Surviving, but not adjusting yet...

So the last few days have not gone exactly to plan...after the wonderful birthday celebrations and day with Miriam things have been a bit crazy.

Our priority was getting Sarah's essay submitted (which has gone off this morning :-)) but that took significantly longer than we anticipated. Sarah's sister Amy has found herself a new job for the next three years proof-reading essays as she did such a fab job on this one...

...then began the saga about children's schools. Tom already had his place in the village where we will be living, but we found out that Josh can't go to school in our village as the classes are full. They proposed to send Josh to another school by public transport, apparently that is fine for a 5 year old who has never been to school before. Having seen how little road and person danger sense the boys have after living in such a sheltered place we really could not imagine packing him off with someone else. There was not a place for Tom there either to send them together. So we have the option of a second school for Josh now at Oakington C of E Primary School which should be easier for us to drive him to ourselves (only about 10 mins we think) but we are not quite sure how we are going to do both school  runs at the same time. We are waiting to hear if there is a place there for Tom to have them in the same school, but then Tom will not want to move as he has friends at the other school in our own village, so it is going to be complicated and less than ideal either way....

...so with that all taking some time to investigate the different options we finally started unpacking our suitcases yesterday evening. And then we shoved some things back in a suitcase and are off tothe airport headed to Ethiopia. ...

 ...the boys are excited about decorating the Christmas tree and being taken to the movies by Auntie Amy and Nanny. They have been playing football in the garden, snuggled up in multiple layers looking like the Michelin man. They have been checking out nearby playgrounds and enjoying eating toad in the hole (and a ton of other things)...

... when we get back there will be the small matter of Christmas with the Farrell's in Liverpool before moving all of our stuff from Essex to Cambridge in time for the start of school in January. I think we will be busy for a little while yet.

...we're hoping that they stay settled this week while we're away, pray that Nanny, Grandad and Auntie Amy survive and that we have a useful trip to Ethiopia. We haven't really had time to interact with UK culture yet (besides being overwhelmed with the choice of chocolate when trying to buy some to take to our hosts in Ethiopia) so we are postponing adjusting 'til next week :-)

64 units of blood...

Our last weeks on the ship were incredibly busy, so we had blogs in mind to write but that didn't get written before we left. Maybe we'll catch up on some of them....one of the things we were involved with was the blood donation for local hospitals. Staff from the maternity hospital where Sarah has been working this year came to the ship to take blood from the crew to top up their blood bank and that of the children's hospital up the road. Generally patients in Sierra Leone would have to call their relatives to donate them blood when it is required and at times this can prove difficult. If they are lucky a few relatives will turn up and be tested, but many are not suitable donors because of HIV, Hepatitis, anaemia or high blood pressure. It is always good if there are some units in the blood bank for women who have no one else to ask. The women coming for fistula surgery come alone, often having been rejected by their families and the staff often end up being the blood donors when required.

 Lara is one of Tommy's high school students students - she has spent some time working in the hospital/lab on work experience so for her birthday she got to help with the blood taking...

 Lara was fab, she got the blood from both of us on the first attempts and we had hardly any bruising, she'll make a fab health professional in a few years :-)

I wonder how many teachers let their students stab them with a needle?

Thanks to everyone who helped and to everyone who gave blood. You might have just saved a Mama's life :-)

FIVE!

Miss Elizabeth (Josh's pre-school teacher) made this birthday hat for Josh's goodbye/birthday party before we left. This is him wearing it just after we got off the plane - about 6am on his birthday, they are holding up five fingers each for his five years :-)

blessings

We have been blessed to have lived on the Africa Mercy for almost three years with our Ship family. We have been blessed to be able to do jobs that we love and be part of the community.

We have been blessed with good travel back to the UK, we were even blessed by being able to store our luggage in a friends car on the ferry as they happened to be traveling over to the airport themselves. [Ok so we nearly lost a child on the escalator once we got to the UK- completely forgetting they have not experienced lots of the things we take for granted - he was reluctant to step on it with his suitcase and the rest of us had all gone down, but we all made it in the end!]

We were blessed to be met by Sarah's Mum buried under a pile of coats so we wouldn't freeze. We went to McDonalds for breakfast - as requested by the boys for the start of Josh's birthday. Some of that considered that a blessing more than others ;-)

We got back and the boys checked out their new bedroom (AKA Sam and Amy's room) complete with new football bedding and rediscovered their toys that we had sent back a few months ago, oh the joy.

