We Brought the Whole World to Our Village

Peace Corps Volunteers have been doing the World Map Project since 1988 in over 40 countries around the world. The idea is to bring people together to create large, colorful maps of the world from which the entire community benefits. To be perfectly honest, I was a little skeptical at first. I mean, aren't things like HIV/AIDS education and clean drinking water more important than painting a pretty mural?

However, after living in our village for a year and a half, it become apparent that many children and adults have minimal knowledge of world geography. I have been asked so many times if Africa is right next to America. Or how big America and the Netherlands are, etc. I try to explain to people that you could fit about 50 Surinames inside of America but that is hard to visualize. Due to the remote location of the villages along the Upper Suriname River, schools do not always receive all of the resources that they would like. Plus, many adults in my village never went to school or received minimal education. We decided this would be a solid investment in education for all ages.

Before

After

We were right. Since completing this project, villagers of all ages, from 5 years old to the village elders have learned new things about the world and where Suriname fits into it. It has been inspiring to see the awe in their eyes when they see how big Russia is and how far the Chinese immigrants traveled from China to reach Suriname. Or that the Netherlands is about the same size, if not smaller than Suriname. I am sure many thought it was much bigger considering its influence on this small country.

6th Graders

4th Graders

The most exciting part of this project, though, was that we did it in partnership with the Peace Corps Program Worldwise Schools. Our amazing Worldwise Schools partner is none other than Mrs. Summer Tracy, of course! We have had the privilege of working with Summer's last three years of classes, mostly sharing the Surinamese culture through letters and Skype calls. This year we decided to paint world maps together! Mrs. Tracy's current 3rd grade class raised the money to buy paint, paintbrushes, etc. for our map. While 3rd-6th graders at our village school helped paint our map in Suriname (along with our headmistress, captain and two lead teachers), Mrs. Tracy's 3rd grade class painted their own map back home. 

With both maps almost finished, we were able to pull off a Skype call with all of Mrs. Tracy's 3rd graders and about 8 of our 5th and 6th grade English learners (they all won English competitions to be able to stay after school to participate). Our kids practiced their English while Mrs. Tracy's kids learned the Saramaccan greeting. Then, we showed each other our maps and finally the kids were allowed to ask each other a few culture questions while I translated. The SLOW internet cut us off a few times but overall it was a huge success! I think it is so important for children (and adults!) to be exposed to other countries and cultures.

Thank you so much, Mrs. Tracy's class, for all of your hard work fundraising and for being our excellent map making partners!

Amazing job to Ryan, as well, for being the project lead on this one and coordinating it like a champion! I like being your right hand woman.

Each child painting a country had to first find the country in this atlas, then locate it  on the blank outlined map on the wall. 

 Lastly, this project would not have gone as smoothly and as quickly without our dedicated team including the captain of our village, our headmistress and our two partner teachers- Mrs. Panka and Mrs. Main.

We took A LOT of great pictures of this project, so check out the rest here.