The Blog of Dominic: Douda Playground Project

Sometime in June, the XO conceived of a plan to build a school playground for the village just south of the camp. The Djiboutians were always very friendly to us and waved as our patrols would occasionally pass by them and we wanted to do something for them. With no money, we had to find all of the supplies. After many misadventures, the XO finally found and acquired a boat that would work. HOA was going to discard a playset as it was missing some parts, so we grabbed it. Donated money enabled us to buy some basic supplies and the Marines supplied the labor. So a week and a half ago a group of Marines took the boat to Douda, prepared the ground, set in the boat, and erected the mast, monkey bars, and swing set frame. They also cemented in the base of the rocking horses. A few kids initially showed up to watch the Marines. By the end of the day, there was a small horde of them, all really excited to try out the playground. But it was not ready yet and we made them promise to stay off until it was complete.

I joined them the second day, helping finish raking the ground, pouring additional sand into the boat, and helping out where I could. The kids quickly descended again and we handed out some footballs to keep them busy. A Djiboutian news crew showed up after a bit and took some video, interviewed some kids, and interviewed the XO (it played that night on the local TV and one of the interpreters said it was a hit.) At the end there was a small dedication ceremony with the village eldars and we turned it over to the kids. They absolutely loved it.

We have dropped by one or two times since and there are still a horde of little kids playing on it.