We were blessed to celebrate Josh's birthday with family, presents, cakes and party food [thanks Nanny and everyone!!].

We have been blessed to spend today with Miriam, walk along the sea front [and I really am trying not to moan that it is too old after moaning that Sierra Leone was too hot last week, but lets just say that we had numb faces, tingling hands and icy cold feet at the end of our brisk walk], eat cherry tomatoes and baby oranges, yoghurts and so much more. It kind of feels like we are on holiday, rather than the reality that we don't live on the ship anymore, but we are counting our blessings and thanking God for all he has done in the past few years and the past few days - it has been AWESOME beyond words.

things we will miss

 Magnetic walls and ceilings are so great, we will miss them. It only takes a couple of magnets and a couple of sheets and you have a 'base' according to the boys :-)

West African food - some of us will miss this more than others, but for some of us it is our favourite meal of the week and it will be missed. We'll apparantly try and recreate African Tuesdays - rice with groundnut soup (peanut sauce), fried chicken, onion stew and fried plaintains. You have been warned - you can either come and visit that night or choose another night depending on whether you fancy a bit of West African food or at least our attempt at it.

Dental team

Our statistics unofficially stand at:
9138 unique patients
10489 patient encounters
34251 procedures

{Taken from Gini's blog}

Wow!!

lasts

The end of the field servie in Sierra Leone is approaching.

There were the last eye patients,
The last dental patients,
The last patients at the HOPE centre,
The last surgeries on board,
The last patients to leave the hospital,
The last day workers finishing, most left last week. 

We have had our last family day out,
I have had my last times of sitting in Freetown traffic,
I have had my last day working as a midwife at the Aberdeen Women's Centre.

And it is all a little strange.
I'm going to miss the midwives, the mama's and African baby cuddles. 
I'm going to miss seeing all the amusing sights while sitting in the Freetown traffic.
We're going to miss the beautiful beaches and mountains.

Soon we're going to miss the Ship and our friends, but for the next 10 days it is still home. We are so thankful that we had the opportunity to serve here this year, for all the people we met and fun things we have done. And we think of all the lives that have been changed because the Ship came to Sierra Leone for 2011 and that is quite an awesome thought. 

our special day out of Freetown - in pictures

 Josh was able to sit in the back of the truck while we were waiting. Poor Tommy, Joel and Paul had to travel in the back all the way (and Tom chose to sit in the back with them for much of the trip), but they did have a mattress to sit on. Plus Alfa hit a squirrel and put that in the back for his dinner, much to the boys amusement. Then we filled up the back a bit more with lots of vegetables.

 After our tour of London Mining we were taken to the village to see the church they are building and stopped at our hosts house to meet his family.

 They have paid for the church building themselves, it is still a bit of a work in progress, but they have the roof on now which should help.

 We stopped at the hospital for a drink - this was where one of Mike and Vi's children was born.

 And then we stopped in the grounds of the eye hospital for a picnic of home made pizza thanks to Vi. Josh managed to fit some in along with his sandwich, crackers, biscuits and none less than 4 bananas...

 Tom and Josh made sure everyone got some exercise after lunch by challenging people to race them around the grounds.

This sign reminded me of Cotonu in Benin - where there was a signpost to Nigeria. Here the sign reads Freetown one way and Conakry (Guinea) the other. Still seems strange somehow to think of driving from one country to another when we have only sailed or flown to each place and not crossed any borders.

We had a fantastic day out - it really was a great way of finishing our time here and we really enjoyed seeing life in Sierra Leone outside of Freetown. Thanks Mike and Vi!

visiting the (iron ore) mine

 Thanks to a ship holiday last Friday we fit in a day of adventure with our friends Mike and Vi, another British guy Joel, who is working here a few months, their friend Pastor Paul and driver Alfa - we drove a couple of hours out of Freetown to the Lunsar area, where Mike and Vi lived many years ago. Our first stop was London Mining - where Mike had worked some thirty-something years ago. We could see the mining area as we approached it in the truck.

