#world map project

[rainestaylor]

This time last year, this was a big part of my life. Check it out, and paint a world map in your community.

www.theworldmapproject.com

[rainestaylor]

Throwback to spring 2013 in Kobuleti, Georgia, when we were nearing completion of our huge world map painting. Pictured with me is one of the many neighborhood children who showed up nearly every day we painted. I hope to do this project many times again in the future, starting, hopefully, with my current Peace Corps site. I plan to talk with our university’s department about possibly painting a map in our English library.

[katieinpanama]

World Map Project at Guarumal School

Step 1: paint the background light blue.

Step 2: Trace the countries with Becca using the projector.

Step 3: Paint countries different colors.

Step 4: Border.

Step 5: Label countries with Spanish names.

Step 6: Title!

Step 7: Make my mark!

Step 8: Clear coat to make it LAST FOREVER.

Finally Finished!

[run-adrian-run]

World Map Project, not quite finished in this picture but the only one I have right now.  But hey it's a picture ON MY BLOG!

[run-adrian-run]

Day 62 - 69

Alright, so sorry that it has been a while since I posted. We’ve been pretty busy completing training and doing surveys and what not (go PACA) haha, not. Anyways. Not too much has changed in the last couple of weeks. Still in Bafia but this is our last week here and in training. As of next Wednesday the 20th we will officially be U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers. Crazy how quickly the days have been going. We all realized that yesterday was our two month mark sense beginning our work with Peace Corps and now we are so close to being on our own in all of our own posts. I cannot wait! 

It has been a little tough this last week or so because our training group had its first early termination (ET). It was a person who was pretty close with many of us  and we really did not expect them to leave. They explained their reasoning and it makes sense why they left but we all wish they could have stayed. I also found out that one of my friends serving in another country has also returned home. Its just made it a little bit more real knowing that people have started leaving.

In other news the group of YD volunteers (and a couple of the environment volunteers) got together and with the help of the Peace Corps completed a World Map Project in Bafia.  It was a really fun project to do and gave us all the opportunity to figure out the do's and dont's for the project.  It also gave us the opportunity to give something back to the village that has hosted trainees for 4 years now.  As we are likely the last training group to go through Bafia it was nice knowing that we would be leaving something behind for them to remember the Peace Corps by.  Our training manager also put together a ceremony for opening the map.  I did not expect it to be a really large event, but it ended up including almost the entirety of the school as well as many of the town officials and the country director of Peace Corps here in Cameroon.  It ended up being a great event and all in all it was a great experience.

So now, we have pretty much completed our training and the next step is swearing in!

[tongaschneider]

Wall Paintings - World Map Project

The World Map project

(Sensitivity about the world)

Cave painting was the earliest evidence of humans using image to document their interpretation of their present. As a response to this we chose to use that same approach to portray our present.

We use the map of the world as an outline that gathers information we know of the world as a whole. The map is created in a big size to bring a global view on the world. Each map is focused on a particular theme, for example: ‘The nuclear power stations in the world’, ‘Rivers in the world’, ‘The GOMs in the World’, ‘The International commercial exchange in the world’, ‘World population’ etc. Each map is an interpretation of the effect human being has on our world.

The information is translated in visual symbols that create a powerful image that should touch the public’s sensitivity about the world.

This project is by Tonga Schneider and Aurore Pelisson an artist duo that has been collaborating for the past year. Tonga Schneider is graduating this year with a BA Fine Art (2D) and mainly focuses on illustration, collage and wall painting. Aurore Pelisson is a Textile and graphic designer working in London also very focused on wall painting.

[emilybecker01-blog]

I used up all my Beninese karma today.

You have to start things early here.

I have learned that several times the hard way. In a country where boutiques don't stay fully stocked, school directors disappear without warning for two weeks and one rainstorm can bring everything to a grinding halt, if you have the chance to get something done, take it. Do it then. There will not be a more perfect opportunity to do it. Seriously. Don't think that you'll just be able to do it tomorrow.

I can't tell you how many times I've cursed myself not thinking far enough into the future. I'm pretty good at planning things out, but this is a country where it's hard to pick up that ball again once you've dropped it a first time.

But despite all this, I once again found myself in a situation where I had 24 hours to complete a task that I could have been working on completing for the past two months. 

I've been working to try to complete a mural of a world map at my school since last April. Waiting for funds, waiting for permission from the director, waiting for me to come back from vacation led me to seriously doubt whether this was ever going to happen.

And then I came back from my girls camp in Savalou and suddenly it was happening. The director gave me the go-ahead. We found the money to cement the wall. A mason did all the work in one day. 

And then I realized yesterday that I had nothing else that we needed to finish the project. The money had been sitting in my lockbox since the end of last May. And past experiences told me that there was no way that I would be able to get everything I needed in one day. This country just doesn't move like that.

Then today, it did move like that. Two bicycle rides to my hardware store, one motorcycle ride to Savalou to buy what I couldn't find in my village, then two more hardware stores, a boutique and a photocopy place later, I had crossed everything off my list, and then had money to spare.

The only explanation I have is that I must have done something right somewhere sometime in the past 13 months.

[malawhee]

I <3 maps and you will too!

I taught my Form One's their first geography lesson today. I'm not sure if they learned geography in primary school, so maybe it was their first geography lesson ever.

To start, I had them draw a map of the world in their exercise books. The results were... interesting. Haha. I mean, they don't see images constantly like kids growing up in America do... they don't watch TV, they have limited textbooks, etc. So most of them didn't really know what it was supposed to look like. Some of them just drew a map of Malawi, which I thought was interesting.

Anyway, one popular Peace Corps activity undertaken by volunteers is the World Map Project. I am definitely going to try and do this at my school with my new geography students. By the end of this term these kids will KNOW that America is not in Europe.