The World Map Project in 5 Days

Day 1: Measuring and drawing 1,568 8cm squares.

Day 2: Lots and lots of drawing.

Day 3: Let the painting begin!

Day 4: Finishing up painting.

Day 5: Erasing the grid and outlining and writing the names of the countries.

A popular activity among Peace Corps Volunteers worldwides is the world map project. In fact, I think it is now even "required" for Youth Volunteers in Peru. I had wanted to do it ever since I arrived in site but I wasn't able to find a suitable wall because most walls in site are made of adobe. Finally in May I asked the municipalidad if I could use their gigantic cement wall that sits right on the plaza, in the center of town. They have been building this municipiladad ever since I arrived at site but they promised me it would be done in June. Well I became really excited to paint the map and was happy that it was going to be in such a prominent location. Along came June, and then July and pretty soon it was October and they still hadn't finished the municipalidad. Then they decided to take away their offer of the wall and told me that I couldn't paint a map there because it would be ugly. They wanted to hire professionals to paint the map because they said that kids couldn't paint. I confronted them about this and told them that the had promised me the wall and I had been patiently waiting all these months. Persistence paid off and they said I could use the wall and that the municipalidad would be painted and ready to start the world map next week. I went into Cajamarca and bought the necessary supplies and even started activities in the colegio to prepare the kids to paint the map. I had the computer class learn Powerpoint by researching different countries. I also gave the students in the 5th grade of the colegio (if you are still confused, think seniors in High School) a blank sheet of paper and told them to draw a map of the world. The results were pretty hysterical and hardly anyone even got the continents right, let alone Peru and the countries that border it. So anyway, they didn't end up painting the municipalidad until the middle of November and by then it was too late to do during the school year because the school year had basically ended.

Fast forward to this week. Exams ended but most of the kids stick around for another 2 weeks until the clausura, or the official end of the school year. With nothing else to do, I decided to tackle the world map project. I wanted to wait until the next school year but I was afraid that they would take away the wall again if I waited so I decided to jump at the opportunity. I really only told one or two people that we were going to start the world map project but every day I ended up with way more kids than necessary. The map is in the perfect location, right off the plaza on the only street in town. So many people pass it every day and there was always a crowd gathered out of curiosity. One afternoon we were blessed with the town drunk. He stood there and watched us for over two hours; mostly just serenading me and telling me how he wanted to marry the gringa from the United States. Luckily I've gotten pretty good at ignoring spanish. I should have taken a picture but I didn't want to encourage him. Most of the kids in the colegio live out in the campo so they weren't around but the ones that live on the street came out every day to help. The only thing that would bother me is that everyone that would walk by would have to put their own two cents in. The map was either too low, Peru shouldn't be green, or I should have used stencils for the names. However as the map progressed the comments became less and less negative and the word most commonly used was "bacán" aka cool! I've even seen people from out of town come by and take their picture in front of the map. I don't think many people have really looked at a map before because everyone was shocked at how small Peru was. There seems to be a fascination with Cuba (they all know about Fidel Castro), and an awe at how big Russia is. I'm glad that I was able to do this map in a place where everyone can see it because the adults were just as interested in it as the kids.

I had heard from other volunteers that this project could drag on and be a pain to do. I was amazed at how quickly and easy it was to finish. The bulk of it was done in a period of 5 days with probably over 20 different kids helping, with a core of 8 kids coming every day. I think the finished project turned out pretty well. Not all the countries are completely exact, but then again the book we had to draw from wasn't the best drawings I've seen either. I hardly drew or painted any of the countries. There was always more help than necessary and I mostly supervised and assigned colors and countries to people. Only at the end did I assist in cleaning up the map and writing the names of the countries. I would have let the kids do this but it was agreed that it would look better if the same person wrote all of the country names. Plus, the municipalidad threatened to erase the map if it didn't look good. The only thing left to do is correct one country because I'm anal like that, paint a border and protect it with varnish. Hopefully the varnish works and the rains don't destroy the map.