Playground panic!!!

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When we first arrived at Rakkar Phillipa who manages Nishtha told us about the idea of building a playground/climbing frame for the kids was already in the air. Part of the playing field was available and there was a rough sketch left by Andre the previous volunteer, together with a vague plan to use steel pipes, bamboo and rope.

I loved the idea of trying to design and build it and despite being slightly uncertain about the likelihood of anything materialising before we left, I started on getting some more ideas together and drawing a number of designs accurately.

One of the main concerns was theft - everything had to be welded or concreted deep into the ground otherwise it would be gone within hours apparently. There were plenty of stories of the water taps going missing around the village and large stretches of pipework being dug up, followed by the sudden availability of cheap steel bed-frames shortly afterwards...

The playgrounds that do exist in India are generally fairly uninspired and somewhat agricultural in their construction. I had no problem coming up with lots of ideas for more modern and exciting designs, in fact I can get a bit carried away with these things and I realised the problem was going to be convincing people that it was possible to do something a bit different and worth the effort.

True to family tradition handed down by my Father, I lay awake at night coming up with numerous ideas and working out how it would all fit together, which would result in lists of notes by the bed in the morning!
The idea of diverting a small stream under the bridge, having climbing rings, a treehouse-like den, tubes to crawl through and a zip-wire all went by the wayside. What survived was a rope/bamboo bridge, 2 slides, scramble net, swings and a fireman’s pole.

Lexa and I agreed on a ‘final’ design, with the fireman’s pole only just making it and together we built a newspaper, which we thought would help us describe what we wanted to do.

When we presented our ideas to Dr.Barbara and Phillippa it became apparent that maybe I had gone a little overboard for their tastes. The perceived complexity of the design and the dreaded health and safety concerns meant we were left thinking that the whole thing was off or that we would have our creative wings clipped and be asked to build a standard issue Indian climbing frame. To be honest, I had been rather pleased to get away from the dreaded British Standard BS 101010 (I think) that used to plague me back at work in the UK and I couldn’t believe that in the land of cow-sized potholes, live wires and lethal traffic, I was now being asked to go on the web and check out the safety standards for playgrounds! As you can imagine I was a bit frustrated, the model nearly had a sacrificial burning and decided to let it all drop for a while.

Everything went quiet for a few weeks, I explained my view on the safety issues and that I felt the kids around here were more sure-footed than most and spent their lives climbing up and leaping off all sorts of dangerous objects. After New Year we agreed that we would leave in 2 weeks or so, enough time to finish the computer course and work on the Nishtha Calendar. At this point Philippa stated that she really wanted to get the playground built and installed before we go. Alright....but this is India, land of the faff and with the best will in the world I didn’t think that we would have the materials together, let alone welded, or in place on the playing field in two weeks.

Despite my disbelief, things were kicked off by a trip back to Andretta where we picked up an old slide from my sister’s house which I had incorporated into the design to save on materials. We took this straight to the blacksmiths at Sidbari and I spent the next few days there explaining my many drawings and getting things underway. How much fun?? I was in heaven, bits of metal and junk everywhere and free reign to fit it all together however I liked. What’s more I had a team of welders to do it for me!

After 48 hours the three main platforms were built and ready to be transported up to Rakkar. Wow.. although the more complicated parts of the design were yet to be tackled, things were moving fast.

It has to be said the boss at the blacksmiths really didn’t want me around at first and kept insisting that I left them to it. Drawings aren’t the usual form of communication around here, normally replaced by artistic license, meaning that what you see on the plans isn’t what you get! Don’t get me wrong, they put me straight a number of times as to where a strengthening piece should go or how to join certain bits together, but it was quite a battle to get them to stick to the basic plan. After a few days a level of trust had been built up and it was clear that they could see I was there to help, not just check whether they were doing a good job!

Before we knew it the first platform was arriving at the Rakkar playing field and I set about placing it in accordance with the plan and more importantly to avoid the local army Colonel’s broadband connection! At this point I have to mention my crack team of helpers on that first day, the local bricklayer with his trusty plumbline and Fuger the local mental patient who Dr. B had taken under her wing with the help of some strong sedatives.

With no English between them and my Hindi pretty limited, communication was interesting, but the major issue was the insistence of the bricky using his plumbline despite the fact that the platform hadn’t been welded squarely. In other words, even with the vertical legs beautifully straight, things still rolled off the top. It took until after lunch for me to convince him of this, to change to a bubble level and just worry about the top being flat. The kids were already extremely interested and there was no stopping them clambering all over the first frame before it was attached to anything.

All in all it was a long day with what seemed like agonisingly slow progress with only the first platform sitting in wet cement by dusk. A small amount of sweet talking meant we managed to store the unfixed frames in the Colonel’s front garden to avoid them going missing overnight and I hoped for a more productive day tomorrow.

