Getting to Work.

So the month of December has been VERY busy.   Looking  back, I am so thankful for thanksgiving out of my site to recharge and prepare myself for this past month.  The main project that I started was the world map project.   We are by no means done, but we have started and are now just waiting for the Christmas holiday to be over to restart the project.  

The first step was drawing a "perfect" rectangle on the wall.  I say in shame that it took about an hour for us to figure out exactly how to do it!  In the end it got done and is pretty "perfect"-ish.  The following photo is of us finishing up for the day which took much longer than any of us thought.  This was also the day when everyone decided to come which was very exciting.  

After making the rectangle, the next step is to paint the ocean.   Again...this took longer than expected.  We ended up not having enough paint to do a thick coat, so we did what we could.  I also was a bit stingy and bought two brushes instead of a roller...effectively saving about 12 soles...or 4 dollars.   But in the end the job got done (we reconvened and finished the second coat on another day).

As time when on numbers started to dwindle.  The last two sessions I had two youth show up.  A least I was not working by myself!  And, to be fair, most of the kids had finished exams for the year (the school year ends in December) and had left for vacations and other things.   So after painting we located a projector (yes we had a projector!) and traced every border of every country.  

We finished up all of the tracing and are now just waiting for the kids to come back after the Christmas holiday to start painting in every country.  So I am confident I will have some renewed enthusiasm for the project when they all come back.  

The goal of the world map is to teach kids about world geography (which they do not have in their school curriculum) and to instill the sense of accomplishment of starting and finishing a project that will remain for many others to see.  

Besides the world map, I have been doing a lot of interviews of people in the community, learning what resources there are for youth in the city and to find potential work projects other than at the regional hospital.