"The Project"

This weekend the kids and I (and our night guard, Charles) started a “project” as Ella calls it. Building a bamboo playhouse!

I have long been thinking of what to put in the area where our banana trees used to be and this weekend it dawned on me – a playhouse! The neighbors across the wall have a TON of bamboo that hang over our house, and we are constantly getting them trimmed so that they don’t scrape on our roof, so what’s easier and more affordable than a playhouse made out of bamboo? I can’t think of anything!

We lucked out (except that I know it wasn’t “luck!”) in that our night guard, Charles, had swapped shifts with our part time, weekend, young and less motivated guard, and worked together with us. I must admit, I thought that I could easily build a bamboo playhouse by myself but Charles’ help was invaluable! He and Ella negotiated with the neighbors for the bamboo (Ella LOVED going over to the neighbors, who we don’t know, and snooping around through their yard), he cut it down, sawed, and helped screw the bamboo onto to the frame and the roof. It was so much easier having another adult to work with! Not that Ella, Frankie, Ms Dave, Bridger and Sanyu aren’t helpful, but, um, well....

Everybody got in on the action and the kids thought that the tools were in fact, toys. No better way to learn about tools I guess, then to play with real (sharp!) ones!

Then came the axe...

....yikes!! A two year with an axe is a rather frightening thing. Even I, whose theory is, “they’ll learn after they get hurt,” eventually confiscated the axe from the enthusiastic two year old!

The bigger the bandage, the better your finger feels when you’re a five year old!

Surprisingly, this was the only wound that drew a lot of blood all day, and it came from the measuring tape. By the end of the day this child was covered with dirt and blood –the signs of a good day- and I had to put her clothes in bleach!

The men, working on the roof

We spent all of Saturday (in addition to our weekly market and store shopping) just working on collecting the bamboo from the neighbors and putting together the frame and the roof. Sunday we were able to finish the roof and split and put up some of the bamboo for the walls, before we ran out of screws.

The completed roof!

I knew that I wanted to try to make it so that the kids could use the roof as a play area, since they are a bit like little goats and like to climb and get up on things, not to mention the fact that Ella is a major snoop and it would enable them to see over the walls into the Botanical gardens and the neighbors yard.

In addition to spying on the neighbors, it also makes a nice dance platform! We’re going to add a ladder so they can climb up and down by themselves.

It looks like L’s grabbing herself here, but really she wasn’t! Not sure if you can see it, but I liked Frankie’s face in this one.

I’m taking bets on which child goes tumbling off first ;)

You’re never too young, clumsy or inexperienced to be put to work in this household! The kids had the job of gathering up all the bamboo ends when we were done. Good thing we own a dump truck!
Ella, like a typical Ugandan, has already moved right in to her partially completed house! This was how far we’d gotten Sunday evening, after we’d ran out of screws and bamboo.

Setting up shop

Of course we had plenty of help from the dogs and rabbit. Ms Dave was a bit of a pain actually, always hopping around underfoot and having several close calls with falling bamboo. I worried about her getting cracked on the head a lot more than I did the kids!

Ms Dave had the good fortune of finding some greenbeans that were “cooking” in the sandpit, and helped herself.

Bridger was fairly ridiculous over the whole bamboo cutting episodes. He goes BALLISTIC, barking wildly, trying to scramble up the wall, snapping and snarling at the bamboo or the person who is trying to sit on the wall and cut the bamboo. He then savagely attacks it, even after it’s been cut and we’re trying to screw it to the frame! I remember several years (yes, that’s YEARS) ago when he attacked someone in the gardens and they beat him off with a piece of bamboo, which is the only reason I can think of why he hates bamboo so much. Hopefully he doesn’t tear down the bamboo playhouse when it’s done!!!!

We hope to get this “project” finished this week. After the bamboo is cut and split it should be relatively quick to get them screwed up for the walls. The kids are loving it and so am I : -)