what do you think of......

...when someone says 'playground'?
for me it is the children (everywhere!) and the equipment.
in bangladesh it is 50% different.

the children: laughing, running, screaming, climbing, jumping, shouting, pushing, falling, skipping, whistles blowing, teachers torso looming high above the beehive of activity.

the equipment: swings. big banks of swings set high on sturdy a frame with children pushing their feet up to dizzying heights and slashing backwards so high that the chains bow and then jerk at the fall. tall slides with their upright back and curved graceful chute where the shiny slide pan has been polished by the seatpants of the masses. teeter-totters where the heavier child (or children) has the lighter child (or group) dynamically outweighed and will only at their mercy push up to let the other down. and a dizzying carousel whose occupants are spun off only to stand staggering between nausea and hysteria. and monkey bars, and hopscotch routes, and tire traps, and basketball hoops, and, and, and......

but, there is no playground equipment here.
oddly, in our assessment of the schools, most of the headmasters dont even know what the pieces are. maybe they have seen photos of a slide or have visited dhaka and seen a swing-set, but they would never think of having such things at their school.

the things we take for granted.

marc, from the playground in, bangladesh