The World Map

A couple weeks ago, I ventured up to another volunteer’s site (Franco) to help him with a world map project he was doing at his school (i.e. paint a world map on the school so the kids can get a better understanding of the world around them). Franco and I live in the same region, but in terms of how we live, we are worlds apart. For starters, Franco is an Environment Health (EH) volunteer, while I am a Community and Economic Development (CED) Volunteer. The gist of this is Franco - along with the other EH volunteers - live in less developed areas, and often requires a hike to their site, because a road does not go to their community.

Franco is no different. We got dropped off about a 45 minute hike from his site. From there, we had to navigate the hills, streams and tricky terrain to his community.



As you can see, it’s a bit different from the flat ground that I’m surrounded by in my neck of the woods. Once we made it to Franco’s community, we came to Franco’s house. Because the community is so small (about 150 people) there were no open houses, so Franco, with the help of the community, built his own house.


Needless to say, it’s pretty cool.

The next morning we made our way over to the school. We were joined by another volunteer (Hailey) who lives nearby in the region and hiked over to Franco’s community. The three of us worked first to lay out the grid at the top part of the map. This was more difficult than it sounded because the ground which we put the ladders on wasn’t the best, as in it was on a slope and a bit rocky. Nonetheless, we were able to complete the top part of the grid. After that, we repainted the ‘ocean’ on the bottom part, because the first coat didn’t hold up too well. Here Hailey and Franco are working hard, while I’m hardly working:



At the end of the day, we put Franco on the fast track to finishing the map before he leaves Panama in October when his two years are complete.