The One with the World Map

Over a year ago, “The World Map Project” was introduced to me during Peace Corps training. It is an optional secondary project that Peace Corps volunteers worldwide have done. Before even knowing my site assignment, I knew that this was a project I wanted to do. So I was hoping my community wouldn’t crush my dreams and would allow me (or better yet, help me) to do it.

I thought doing this project within my first few months in Buena Esperanza would be a great way for me to get to know my community members, show my face at the school, practice my Spanish, etc. So early last December, I eagerly pitched the idea at a Padres de Familia meeting. I showed them the information booklet I had, explained the process, assured them that it would not be of any monetary cost to them, and pointed out all the advantages of having this map would be for the students. Unfortunately, as soon as I brought up the fact that I wanted to work “Hombro a hombro” (a very common Peace Corps Panama phrase, meaning shoulder to shoulder) with them, I was completely shut down. “oh, yea, that’s a lot of work Meti” or “ We don’t have time for that” and of course “but you can do it if you want” Excuses flew at me from every direction. Discouraged, I vividly remember sitting in my host house, and thinking about their excuses…. Too much work? Really? How can this be too much work? They put in full days in their farms doing the type of physical labor most Americans would never dream of doing just so there family can eat that night…and painting a map would be too much work? And about this not enough time thing… Each Thursday 45 dads/moms are required to work for the school, usually, they just end up chopping the grass because there isn’t really anything else to do. Also besides these designated Thursday workdays, I KNOW they had time….this was definitely not a justifiable excuse. A little heartbroken that this project may not become a reality, I slid my paperwork into my accordion file folder for the cockroaches to nest in.

Fast forward a few months….my Brother (Nick) and his girlfriend (Amber) mentioned that they were throwing around the idea of coming to stay with me for and extended visit, a little over a month. Before committing, my brother warned me of something I already knew. That is, his need to be doing something, not just anything, something productive. Both of them, having served in the Marines for four years, had become accustomed to a pretty structured lifestyle. Down time (or as I call it, hammock time) was not part of the plan. I remember a phone call with Nick where he told me numerous times “you better have some work for me to do.” They were not looking for your typical Bocas snorkel vacation. They wanted to get involved in my “new” life, in my community, in the Ngobe culture... and so begun my Nick and Amber to-do list. The list was lengthy, it seemed like I added something new to it each day. There is so much I want to do in my community, it was going to be wonderful to have four extra hands!!! There was no way Nick nor Amber would find themselves without anything to do. Then, one day during one of my weekly/daily cleaning escapades I came across the World Map booklet, that I had stashed away months earlier…. And yes, the cockroaches did indeed take full advantage of these forgotten papers. So this got me to reminisce. Why I had given up on this project last year? A split second later, I was smacking my head with that very booklet, realizing how incredibly naïve I had been.

After spending time getting to know my community members, and the Ngobe culture, it is crystal clear what was going on that day I introduced the project to the Padres de Familia. It wasn’t that they didn’t have time or didn’t want to work… it was that they thought they were completely incapable of doing a project like this! The Ngobes, are historically very passive aggressive people. We were warned about this during training. But let’s be honest, most of what I learned during training I had forgotten anyways. So while most of these parents could not even point out water from land on a map, here I was asking them to help me draw the entire world from scratch. And it’s not like I was asking them to draw it someplace small or hidden where no one was likely to see it. Oh no, I wanted it on the side of the school, in the middle of the community, 16 feet by 8 feet, each country labeled and painted a different color. Time consuming? Ok. Alot of work? I guess. But the likelihood of being embarrassed in front of their fellow community members and children….. yeah, exactly…. Stupid, stupid, stupid Michelle.

Once I had this epiphany, it was decided! This was the project to do with Nick and Amber!

