March 2019 ….. container full of treasure has arrived and been cleared by the skin of our teeth many visits to various ministries and hectic Banjul movements from office to office to port in the searing heat… enough timber to build the Black Star caravan stage in Guinea Bissau was loaded onto Big Red … after a very eventful journey and Carnival time (see Black Star Caravan )we hauled up in Ziguinchor to maintain the Bege 2 mobhanded .
The timber used for the stage was kept uncut and was a perfect amount to do urgent repairs… This time, 6 years on, we managed – much to our enormous joy – to Mosaic the Stage area with a humdinger of a group effort … and shade the area.. (big thanks to Carrie `Reinhart for the tiles…)
Back in Brufut we planned the Njau trip – this is the place up country where the Reforest the Future and the Njau recycling centre are based . They needed a playground for the school it is very barren area tumbleweed rolling through the dust buffeted by the fierce hot wind. There are just two huge magnificent trees near the school.
We loaded up the two trucks Banter and Big Red in the dead of night having picked up the fabricated legs for the wooden posts ( big thanks to Badger for reclaiming them from a festival ). The fabricated legs allow for space between the earth and the timber post as the steel legs are buried; thus termites – the scourge of the wooden builds – will hopefully find it harder to destroy.
Fun and games in the ferry port, as usual, attemping to get on the ferry, follwed by a magnificant journey. A great team nicknamed “crazy toobabs and the Brufut bad boys…” built and painted a complete playground in three days in the stifling heat due to Rozzis concerted efforts as the hydrator. – Vic got stung by a scorpion – whilst painting tyres hence the name of the playground. …. We were joined by Avi and Biggins who had done a heroic mission from Albany to Njau in one day bringing huge grafting skills and Avi had all the means to make post sting a better place.
The playground is a mixture of climing, swinging and other physically challenging features and has been well used and appreciated by the community..
In June 2020 we returned with more materials from this years treasure chest and did vital maintainance as well as delivering the equipment for Reforest the Future.
Team Playground 