the wheel in motion...

I just wanted to drop in and give everyone an update on the latest with the Peace Corps Partnership Program project I had funded. Things are actually moving along a lot faster than I expected.  Of course there has been a slight hiccup in the process, but that happens everywhere.

So here's the latest:

We received the funds for the project, and then contacted the supplier of the playground equipment with whom we originally received our quote from.  He was still in business so we took a trip to go check out the quality of the product.  Along the way we also knew of another vendor who deals in playground equipment so we were going to stop there on the drive over.  Unfortunately we drove right past the second vendor as they are pretty well hidden, I hadn't passed by in a while, and they didn't have any equipment out in front of their shop like usual.  We decided to continue on and circle back if we needed to.

Once we arrived at our original vendor the hiccup came.  Unfortunately one of the items we originally requested had been sold, and unlike what we may be used to in American, placing an item "on order" is not an easy process.  So we decided to go with most of our original order, then change out an item so we could maximize the value of our leke (dollar).  We ended up selecting:

Swing set: they also had one that was made from more solid material, but I was convinced by my counterpart that this piece was better for a few reasons: it had more spaces for the children, and although the material on this would break down before the other model (which was much more expensive), the workers at the Bashkia (municipality) could put together the frame using wood and replace any damaged parts.

Teeter totter: who doesn't love a good teeter totter.  They had two versions here, we went with the stronger more durable model.

Spinny thing: nothing says fun like spinning in circles till your dizzy.  This piece was high quality and the pieces that are breakable, are also easily replaced.

Finally, our vendor threw in this horse spring thing at a large discount.  We had a bit of money left in our budget, but not enough to cover the cost.  So we said we would come back later after installing the equipment if we'd like more (being the crafty buyers we were), he came back with a reduced price we could afford (being the good salesman he is) because he didn't want to leave money on the table.