecting the volunteers and making sure that all tribes are represented (important especially when it comes to recruitment in December). Also in relation to children doing workshops – keep a list of who does and doesn't do the workshops so the ones who don't do it can do something next time. 

o   Issues with the previous project and that because the villagers were not consulted the project cost more than it needed to, as well as people in the village feeling quite annoyed 

o   Skill-sharing – people who worked on the project before can share their skills with other people so that the village has greater skill base

o   Issues over whether to do the health centre or teacher’s accommodation as the next project. This led to a big discussion about the priorities for the village being water and health 

We have selected volunteers to work on the project – welcome to Sheriff M Nying, Baboucar Senghore, Musa Chorr, Ebou Joof and Ebou Jawara. There are lots of other people in the village who are keen to help us too, with bits and pieces such as finding cardboard boxes and woven baskets!

We also visited St John’s School for the Deaf with Maget on Saturday to see if we could find the tyre construction – but we didn’t. What we did find was an amazing outside space with lots of plants which felt like an oasis from the busy dusty main road outside. Maget took some lemon grass home to plant up, with the idea that it can be eventually used around the nursery school.  Maget was inspired to use hardy plants around the nursery and playground; not only can they add colour, texture and smell, they can help with the dustiness!

As Li Cham’s metal workshop was nearby we surprised him with a visit and got a promise from him that he weill come and sort out the issues with the roof on the nursery next week  - fingers crossed!!

On Sunday we went on a roadtrip with Colonel Hinna Sambou of the Gambian Army (he is the brother of our friend Appapa). We visited his plots of land where is planning orange orchards and got loads of inspiration for plants, fences and construction materials!!

We have a plan for more workshops, material collection for trials and building the prortotype tunnel for the week coming – so it’s going  to busy!!