 We were not expecting to see more than the mines in the distance, but a friend of Pastor Pauls graciously hosted all of us and organised a tour for us within the mining compound. Official badges and all :-)

 After a bit of off-roading, we stopped the cars and walked the last bit to the top for some incredible views and a bit of explanation of what they are planning to do there

 The views were amazing

 There were butterflies everywhere, but our camera is not really fast enough to have any evidence of most of them, but this one stayed still for me :-)

Our guides explained the mining process and the different areas of production. It was really interesting, even the boys really enjoyed it - helped by the fact that they were allowed to collect 'shiny rocks' - bits of iron ore!

More to come on the rest of our day out...

holiday dress up day

 Mr F turned into a Christmas tree - can you just tell how much he loves dress up days - especially ones where I go off to work and he has to get all three of them ready by 0745. This was our last dress up day on the Ship, so clearly he has survived the ordeal ;-)

 Tom, as per almost every dress up day, wanted to wear his England football kit - for St Georges Day this time.

And Josh was a shepherd for Christmas.

one thing we won't miss

Cabin inspections.

Meeting local headteachers

Recently the ship was host for a visit of 20 headteachers from Freetown. Tommy and Nikki were asked to provide some training about curriculum development. Tommy started with a discussion about foundations by asking what the headteachers thought the purpose of their school was in order to demonstarte that any further decisions the school makes about curriculum need to come from a clear idea of why the school exists.

"What is the vision for students leaving the school?"

Without a good answer to that question schools cannot know whether they are achieving what they want to.

a real Princess came to school

 Josh and his pre-school friends are in the front row to meet Princess Anne

They were all quite excited to meet a 'real' Princess, although I think the little ones were a little confused because she didn't look like Princesses do in fairy tales ;-)

It was an honour that the Princess Royal took the time to visit and tour the Ship and everyone that met her said she seemed very nice and actually quite down to earth.

Airtel 555

Since it's launch the Airtel 555 number has been operational as the fistula hotline in Sierra Leone. The local media have written a little about the launch:

http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/30702
http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/30582

I don't know where to start

All the blogs I have been meaning to write remain unwritten. There are just not enough hours in the day at the moment and nights of not very good sleep happening.

We are busy with each 'today', the never ending studying, working, family times and daily football playing that form part of each day, spending time with friends before we leave, helping Josh and his friends with their swimming lessons (that a lovely crew member offered to run for them, I'm not actually teaching them given I barely know how to swim myself, they just need another adult in the water because this is not just any swimming pool, this is a wave pool, the water rocks about with the ship) :-). It has been a bit of a shock returning to studying, especially at this time when constantly distracted by clearing out all the stuff we have accumulated, getting ready for an international move and still working at the birthing centre. At the same time I am loving it! The module I am taking is focused on how culture affects midwifery practice (and legal, political and ethical issues...) and is just so relevant and interesting to be studying this while working in West Africa. I am learning so much through both my reading and incessant questioning of the midwives in the birthing unit! I just wish the assignment would write itself though.

We are busy thinking about returning 'home' which is quite a strange thought really. We don't have our house anymore to return to, our boys don't remember much about living in the UK, we don't have work lined up yet, we can't apply for their school places until we have a tenancy agreement....and it is all so time consuming trying to work out the details. But we have already seen a miracle happen with provision of somewhere to live (which we must write more about sometime) and are really excited to have this time ahead. Our boys are generally very positive about the move, we are talking a lot at the moment about different memories we have, things that we will miss and things that we are looking forward to. And there are so many of each. I am excited to be able to make some photo books when we get back to be able to share some of our memories with you :-)
 
I had wanted to blog about Princess Anne visiting the ship and Tommy showing her around the Academy, but Ali has written about her visit to the hospital which I am sure she enjoyed a great deal:
http://www.alirae.net/blog/archives/559-her-royal-highness.html

I had wanted to blog pictures from our evenings sat out on deck 8 watching the children playing, watching sunsets and strange weather patterns, but Tiffany took some and posted them while we were out a couple of nights ago:
http://bergmansonboard.blogspot.com/2011/10/today.html

I have wanted to find out some statistics about how this field service is going, but you can read about how the dental clinic have treated 8000 people already on Gini's blog:
http://giniporter.wordpress.com/2011/10/28/milestones/

Or the more lighthearted (depending on who you are I'm sure) fork lift truck falling in the water and the subsequent attempts at rescuing it again):
http://jacobsenjourneys.blogspot.com/2011/10/saga.html

There are some great pictures on these blogs and well worth a read - here's hoping none of them mind me linking to them ;-)

would you want to live on a ship?

