Our very own world map, about 5'x6'One of our fellow PCVs recently returned from Thailand with an interesting little packet entitled "The World Map Project." According to the introductory section in the packet, a PCV in Guatemala or some other Central American country was waiting for the bus when suddenly it hit her: kids need to paint maps on the walls of their schools!
This epiphany, while not as influential as Newton and his apple, has led to the painting of maps all over the PC world - the latest of which being in School #4 in Barda, Azerbaijan. By painting the map, it is thought, children learn about the many countries of our world and their places relative to their own country. This project is also accompanied by eight lessons that can be taught before, during or after the map is painted.
Now for those of you who know me, there's nothing I love more than a good, solid PROJECT PLAN that follows SPA guidelines. Just gives me goosebumps thinking about it. So, in my PDM zeal (Project Design and Management for you non-PC nerds), I walked a group of kids through the project planning process since the beginning of March. They wrote their own goals and objectives, monitoring plan and action plan. We also identified resources we could use in the community as well as what supplies we would need to purchase. By April 1, we were ready to begin.
The first two weeks of April were thus geography lessons after school. The student leaders led the lessons and students learned about the continents, countries of the world and "how to say salam" in ten languages. They also learned that, surprise!, America is NOT a part of England.
I see London, I see France...It was a lot of fun, but by the second week students were itching to paint. On Saturday (the 17th), the student leaders gathered at school to draw the map on the classroom wall. We used a projector and pencils and finished up in about two hours. Then on Sunday the real action began. About ten students, not including the student leaders, came to help and get minimally dirty. Despite the inherent disorganization that comes with any project in Azerbaijan, we did a great job and finished painting in a little under 5 hours. Some small countries were unfortunately lost in the painting process- RIP Brunei, San Marino and pretty much any Oceanic country. Those islands were a real pain to find and paint! Oh well.
The kids were really proud of their hard work and like showing it off to other students and teachers. I'm proud of them, too, as volunteerism is not a common "ism" in this country. Now let's see if I can persuade the Director to let us paint a mural...
