After 31 days, the St Augustine’s Adventure Playground for Education has been officially opened. The final week was by far the most intense week with the crew truly extending their work hours. From Friday, we began working 12 hour days, which did not include the two-hour bus commute plus the 2 miles of walk to and from the bus station, hand loaded with tools, materials and our daily 5 gallon water allowance.
Additional friends and family arrived to help bring the project into completion for Thursdays opening ceremony. As the ‘adventure’ side was nearing completion, and the ‘interactive screen’ was almost complete, more hands moved on to the completion of the outdoor classroom/ performance space. Our final timber delivery arrived on Friday afternoon, bringing sighs of relief knowing that we did not have our preferred choices of timber but at least we had something to work with and finish the project.
More pieces of playground apparatus were being tested and signed off as completed, however more and more of our tools seemed to be braking in these vital hours. Tropical storms prevented the use of power tools leaving us to work many hours, drenched and strictly using hand tools. The humidity managed to corrode all tape measures before Thursday’s morning power cut left us fully unable to work as planned.
Thursday soon arrived and the opening ceremony was approaching fast. We had until 1:30 before the ceremony started and there were still lots to do. We had a production line of marking, cutting, raising and fixing the roof boards whilst other hands helped attach the remaining components and mechanisms. Several pupils were allowed to help us tidy up by removing all off cuts and finally transforming the construction site into a playground. The mid-day sun was ferocious and we were still flat out signing off the many remaining jobs as quickly as possible. We broke for a quick lunch before organising the final jobs and teams to help with erecting the marquee and sound system and prepare the goody bags for the children.
With 5 minutes until the opening, several of us managed to squeeze in a quick wash and change of cloths before the children, teachers, parents, priest, founders, guests and local community members started to settle in front of the ‘stage’. The ceremony began by talks from the school principle, Mrs Williams before being entertained with a song and prayer from several school pupils. I then stood to speak of the playground design before handing over the ownership to the school pupils, teachers and local community. I ended by thanking every one who helped make the delivery of the playground possible.
Nicky King then took my place to explain about the William King Educational Trust and why the school extension and playground means so much to her and her family. Father Dominic then talked of his thanks and appreciation of the benefits to which the playground can deliver before blessing the playground and new school extension. We were then entertained by another song and dance of ‘if your happy and you know it’ from Infant Two before some of the oldest girls explaining key points of the Garifuna culture and demonstrating traditional dances.
The ceremony ended with Nicky cutting the ribbon and declaring the playground officially open; the sound system was started and the kids were free to finally run loose on their new playground.
It was a magical day for all those involved with the ceremony but especially for the kids. An afternoon off school with music, all your friends, a bag of sweets, watermelon, juice and a brand new Adventure Playground for Education to play in.
