A Ugandan visit to some dutch parks

A few weeks ago Bosco Mukiibi and myself went to visit 2 family amusement parks in the Netherlands. They were carefully selected among the hundreds (!) of parks and initiatives around the country. We wanted to visit parks that have elements we can take to Uganda. Of course the real big parks are nice, and we can learn lots from them, but the smaller parks give better examples of what we could actually achieve in Uganda. Hans van Leeuwen of www.Slimm.nl helped us pick two parks in Apeldoorn: FamilyFunPark Koniningin Wilhelmina Toren and Children Paradise Malkensloten. Both parks have complete different themes and concepts. One park works with a mouse who lives in 'the tower', the other park uses a piggy who has fun on the farm. They both focus on children, but both from different angles.
Bosco said it well: In Koningin Juliana Toren, there were many attractions with an on/off switch. Great for the 'thrills', but they don't really get children 'active'. Malkensloten on the other hand has many 'do-it-yourself' activities, and is low on the 'thrills'. We both agree that both parks have elements we want to try in Uganda. In Tjeko FunVillage there will be 'thrills' and 'do-it-yourself' activities in a themed world.
It was great fun to see these parks through the eyes of somebody that has not been exposed to many parks before. We wrote down many ideas, do's and don'ts and other practical tips. It was an amazing experience and we want to thank both parks for their co-operation
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last week I went to talk to a gentleman called Hans van Leeuwen (www.slimm.nl ). He is an independent advisor in the Entertainment, Recreation and Sports business.

I started telling him our plans for Tjeko, showed him the amazing stuff Ben P did so far (www.bigpicturecreations.net ) and explained some of the things we want to do with the park. I had asked him to be critical with me - and thank God he was!

He liked the idea of Tjeko in Uganda a lot, but at the same time had some serious critic on what I was showing him so far. Not a totally clear, sharp and complete idea, but a lot of 'what if's' and 'we might’s'. Not good. So we're going to change that now! Thing is, I KNOW REAL WELL WHAT I WANT. Just thought it's sometimes better to leave stuff in the middle. Guess not! SO - here's the kicker! He offered us a booth of 3 meters on the 'Euro Attraction Show', a place where 250 businesses from the industry present themselves to about 7,000 park owners and managers from all over Europe. (http://www.eas-expo.org ). Now we're going to need every spare moment to get our plans SHARP. And we will - no doubt.

As you can see, we've tweaked the monkey a bit - to give him more of his own personality. We got 5 different caracters now.

tjeko caracter development

Tjeko needs to be the most 'in the open' development there is.
People that are thinking along - THANKS. If you ever see something that makes you think of Tjeko - please sent it to: info'at'tjeko.info
www.tjeko.info

Here is the sister of Tjeko! Tjeka! She is a bit younger than Tjeko, does very well in school. Here is her profile as of now:

Name: Tjeka
Age: 8
Sex: girl
Spieces: Monkey
Color: Green Orange


Caracter Trades:
- Self-aware
- Friendly
- a ‘know-it-all’ (but doesn’t always)
- Loves to study
- Adventures
- Be by herself
- Explore
- Have fun
- Family important – mostly with mom


You can follow Tjeko on twitter! His twitter name is: tjeko
That monkey is a modern monkey, i can tell you!

Let's build something AMAZING for the children of Uganda.

Tjeko update June '09

We went to see Suzanne van Ginneken, a playground and product designer of Children. Or for 'playing people' as her webside says. It's a small company that has done some remarkable projects around the Netherlands. This was the first time we shared 'Tjeko' with a profecional out of the field. (that is - outside of our circle of friends, Ben is ofcourse my coach and designer of Tjeko!)

It was a very fun meeting, were Suzanne shared many good ideas and insights

. She's followed it with a ton of great web-links, all to get us inspired. With Tjeko we are really in a inspirational fase. Filtering all we want, and all we don't want right now... I seem to have a lot of stuff in my head, that willl just have to wait! Now we're going to meet with a gentleman who seems to know EVERYBODY in the recreational industries in the Netherlands! Looking forward to see where he can sent us next!

We're on our way to build the FIRST social profit ADVENTURE-PARK in the world! (changed it from themepark to ADVENTURE park :-)

It's exciting - keep good ideas coming our way.