cartography

I have a fond appreciation for maps. Especially old maps. They are visual representations of history, and most of the time, they are beautiful pieces of artwork. One doesn't often think about maps; they are taken for granted. Certainly, every classroom in America has one plastered to the wall. I don't need to think twice about the location of California, or where Russia is in relation to India. I just know. That is most definitely not the case here. Some people can't recognize the different regions of Senegal on an unlabeled map. A volunteer close by to me went on vacation to Tanzania, and when I told my village this no one knew where Tanzania was. In Africa, sure, but where? This lack of basic geographical knowledge can be bewildering, because I have always known where Idaho was, or Mexico or France. Because I have always had a map. It is such a basic cornerstone of an education, that I don't think that most of us even realize how essential it is. This being a problem with a relatively simple solution, I decided to start painting some maps.

I have a primary school in my village with five classrooms, and one more on the way. To start, I have begun painting a map of Senegal in each of the classrooms. All the kids roaming around the village would pile into the classrooms as I paint, asking what I was drawing, and when we established that it was a map of Senegal, the real questions began. Where is Dakar? Where is Kaolack? They would ask where my road town is, or any other surrounding town that they have heard of. Generally, these kids haven't been very far out of the village, let alone the region. With a map of their country I hope that they can start to get a sense of how big the world out there really is. 

Once I finish up with these, I am going to do a much larger map of Africa in one of the classes, and then to wrap up the map murals,  I plan on doing a map of the world that takes up the full wall in one of the classes. One of my neighbors did the world map project and it came out really wonderfully. You can see it here on her blog: http://jmw556.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-can-show-you-world.html

One more thing, as you can see I haven't labeled the regions yet because the brushes here are of a horrendous quality, and writing turns out more like jibberish, so if anyone feels so inclined to send some black paint pens my way, me and a hundred or so kids would be much obliged  :)