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The idea behind our project work was to build a recreational playground and a vegetable garden. Obviously, these are fairly loose guidelines and
we had not seen the school so we came up with some general ideas, such as swings for the playground and waited til we arrived in-country to finalise
the designs for both projects. The only specific thing we did do in the UK was to have the brackets for the swings made as we could be certain of
their design and strength. |
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When we arrived at Windhoek, we visited a large hardware store to buy all the tools we would need (make sure you think of everything, no matter
whether you're not sure whether you need it or not - such as bolt cutters - as you may not get another chance). The only things we didn't buy was the logs, cement and bolts for the
swings as we were unsure as to how many we needed of each. Several of us had already researched into hardware stores and knew there was one
in Rehoboth. Unfortunately, when we got there, we found the store (called Agra) wasn't quite as good as we had been led to believe. Fortunately,
there was another hardware store in the town so it wasn't a problem. |
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As we had no idea of the work involved, we estimated two days to get the swings up and finished. Once we started, we realised what a task it was
and it ended up taking us eight days out of nine to complete them. We cut it so fine that the finishing touches were applied at 6.30 on the morning
we were due to leave! The gardening team also hit other problems, though not as severe. In trying to dig over the ground, they found out that it
was two third's stone so four days were lost trying to improve the soil before anything elso could be done. |
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Some of our rather stupid mistakes were things like: not buying enough nuts for the swings, not being able to get enough shackles to secure the
chains of the swing, not buying a decent drill and buying a barrow with a pneumatic tyre so it got punctured in the first half hour! |
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Between 11.30am and 2.30pm when it was too hot to be working on the swings or the vegetable garden, we painted murals to brighten the
buildings up and to leave a reminder of our visit. By the end of the project phase, we had overcome all our problems and ended up with
a great playground with a set of swings which will probably last longer than the school and a vegetable patch which will supplement the Learner's
diets. |
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