After a word or two with Mohinder, day 2 of site construction proved to be very different. With more helpers platform two was soon in the ground along with its fireman’s pole and along with attachment point for the scramble net. This was soon followed by the small platform three that would support the small slide. A lack of power meant the welders turned up but couldn’t actually do anything!

The next day the big extended Andretta slide was attached to platform one and even before the welds were cool there were kids flying down it and all the apprehension about them being scared or uninterested evaporated. They loved it and we lost count of the number coming down at the same time, somewhere around 15-20 from the top of the platform to the bottom of the slide as one solid mass! With some late night working we managed to get the joining poles in place, the swings would hang from these and were vital for giving the whole structure some stability.

The next day we had our first serious doubts about the safety of the structure, thinking Dr. Barbara’s fears may have been justified as one kid did a tight-rope walk across one of the joining poles between the 3 platforms!! Another tiny kid, no more than 6 or 7 was helped (pushed) up onto the 2nd platform by his mates as he was too small to get up there on his own and as it was the only way down was plucking up the courage to tackle the fireman’s pole. Not surprisingly he was too scared and it took me standing right below before he would take the plunge. He loved it and straight away his ‘friends’ were shoving him back up again. I had decided to leave him to it this time so he could overcome his fear alone.... no good after 5 minutes of him looking down and not going I went over to act as the human safety net and he happily threw himself down. Back up again... this time he was on his own, I wasn’t going to intervene.... nothing happened for a few minutes, he looks down the pole a few times, but it’s still too daunting. Instead to my horror he crouches on the side of the platform about 6’ off the ground and launches himself off and down onto the rough ground below. To my amazement he landed on his feet fine and after a bouncing a few feet stood up with a huge grin! Unbelievable.. I hope nobody kills themselves before we leave....

I think it was around now, that we noticed the noise as we walked into the normally quiet village in the morning. From some distance you could hear the kids screaming (delight mostly), shouting and yelling - spending as much time on the playground as possible before going to school. We were sure that the novelty would wear off to some extent, but they were certainly enjoying it at the moment.

Another day at the blacksmiths and the small slide was a reality, a slightly different reality to what I had drawn and described, but it would do the job. We also procured the natural hemp rope that we had decided to use for the rope bridge and scramble net. This was chosen not for its environmental characteristics, but for the fact that it wouldn’t decay in the sun and it was less likely to be nicked than plastic rope!

The next day turned into a nightmare of unknotting the hundreds of feet if rope that uncoiled itself into a monumental mess. That was followed by a number of aborted attempts at fishing net weave and various other made up weaves we invented, until at 10PM we finally collapsed with about half the rope bridge done and Lexa and I ready to scream. If there had been a rope bridge shop around we would have paid them anything.

The following day, Lexa and a few of the Nishtha staff finished off the bridge, whilst I conveniently busied myself with making the swings! These were made from old tyres with 2/3 of the tread and wall cut off and then the whole thing turned inside out, so that it would hang from the steel beading. They worked a treat and are almost indestructible, something that we realised was a high priority with these kids. We had a dry run with the rope bridge, which I had to attach using a sliding pole mechanism so that it could be removed every night and it seemed OK, a bit saggy but no one seemed to mind.

Another day of welding and platform 3’s small slide was attached along with the climbing frame to get up there. The swing mounts were welded on and a few strengthening pieces added after we had all witnessed the strain that the structure was going to be under!

We attached the swings, with some lovely splicing (if I say so myself) and let the kids loose. I think 6 was the most we saw on a swing at one time... We left them to it, wondering how long they would last. Sure enough when we passed by 4 hours later both ropes had broken despite some plastic sleeving we had put on to protect them. Hmmm, it looked like chain was the only answer and that was added to the list of improvements to be made after we left.

We also learnt about two injuries that had occurred early that day.... a couple of kids had fewer teeth than before and ended up in the clinic, not what the free health care was originally intended for! Luckily they were only milk teeth, but we thought that maybe it was time to move on before we got a bad reputation!

So, we had most of the main structure complete before leaving for Andretta, the main things missing being the scramble net which allowed you to climb up to the fireman’s pole tower a different way and a coat of paint to make the whole thing look a bit less mechanical. We left Phillipa a list of ‘to do’s’ including areas that needed some smoothing off and others that needed still more reinforcement due to the excessive loads!

It had been a frantic couple of weeks, but it was fantastic to see the playground in a state where it could be used and that so many kids were doing so. It was also nice to think that we were leaving something that would carry on bringing enjoyment after we had gone. As we drove out of Rakkar for the last time we looked across at the playground full of kids and just hoped that if we returned someday most of it would still be in one piece!

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Comments

[Martyn]

Real Engineering
How long has it been since you did any real engineering?? First class job! I'd like to see you get it past our Safety 'Engineers' , though!