The World Map Project
by Kacey Molloy
L
ittle Known Geography Facts:
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Europe only has 16 countries.
The Pacific Islands have a land mass roughly equivalent to that of
Australia.
Laos recently took over Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Tibet is again independent and nearly the size of China.
Turkmenistan borders Mongolia to the south and takes up one-fifth
of what should be China.
Insignificant African countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya, no
longer exist.
It’s amazing the things you can learn while doing a World Map
Project! It’s also amazing the things you can teach while doing a World Map
Project.
When my aunt and uncle returned in 1996 from serving in the Peace
Corps in Ecuador, I remember my aunt saying that one of the projects she
implemented in their community was the painting of a world map on the side
of a public building. At the time I didn’t realize the impact such a map could
have on the people she worked with, nor did I realize it was a world-wide project.
This past spring we received a Peace Corps mailing that highlighted The World Map Project and I thought back to what my
aunt had told me and realized the project she had described was much bigger than I had originally thought. I immediately wanted
to implement it in my school in Tearce as well. The director and my counterparts were on board right away, and the art teacher was
called into the director’s office so we could describe the project and ask for his help. Since our role as Volunteers is to encourage
locals to implement projects, I was excited about the possibility of the art teacher taking the lead role. He and a selected group of
students got to work right away and quickly completed the first task of painting everything ocean-blue and outlining the map in
pencil.
It was at this point that I should have begun paying closer attention to the details of the map. As time went on, and I
saw the paint being applied, I began noticing not-so-small mistakes. Europe was cut down to only 16 countries; those 16 did not
include Poland, Germany, Albania or even Macedonia!
Laos comprised all of Southeast Asia and China was
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