Amager Lillebane

On Saturday I spent the afternoon volunteering at a playground in the Amager district of Copenhagen. I found out about the project through the volunteer coordinator who set me up with my weekly volunteer job at Plan Denmark. It turned out to be a really beautiful day and I was so glad to spend it outside working on "beautifying" the playground.

a little schoolroom for the children. all by volunteering artists.













the beginning, power tools and all ...
































Well, I'm not sure if the final product made the playground any more beautiful but it was something that they needed. A classmate of mine, Yan, was also there and we spent the first 20 minutes taking a tour of the house that Nelson, playground operator, lives in on the grounds. I think it is a government funded/volunteer basis project of sorts. The people we met were all activists and one gentleman we spoke with was homeless and spending most of his time with other activists, working with furniture and metalwork and selling the Homeless Newspaper.
















Nelson was really excited to have us and gave us a whole slew of options for projects. Most things that two girls with no artistic ability were probably not most capable of undertaking ... but we decided to create a welcome sign with information for guests.


the final product! in Danish!
















All we really needed was tape to make the letters, scissors, paint and two paint brushes and what we got was a few saws, an air compressor, wrenches etc. In the end it worked out just fine and they even had us sit down to lunch with some of the guys and served us grilled chicken and salad.

It was really great later in the afternoon when more and more families came by and started playing. The previous owner of the playground built a train the runs on a little track around the yard and it is the main attraction for the kids. It was really cute! I didn't get a chance to have a ride but it was even better to see the big smiles on the kids' faces.

: )


and of course, what is a post without a family picture??
Saturday evening my friend Sara came over to join the whole family for a HUGE italian feast.













Yummmm, it's my favorite dish that Agneta makes!! Please notice how gigantic the pan in the middle is ... it's literally from the oven!! It came with the new oven they bought after the old one broke when they left me home alone for a week. Apparently I didn't actually break the oven, or that's what they told me to make me feel better. Either way the food was delicious!

I have been so spoiled with my family that I don't know how I'm going to adjust to taking care of myself again!