Scene 1: Friday Fun Day

22 November 2013

Background:

From the early stages of our preparation term we understood the importance of making this project fun and interactive for the community. We wanted to show that the park can be a fun place and has the potential to be used for many different kinds of activity by various age groups. Through discussion with our co-researchers after our arrival in MGV we came up with an idea to hold a multipurpose day in the park that would accomplish some kind of improvement to the park as well as provide activities and entertainment for anyone that would come. Our focus though was mainly for the children which we invited from the primary school. The Parks Department arranged for three trees to be planted, two new trash bins to be installed in the park, and for the benches to be primed for painting. They then graciously provided us with paint, brushes, and other essentials to brighten up the benches, basketball hoop, trash bins, and fence. Naiela picked up some lawn games from Maitland City Hall for us to use with the children while the painting occurred and after as well.

Cast of Characters:

MGV Park Team: Lucine, Tyler, Katherine, Zack

Kelsey Stergiou

Community Members: Naiela, Ronell, Ayeesha (Naiela’s daughter)

City of Cape Town Parks Department Team

Jude Carolissen

Gershwin (Community Park Worker)

Community Children

Setting:

Perseverance Park – It was a very sunny and hot day in the park with a strong wind for most of the time we were there. The sun made it a good day for activities, while the wind made it a little messy for painting. The park saw a lot of foot traffic on this Friday afternoon as people moved about the community.

Scene:

From the moment Perseverance Park came into view as we passed through Oude Molen we could tell that today would be a day for getting things accomplished and creating a setting of much activity in the park. We could see a handful of city workers in the park installing trash bins and priming the basketball hoop and benches for us to paint. Shortly after our arrival the task of continuing the work in the park was passed on to us from the city workers. They left us the paint, brushes, gloves, bags, and handed over the reins allowing us to choose how the park would look.

We painted what we could for the day and as we finished the kids from the community began to arrive, eager to know what we were doing with the paint. Envisioning dozens of kids running around with wet paint, we turned to the lawn games Naiela brought and the main point of today: bringing life back to the park. Working in the park was a good way to show people that something is getting done, but the biggest change that people were seeing was the sheer number of kids playing in the park at one time. We had never seen so many kids in the park at once enjoying themselves and it wasn’t restricted to the equipment in the park. They were using some of the lawn games Naiela brought, but most of them were running about playing their own games. The idea of free play in open space finally came to the forefront. All we needed to do was give them a time and a place that was safe.

Reflection:

Today was the second time we were able to make a distinctive impact on the park. It was amazing to see what a fresh coat of paint can do to make the park as a whole look much better. There were a number of people who came by and told us the things we were doing looked nice; they could see that changes were happening in the park to make it a more enjoyable space.