Two of the teenagers from Tommys class have written the reasons why living on a ship is better than on land, and the reasons why living on land is better than living on a ship. In case you were wondering how life is different or if you would want to live on our ship...check it out

http://jacobsenjourneys.blogspot.com/2011/10/teenage-thoughts.html

I'm not sure that living on a ship or land are better than the other, just incredibly different. Certainly there are a lot of things you miss living on a ship in Africa but there are so many great things about it too. But as we start the countdown to leaving we do think more and more about the differences. The boys are excited that they will be able to play football properly soon in a space actually big enough to run around in, we are excited to be able to eat a bigger variety of foods, cook for ourselves and drink fresh milk. We will miss having friends in and out of our cabin all the time and everyone living just one minutes walk away, we'll miss wearing summer clothes all year round and dining room staff doing the washing up. We're excited that soon we'll have so many options of places to take the boys that we won't have time to fit them all in, but we'll miss going up to deck 8 in the evenings and knowing there will always be friends up there to play with and chat to.

a day at home

Today was a teacher training day, so the boys were home which was nice after a busy weekend. It's not been quite as productive as a Monday might otherwise have been but probably more fun. For our second breakfast we headed to the cafe for crepes. For our birthdays all crew get given a $2 voucher to spend at the cafe or shop, so with mine we bought 3 crepes and a kitkat for Tommy and they were making the crepes with chocolate chips in them which made the boys especially happy :-) For some reason no-one was hungry at lunchtime....

Since then the boys have played football, firstly outside on deck 7 in the rain wearing shorts and t'shirts and then they played football in the cabin wearing raincoats. Apparantly because they were pretending they are playing in Poland (got to love the imaginations). It would be too hot to wear raincoats to actually play in the rain so they do get the raincoats out to play every now and then. They played outside on deck 8 too, since the climbing frame went back up a couple of months ago, deck 8 has gradually returned to being the area where children and Mums gather after dinner.

I learnt an important lesson today - if you decide to clean the bathroom always be aware of what the resident four year old is up to. Or you might find they are helping you 'clean' (AKA drowning the kitchen with water) and it's quite hard to be cross with them for 'helping'. 

Since they went to bed Tommy and I have been brainstorming midwifery essay ideas (mostly me suggesting things and Tommy telling me they won't work). It is suprisingly difficult and restrictive to find something that is relevant to midwifery practice, influenced by culture, legislated either Internationally or Nationally, contains an element of practicing needing to change and that I am actually interested in. But we may have decided on one, we'll have to see if there is enough research out there, but any ideas welcome...

celebrating women

This year's nobel peace prize was shared between three women 'recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work", this included Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, much respected in this region. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15211861

Closer to home, here in Sierra Leone there are things happening too. We met actress Eva Mendes this week while we were out shopping for fabric. We chatted about missing coffee and such things, told her a bit about what we are doing here on the Ship (and were called freaking rad, if you change the word freaking to something else). Eva was here filming a documentary on a book called 'Half of the Sky'. Their website says 'Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute'. A few friends have read the book and really recommend it, so I really want to read it now! It sounds like they are doing some great work.

Today I was invited to the opening ceremony of the free fistula helpline. Women suffering from fistula can now make initial contact by phone, which will result in them coming for screening and hopefully surgery. The hope is that this will be another means of reaching the hard to reach, the women hiding away in shame. Even among the poor in Africa few people are without mobile phones, and most people would know someone to borrow one from for a free phone call.  Her Excellency Mrs Sia Koroma (the First Lady) declared it open after many speeches as well as testimony from one of the patients who had successful fistula repair surgery. It was a good day, not only to celebrate the new phone line, but also to celebrate the work being done here, the hundreds of womens lives that are changed by successful fistula surgery each year. And even closer to my heart, to celebrate the accomplishments of the maternity unit and to know that by providing good maternity care that fistulas are being prevented from occuring.

