The Margate Makeover

On Monday 24 November 2008 at 12:30 pm, Dan, Leah and I arrived at Margate Good News Centre. We were greeted by Nelson and Alastair (brothers from the Margate ecclesia), with fruit juice, muffins and biscuits. After refreshing ourselves, we got down to work measuring, marking out areas and getting down on paper all we needed: Wood, sand, paving slabs, concrete curbs, fence posts and much more - all to be bought that afternoon! We only had two days plus Monday’s remaining daylight in which to complete our task.

With about two hours to go before nightfall, we all started digging away dirt to level the play area. Alastair and Manje removed the old paving slabs from the front of the BEC, in preparation for renovation. Dan, Leah, Nelson, and I (and even seven year old Eliezer!) tried our hands at digging, raking and clearing dirt. Night came quickly but we were all satisfied with our progress.

I was up at 5 am, anxious to get things moving; we only had two days to go! I emptied the storeroom of its contents, stacking everything in one corner of the BEC. Dan and Leah woke to the clatter of the crèche kids arriving for the day. The sand and paving material didn’t arrive at the promised time, so to fill time, Dan and I covered the top and side of the jungle gym, outlined the areas to be paved, boxed in and fenced. Then we worked on the shelving boards, marking and drilling holes, ready for installation in the crèche storeroom. With the threat of rain looming, we prayed God would give us a good day. He gave us a nice cool wind!

The sand finally came, much to the fascination of all the crèche kids, who had never seen a “skip truck” before. Armed with just one small wheelbarrow and two tiny buckets, we filled the area to be paved and the playground with all the sand in less than two hours!

With only a few loose ends to tie up, I worked on boxing in the sand, Leah did some computer work and Dan finished off the paving (ably assisted by Nelson, who, with hatchet in hand, hacked away any root that was in our way!).

Erecting the fence was made difficult by a huge rock in the path. Nelson and Dan attacked the rock with a hoe and a metal pole, prodding and prying. Suddenly the rock flew through the air, missing Nelson’s head by a hair! Tired after a long and hard day, Dan would not give up, so the shelves just had to go up too!


Hyacinth Linton-Harvey, Jamaica

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