In which we paint the world

     I would have to say that, secondary project-wise, this project is the biggest that I have yet done in Peace Corps.  I am very proud of it, because Meghan, many of our students, and I put a lot of hard work into this project, and because it turned out to be more spectacular than I could have imagined.  It began with a blank wall, a lot of math, hardware store frequenting, and coloring.  After that was a lot of measuring, and patience.  Trying to make a perfect rectangle of about 13 by 7 feet, and then dividing that into 52 by 28 squares to make the grid.  We used a chalk line to snap the lines for the grid.  Then, the drawing began.  First, we had a session in the classroom, where we got everybody used to what it's like to draw in a grid.  We made copies of sections of the world with a grid, for reference, and had the students practice a little on paper.  Then, once we were ready, we started on the wall.  My artistic abilities are certainly lacking, but with the grid, it wasn't as hard as you might think it would be to draw the world.  With that, our students are much better artists than I am, so although I helped a bit, I let them (and Meghan) do a lot of the drawing.  Those students who felt like I did, would then trace over the pencil drawings with permanent marker.

     That went on for a couple months, meticulously drawing each country every Monday through Wednesday afternoon.  With the sun blazing on our backs, everyone always remembered to bring their hats.  It took a long time, and we had to redo a couple of areas, including most of Africa, but that didn't deter us!

     Then came the painting!  We used nine different colors, and mixed them ourselves.  Before painting, some of the students helped me to color the paper copies of the map, so that it would be easier to tell which countries were what color.  Painting went very smoothly, and rather quickly, too; maybe only a couple weeks to paint all of the countries.  The islands were the worst, but they got the hang of it pretty quickly, using the tip of the paintbrush to paint each individual island.  After that were just a few retouches, some research on my part, figuring out what the newest countries were that weren't on our map, which was from 1994.  There have been about a dozen new countries since then, and thanks to Jason and Molly, who sent me a globe for my birthday, I was able to find all of them!  We also wanted to label all of the countries.  Usually, most volunteers label in English, but both Meghan and I decided that we would rather have it so that everybody could read the map, even those who didn't know English.  We thought it was more important for them to understand it, than to learn English from it.  We also figured that we will have time to teach those who want to learn about English geography later.  Thus, we had to find all of the names of the countries in Khmer.  Well, it turns out that there has never been a map with the labels in Khmer made before, so we didn't have just one map to reference.  Usually the maps that you find at schools are labeled in Vietnamese or English.  We had to ask various sources, Peace Corps staff, my tutor, and various dictionaries, in order to find the names of nearly 300 countries.  It was a process, but I think this map could possibly be the first ever that is labeled in Khmer, which is super exciting!  So, we (and by we, I mean our students, because although Meghan and I can write a little Khmer, it's nothing like a native speaker) labeled all the countries with permanent marker, and then stuck on a compass, a scale, some flags, and then just spray painted some finish at the end, and voila!  Roich howey! (That means "all done" in Khmer)

     Just like in my last post, I wanted to give you lots of pictures, and couldn't choose just a few, so I made another web album, called World Map Project.  You can click here, or on your right under the "Various Web Albums" tab.  Only 85 photos this time, and don't forget to check out the captions!

In which I have my first visitor

     May was quite the hectic month.  The highlights of which were when my dear friend Punch visited me from Thailand.  She had never been to Cambodia, even though it is only an 8 hour bus ride from Bangkok, so we crammed all that we possibly could into two full weeks of adventuring.  We visited Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, my lovely little village, and Battambang.  I took over one thousand pictures while Punch was here, so I couldn't possibly pick only a handful to post on here.  Instead, I created a web album on Google Plus, and manage to cut it down to only 346 pictures.  The link is on the bottom of this blog post.

     The first several days were spent in Siem Reap, visiting some modern pagodas first, and then getting the 3-day pass to Angkor Wat.  We saw nearly all the temples, except for only a few of the really tiny ones that we just didn't possibly have time to fit in.  After that was a stretch spent at my site, which Punch enjoyed very much.  She was quite enchanted by my family, especially my little host brother and sister.  (They are quite enchanting, though sometimes it's a good thing, sometimes it's not.)  She also went to school with me, and many of my students who have been learning Thai got the chance to practice their Thai with her.  From there we visited Battambang for a couple days. There we rode the Bamboo train, climbed a few mountains, saw lots of bats, a neat fishing village, and some more pretty pagodas.  Then, to end it all, we headed back to Siem Reap and saw the circus.  The circus is run by an NGO, (non-government organization) that takes children from orphanages and other unfortunate circumstances, and helps them out by giving them a place to live, sending them to school, and teaching them how to be awesome circus performers.

     I really liked to take pictures of the following:  trees, doorways, bats, clouds, and stairs.  I am not your average tourist.  Otherwise, I hope that you enjoy this album, and I look forward to showing you even more of the wonders of Cambodia in the next coming year.


My Web Album   <-- Click on it!

PS.  Don't forget to look at the captions.