  

The current ladies recovering from fistula repair surgery were there to join in the celebrations at the launch. A few previous fistula patients are also currently staying at the centre as they approach their due date in a subsequent pregnancy. They are really a testimony for the other women, that there can be hope of a new life.

getting the ferry

In Sierra Leone the airport is across the water from the city of Freetown so you have to cross by water taxi or ferry (unless you want a really, really long drive). The ferry takes 45 mins + to cross over the the airport side where someone meets people from the Ship and transports them to the airport. We ending up spending 2 1/2 hours waiting for the ferry last week to say goodbye to Sarah's Mum and sister and to help another friend drive one of the ships landrovers on the ferry to transport a patient over by car. I can't say I am looking forward to it much - but I guess an hour on a ferry to get the plane is preferable to sailing for a few days non stop.

80's day

 Today was 80's dress up day in the Academy. Our boys didn't really understand what this meant and were horrified at the suggestion of wearing luminous colours and me making them bright pink (the only fabric I had) sweat bands. Josh really wanted to dress up as someone from Star Wars so that he could take his lightsaber, but given our lack of those kind of outfits he decided on being a knight. So he is from the 1080's or something like that, while the rest of the class are from the 1980's. The important thing is that this is fun for them right? :-)

Tom has successfully worn football kits for a multitude of dress up days - international day, what I want to be when I grow up day, twin day...and so surprise, surprise decided that he would be player number 80 and go as a footballer. He has varied it though, having worn England and Benin kits before, this one is the Arsenal knock off we bought on the streets here :-)

In case you don't recognize him this is in fact George Michael and his teenage fans. There is even a little silver cross ear-ring which is making it very hard for me to take him seriously when all I can see is that wiggling about.

Slennetts in Africa again :-)

Nanny and Auntie Amy came to visit us. Here are some photos so they can remember the fun we had :-)

 hiking to the waterfall

 having a party for everyones birthday that we missed sharing together, with home made sausage rolls :-)

 playing outside on deck 8...and deck 7...and in the pool...

we visited where Mummy works

 we got knocked over by the waves and had fun on the beach

 Thanks for coming! See you soon! Tom and Josh x

girl friends - more photos from my camera

 Story time, all pretending to be going to bed. This is when big brothers come in handy :-)

Tom, Elisha, Sabine, Josh, Sarah, Janice (you can see why the pre-school boys all want to marry them) on Sabine's birthday

Antenatal clinic

 The women sit outside - you can just about see them lined up on the ground floor of this photo, between about 30 and 65 women come each Tuesday when I am there. They also have antenatal clinic one other day and a couple of booking clinics each week.

 The women come inside and get weighed, their urine and blood pressure checked. They then get called back one at a time for their checks. There tends to be two midwives working here, there are two curtained off areas with a couch , although when ward or labour room midwives are not busy they also help out and use any free beds for antenatal checks.

This is one of the clinic rooms. Each has a couch, a trolley with some medicines laid out and basic equipment such as tape measures and fetal stethoscopes. One busy day I did end up delivering a baby in this small space here too :-)

topping up the blood bank

We've blogged before, that the crew on board are also a walking blood bank. Until recently I have regularly given samples and been on the list of potential donars but never been called (and quite happy about the fact if I'm honest). My friend Maggie was here working in the lab again this year and she kept saying that as soon as they needed my blood type she'd be sure to call me first. She never did need me, but as soon as she left the Ship they finally had someone with the right blood type and hunted me down on the childrens play deck (there is no hiding from the lab team apparantly). So the proof for Maggie that O Negative isn't totally useless after all...

 I might have smiled more if Maggie had still been here though, you can't help but smile when she is around, even when she is sticking you with a needle :-)

interactive maths

Josh and I happened to be cooking in the crew galley last week when Tommy AKA Mr Farrell the Math teacher brought his grade 6 class to do some practical maths. It involved talking about measuring rainwater -  how you can measure liquid accurately, units of measurement etc. We snapped a photo of them while they were all hard at work.

 Mr Farrell and one of his Maths classes (yep that's the whole class)

another pair bites the dust

In the tradition of our friends the Peets, somehow I now feel the need to photograph fallen apart crocs. Shoes get a lot of very heavy wear and tear living on board a ship. These are the latest of Joshua's to bite the dust, the trouble is he doesn't actually want to stop wearing them despite their condition, but I think they will need to go soon....

birthday wishes

My birthday wishes came in many forms this year (thank you!!). The boys and many of their friends drew pictures and cards to cover my walls, friends made cakes to share on different days, I got parcels from home...and a happy birthday in Tom's homework book of all places...

