Scene 2: On a Roll…


 

Background

The plan for the day was to scavenge for tires somehow and develop definite plans for the box to be prepared to lay the concrete. We also needed to visit LTD Building Supplies to place our order for materials to receive them the day after the concrete was laid.

Cast of Characters

The WPI Flamingo Team –  Jacquelyne, Malina, Andres, Justin, Kristin

Community Members – Mark, Elizabeth, Shakeel

CECD – Eric Atmore, Sarah Atmore

ISN – Terrence, Melanie

Driver- Lance

 

Setting

Centre of Early Childhood Development

Flamingo Crescent Informal Settlement

LTD Building Supplies

 

Scene

The sun was shining as we pulled up to the Flamingo and jumped out of the van to start the day. After meeting up with Terrance, we went over to check out the crèche lot. Shakeel and Terrance stayed on site to clear the lot while we mozied over to the play area to interact with the children. Andrés and Jacquelyne taught the children how to play leap-frog and they immediately were hooked. While we waited for the bus to come back for us, we videotaped some of the community members to put on our website for our “Meet the Community” page. We started with Elizabeth and filmed her outside of her home. Although she insisted she wouldn’t be good at it, she shined in front of the camera as she explained her involvement in last years project and her excitement to be a cook in the crèche. Once finished, we headed over to the lot to film Terrance and Shakeel while they were working on clearing the site. We even managed to film Yolanda. Seeing their faces light up in front of the camera confirmed that the community was fully behind this project.

Once the bus arrived, we piled in with Terrance, Marky, and Elizabeth to head to LTD Building Supplies to see our old friend Colin. As we were pulling up to the building, we spotted a few tires in the distance. Without hesitation, Marky jumped out of the van and grabbed the nearest tires in sight.

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Mark Running Back with Our First Tire

 

Andres and Justin quickly followed Marky’s lead while the rest of the team walked down the alleyway to a spare parts shop where the owners kindly donated a few more tires to our collection. We piled the 6 tires we scavenged up and headed into LTD. When we finally arrived, Colin told us that unfortunately the payment from CORC had not gone through. Immediately all of our hearts sunk with the fear of another set back in the project. Realizing it wasn’t our fault the payment wasn’t in order, Collin reassured us that he would have the material the same day if need be. With this we purchased some more stuff for the plumbing and headed out to scavenge some more tires.

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The Beginnings of the Tire Collection Process

We drove by a bright orange shop that had tires stacked outside so naturally we stopped to ask for donations. Marky and Andres sweet talked the owners and we ended up making two trips to this tire place to round out our collection to a total of 31 tires. We brought them all back to Flamingo to start the construction of our tire tower. After only drilling three tires the drill we were using unfortunately broke. However, we didn’t let that stop our fun for the day. We had Kristin and Andres on tire construction while Jacquelyne and Malina focused on painting the mural. Justin was assisting with the construction of the box for the arrival of the concrete.

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Trying to Squeeze Too Many Tires and People Into One Van

Reflection

It was amazing to see how each and every community member opened up infront of the video camera. Hearing them talk about how excited they are about the crèche and about the roles they play in the community was exactly what we wanted to hear. Seeing Marky and Shakeel devote every day to helping us really shows us how dedicated they are to this project and the betterment of their community. We all laughed when Marky sprinted down the street to get one tire, but really it made us realize that Marky would do anything to help his community and their children.

We also experienced generosity today from the spare part shops as well as all of the community. These people realize we are here to help them and we want the best future for their children as do they.