PCC swimming pool even greater than before!
It was a long-term and great desire: the renovation of PCC’s swimming pool.
The swimming pool was built at the beginning of this century. At first only paint was used for the concrete floor and walls, but the whole pool had to be repainted so many times that after a few years it was decided to cover the floor and walls with tiles after all.
This has also been quite a few years. In the mean time more and more of these small floor tiles became loose and left sharp edges causing the children to suffer small cuts and grazes as a result. In some places the pool’s walls appeared not to be completely watertight. No reason for panicking, but our desire to renovate the pool became even greater because of this.
Thanks to the generous sponsoring of Gera Mulders with her friends and an affirmation of the Protestant Emmaus congregation in Bodegraven we were able to finally realize the renovation of the swimming pool during the festive year of PCC’s Silver Jubilee.
Our unrivalled Mr Baffo took up the challenge and went to work. This is not a small operation, we thought beforehand, however, the actual renovation appeared to be an even bigger job than imagined.
Building up often starts with tearing down, as was also the case here: all tiles had to be removed in the middle of the hottest season of the year in Ghana, a hell of a job! Then the walls had to be reinforced and made wider and a little higher making the pool rather deeper and more of a SWIMming pool.
Also, the mini-swimming pool that sits next to the big swimming pool has been connected with the big one, which is clearly an asset. Finally, a fence has been built around the pool for safety reasons.
This has also been quite a few years. In the mean time more and more of these small floor tiles became loose and left sharp edges causing the children to suffer small cuts and grazes as a result. In some places the pool’s walls appeared not to be completely watertight. No reason for panicking, but our desire to renovate the pool became even greater because of this.
Thanks to the generous sponsoring of Gera Mulders with her friends and an affirmation of the Protestant Emmaus congregation in Bodegraven we were able to finally realize the renovation of the swimming pool during the festive year of PCC’s Silver Jubilee.
Our unrivalled Mr Baffo took up the challenge and went to work. This is not a small operation, we thought beforehand, however, the actual renovation appeared to be an even bigger job than imagined.
Building up often starts with tearing down, as was also the case here: all tiles had to be removed in the middle of the hottest season of the year in Ghana, a hell of a job! Then the walls had to be reinforced and made wider and a little higher making the pool rather deeper and more of a SWIMming pool.
Also, the mini-swimming pool that sits next to the big swimming pool has been connected with the big one, which is clearly an asset. Finally, a fence has been built around the pool for safety reasons.
Baffo had a wonderful dream about a fountain in the middle of the pool: some kind of a bowl from which water would be pouring onto the children who would be standing in a circle underneath this mini-waterfall. It proved to be a “piece de resistance” during the renovation.
After the tearing down the building up began. In came the tilers and soon it became very obvious that many, very many new tiles were needed for the enlarged swimming pool. But they performed very well and the result is really great, they even included a few surprises!
Ameyaw, who has worked as a welder on a part-time basis for PCC since January and who is also impeded with a considerable handicap to his legs, has built a wonderful fence around the pool and the painter has done a great job in his turn.
During Easter we officially opened the new pool, what a great party it was! Of course, there was no “pooltime” during the – warm and dry – period of time the renovation took place. So for weeks the children had been eagerly looking forward to the moment that the new pool would be ready.
And the end result? Wow, what a fabulous swimming pool it has become.
Words fail me to get this across really well, so please have a look at the pictures in this AC: the children’s happy faces, their refreshing dives into the cool water (where Baffo was asked to go in first of all!).
Okay, the circular waterfall has become more of a “circle of water drops”, but right, who cares, the idea is still fantastic and it does not spoil the fun!
PCC has become more attractive yet again and during our 25th Anniversary to boot. What a wonderful present, many thanks to our sponsors. All children will be able to enjoy this great pool for many years to come. They feel extremely happy!
Thus Easter 2017 in PCC metaphorically shows us: “Submerging and rising marvelled”!