In case you can't read it, it says
Happy Birthday to you!!!!!
Happy birthday to you!!!!!
Happy birthday to Mum!!!!
Copy spelling
Happy birthday to you!!!
Memory verse

Academy open house time again

The open house is when the Academy opens its door for the crew to come and see what goes on. Usually the school on board is off-limits to the rest of the crew.

 This is the Grade 2 classroom, you can see crew members learning to write in shaving foam, pipe cleaners, play dough etc to practice spelling words. Miss Amy (Tom's teacher) is the lady at the back to the left of the picture.

 Josh trying the shaving foam writing.

baby Sarah

Yesterday was a busy day at work. My first lady in the birthing room had a lovely normal birth of a little girl her Husband said they would call Sarah after the midwife :-)

The next lady was an HIV positive mother having her 8th baby! She complained more than most mothers having their first baby, didn't want to try any of my suggestions as to how we could make things easier for her, vomited all over the baby towels and blankets I had just prepared, kept grabbing my scrubs and my arm in quite a painful manner and finally popped the baby out when I had popped out for a sandwich!! She had been pretty hard work and when I came back she was just sitting smiling, amazing what giving birth can do to transform your behaviour!

I had a couple of antenatal ladies to see, both in their first pregnancy. One probably felt neglected as she was our lowest risk woman and it took time for us to get to her. I confirmed that her waters had broken and admitted her to the ward. She was walking around looking like she was in labour, moaning and bending over, but it sounded more like she had symphysis pubis pain than labour pain. Once the waters have broken we admit women and start an induction of labour after 24 hours if labour has not started. The other lady said she had been feeling some fluid coming out for a few hours. She didn't have a pad (lovely), just a soggy colourful lappa tied around her which made it somewhat difficult to really tell what kind of fluid we were dealing with! A short while later we could see that she was bleeding and that her waters hadn't broken. With no obstetrician Katie, the lead midwife, and I took her to see if we could work out where the placenta was on an ultrasound. So she was an interesting case, working through the APH (bleeding in pregancy) protocol to assess and monitor her given the limitations we have.

Another lady came in looking like she was established in labour. Unfortunately we didn't really want her to be labouring as she was for an elective caesarean section because of a previous VVF (fistula) so we 'rushed' her to theatre - meaning we called the theatre staff from home, sent drivers to get them and then took her. The baby caused us a little trouble, he was a poor colour and seemed a little cold so we warmed him with kangaroo care and gave him oxygen, but later he needed a full resuscitation after stopping his own respiratory effort. We had to wake the mother to warn her that he was doing very poorly and we were nearing the 30 minute cut off, where we have to make the decision to stop resuscitating. There are no ventilators here and so there has to be a cut off as we can not indefinately continue breathing for a baby who is making no effort for themselves. I left at the end of the resuscitation time to go with another lady to theatre, but found out when I returned that the baby had just completely turned around and was back with the mother breathing for itself. Hopefully that is still the case today and the antibiotics have time to work. We pray over the babies as we resuscitate them and we do literally see miracles happen here.

This next lady going to theatre had come in having no fetal movements all day. She was given an initial due date of July 1st and then it was amended to August 11th sometime in the pregnancy. It is so difficult establishing when babies are due here as women don't know their dates and don't come to see us until late in the pregnancy. Often we have to make a clinical guess, which for her was probably inaccurate as she was a 'bigger' lady to start with. Her first baby had died, the second was alive having been delivered by caeasarean section for being very big and 'overdue'. The previous caesarean meant she couldn't be induced using the drugs they have here, there are no CTG's (fetal monitoring) so all factors together - no movements, overdue (maybe), big baby, previous caesarean - meant she went for another one. And it didn't look one day overdue judging by the vernix liberally covering it but we are thankful that she has a live healthy baby.

the climbing frame returns

The childrens climbing frame was taken down at the end of 2009 (!!) so that there was space for the pool to be installed. It had to be redesigned to fit into a different shaped space before it could be put back to play on, finally it is finished and we can play again (we being only people under 13, so not really 'we' given that some of us are 'old', but the boys and their friends are enjoying playing and getting covered in black dirt from the matting :-))

 you can climb up and then cross the bridge to the slide or the monkey bars to the firemans pole

 The slightly bigger kids still enjoy it as it makes games of tag more interesting!

The pool is just behind it behind the green netting on top of the white wall