I got permission from the teachers, but didn’t tell anyone else of our plans. My hope was that we would begin the project and the community would become curious, start asking questions and maybe even offer to help. We started on a Thursday morning, so there was lots of hustle and bustle going on. Right away, we drew a crowd. I began explaining one by one what our plan was, and how this grid system of drawing worked. Students and their parents would sit for hours watching us sketch the world, poco a poco. To my dismay, even with my encouragement, there were still no community volunteers to help draw the map… But that all changed once the outline was done and the paint came out. I like to think that my community helpers were really genuine in lending a hand. However, I think the truth lies more towards the fact that most have never painted before, and they were curious.

Once assigned their country, and they were fully equipped with their weapon; a paintbrush fully loaded, they would eagerly attack the wall. However, they had yet to learn the difference between painting and coloring. Reality hit them quick when their brush did not function the same as a crayon….there were numerous times I felt like screaming “if one more drop of Tanzania’s purple falls into Mozambique… you are sooo fired!” Don’t worry, I didn’t actually say this….not in Spanish at least =) I was so pleased to have community help and it proved to be the best time for conversations such as this to happen:

Picture the map, completely drawn and we are working on painting the last of the countries.

“So, Meti, what is this a picture of?” (as he paints China pink)

“It is a map.”

“Oh really, where is my house?

“Well, actually, this is a map of the world…So this part here is Central American, Panama is this red area, Bocas del Toro is up here towards Costa Rica, Buena Esperanza would be a little out into the water, because we are on a peninsula right? so then I guess your house would be right here… next to the church”

“Haha, wow… Panama is really chiquitito. But it seems so big! And your place Meti?” (meaning where I am from)

“My place, is up here in the Unites States. And just like Panama has 9 Provinces, the US has 50 states. I am from the most beautiful of all those states it is called California.”

“hmmmm, it looks like I could walk there.”

I knew that my community had an interest in geography and the world. I have a world map in my “house”, and almost daily I receive questions, from children and adults. Because of the tourism industry in Bocas my community has recently become more and more exposed to different nationalities. They see the flags on the cruisers boats and hear the funny accents on the streets of Bocas town. Undoubtedly, this sparks some curiosity. Once they became comfortable with me, and they knew I was not going to laugh at them, the questions began and have not stopped since. They ask about where a certain country is located, what the people are like that live there, and how much it would cost to travel there. During the making of this world map alone, I was asked by well over 30 people, adults not students. Where Panama was located? Most common response, wow “chiquitito.” To which I always respond, “yes, it is small, but Panama is the heart of the Americas!” By now, I am not surprised to receive these questions; however, I will admit that I was caught off guard when I had to explain to the teacher what the difference between a continent and a country were.

Regardless of what the song says, I know this was a project I never would have been able to accomplish “with my own two hands.” And I am so glad that I didn’t have too! It turns out Nick, Amber and I work really well together, not to mention that we unquestionably kept my community entertained on a daily biases. Frequently, something would happen and all three of us would bust out in laughter, attempting but often failing to control ourselves, because class was in session. Whether it was Nick reassuring us girls that we “we’re not building a piano” when we were a quarter inch off on our measurements (a saying we all know he got from my Uncle Chip), or when Amber spent hours precisely drawing all the South Pacific islands, only to be told that we were going to have to paint over them with ocean and then re-do it or when I followed a crack on the wall instead of a pencil line when outlining Africa in permanent black marker. And don’t even get me started on Nick and Amber trying to speak Spanish. Laughter was constant...it was good for the heart!

I have been told that this map is going to be my "mark" in the community. It is what I will leave behind and be remembered by when my time is up next year. It will be my gift to Buena Esperanza, and it will remain forever... Well, that is great. A map is a good gift, I agree. But in all honesty I hope that this doesn’t prove to be true. I hope after two years in Buena Esperanza the mark I leave is not of the physical nature, not something that a camera could capture, or you can touch or hold in your hand. It may be what the students and community members learn from the map or maybe what they learned from participating in the process of making the map… but not the map itself. I want my gift to be intangible and immeasurable. I hope my mark is in the development of a people, and if that starts with giving them the knowledge of where in the world they are located, well then we have taken our first step.

World Map Project

Click on the picture above for a photo story of the map making. Or check out our video on you tube by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlBZ9REWpk

Peace from Panama!
Meti