The One with the (2nd) World Map

Drum roll………………………………



There it is. Back where it belongs.

Nick (my brother) and Amber (his girlfriend) were pissed (for lack of a better word) when I told them of what MEDUCA had done to the map we had created together during their vacation to Panama, and rightfully so. (Read this post if you have no idea what I am talking about) Similar to my feelings, their anger was more so a byproduct of extreme sympathy for my community, and confusion of how and why the government run education system could come and take away what little the students have.

The fact is, we could ask that question, why, forever, and we will never find an answer. But we all knew that the students and all the community members are the only ones that were directly affected by MEDUCAs actions. And as upset as I was, I could not let my personal frustration with MEDUCA keep my community from having this map, and the education that it brings. So when I told Nick of my plans to repaint the map, I believe his exact words were “you better not do it half ass.” They don’t deserve a half ass map because of what happened.

My brothers oh so encouraging words echoed through my head the whole time. Unfortunately, “half ass” does not exactly translate into Spanish; well, it does but it just makes the conversation extremely awkward. So I would just tell my map crew that my brother says “let’s make it better than before.”

Remember MEDUCA told me that we could paint the map again as soon as they were done painting over the other one… ridiculous right? I am sure they thought there was no way we were going to go through all that work again. Well, In the last 6 months, the teachers at my school and I have sent many letters and made many phone calls to the MEDUCA office. We made sure they knew exactly what happened in my community and that we were in fact going to paint it again. Once we got their “consent,” It was time to find my new map crew…there were two VERY empty spots to fill.

Since I now know that community meetings are pretty much anything goes; In between their discussion on mermaids and witches, I made an announcement that I was ready to start the map again. It turned into a type of “whos with me!?!” declaration that was meet with great excitement, which by Ngobe standards means a slight nod of the head.

When the previously agreed upon time and date to start the map arrived, surprise surprise, no one showed up to help. Now, my first year in my community this may have bothered or frustrated me, but by now, I know how things work. I gathered all the supplies and headed up to the wall. I had a wave of mixed and intense emotions as I arranged my work space. I gave myself a little pep talk…. “Poco a poco” pretty much sums it up…..Step 1: sanding. By now there are about 10 layers of paint on this school, my first step was to sand the work space, I think part of me was hoping that the paint would just sand away layer per layer to reveal the old map. That extreme optimism lasted a good 30 sec, and then it was back to reality… I guess I really am going to have to do this whole thing all over again.

As I was going through this mental acceptance of reality with myself, I felt the presence of someone approaching. I turned to look, eager to welcome my first helper.
Oh, it is just Dario I thought.

Adonde vas Dario? Por la tienda? (where are you doing Dario to the store?)

No Meti, you vengo para ayudarte (I have come to help you)

How strange I thought. Dario is probably the last person I ever would have guessed to come help me. He is a young guy, doesn’t have any kids in the school, he is not involved in any community activities, and he always seems like someone that would be extremely hard to motivate to work for free. Plus he was not even at the meeting when I announced my plan to repaint the map. But he was my first volunteer, and I was not going to ask any questions. I threw him some sand paper and we went to work. Our conversation soon faded, as they always do and I was left alone yet again with my thoughts. I flashed back to that October day when MEDUCA came to paint over the map and something hit me. Dario was the one. He was the one that MEDUCA paid and ordered to paint over the map. That is why he was there with me now. He must have felt somewhat at fault and guilty for what had happened, and he realized how important that map was to the community. Once I realized his association with the map, I looked over and gave Dario a big smile. I wanted to hug him but that would not have been appropriate. I appreciated him being there so much.

So Dario was in. The next two showed up about an hour later: Punctuality is not a strength of my people, but I guess when you are relying on the sun to tell you the time, that is something you come to sacrifice…. And now that I think of it, it was cloudy that day.

So Frederico and Isieia completed the “equipo del mapa” These two helped a lot with the first map, and shared many of the feelings and emotions that I had when it got painted over. So, the crew was four strong, and depending on the day, and the task at hand, we would have other volunteers leading a hand.

The map really became a place for the community to gather and socialize. I would bring out the radio and I would make big bowls of popcorn for everyone to share. One day while we were painting I brought out my ipod and speakers and put on a world music mix I had. Each song that came up we would guess where in the world we thought it came from, when the song would end I would read off the answer. Whoever was closest would win bragging rights until the next song was over and a new winner reveled. They really enjoyed singing along with the African chanting.

One of the things that came up during one painting session was that the community thought that maybe one of the reasons that MEDUCA painted over the other map was because it had the Peace Corps symbol on it. So we decided not to put the flag or the Peace Corps symbol on the new map. Also, since this was our second time around, we learned that it would be a lot more efficient for us to paint the ocean first and then the countries over. . duh…. This saved us hours of painting.

So the re-creation of the map was of course not the same without Nick and Amber by my side. But this time it was not about me and my experience. The second time around was about them, my community, my map crew and everyone else involved. All the guys can remember exactly which country they drew and which they painted and probably will never forget. This project gave them tons of confidence, taught them many new skills and they created something to be very proud of! I am so proud of them, and there is no way I could have done it without them.

Thank you to everyone else who helped with the map and supported me in my decision to paint it again. This whole Peace Corps experience sure is teaching me a lot about life, different cultures,people and most of all myself. I am still trying to remain as optimistic as possible…. I think this map is here to stay.

Peace from Panama,
Michelle

Check out the video of our first world map creation