Mural Painting

Has it really been five months since my last post? I guess as time goes on and things become normal topics seem less and less interesting to write about. But with less than a month left to go, I often wonder what I’m going to say to people when I arrive home. Certainly most of you will want an abridged version of my life in the past two years, so writing it out seems like good practice. And since it’s currently down-pouring and gusting 1000mph outside (not a typhoon, but who can tell the difference?), I don’t really have an excuse not to update you guys on what’s been happening the last few months!

I returned to site sun-burnt and exhausted from the sand and sun and 12 hour bus rides. During the summer, Mt. Data becomes a lonely place with most of the high school students returning home to their villages, replaced by a few of the college students returning to visit their parents for a few weeks before returning to the much more exciting life in Baguio City. I spent most of the time at the school finalizing a college guidebook and thinking of a summer project.

A common Peace Corps project is creating a mural of the World Map in the community or school. While my school already completed the World Map project (initiated by a previous Peace Corps Volunteer), I decided to plan another mural, this time a map of the Philippines.

Because there was no template for a Philippines map painting, I had to start from scratch. This proved far more challenging than I could have imagined, as the first and most difficult step was in finding a reliable map of the Philippines. This is surprising because the shape of the Philippine Islands as become sort of a national pride icon of the country. It’s patch is sewn onto t-shirts and jackets, stickers placed on the backs of phones and laptops, the image flashed during the opening jingle of news and television programs. However no two maps I examined were the same, with most inconsistencies in regards to the division of regions, and the size and shape of regions in general.

I finally settled on one, printed out the grid, and used a little of the English Club money to buy some paint and brushes. I called for the few students left in Mt. Data with nothing to do to come and help make the map.

The first step was drawing the grid. It was long, tedious, boring work but necessary for an accurate map. Next, the students drew an enlarged representation of the map onto the wall, using the squares of the grid as a reference.

Tracing the map onto the grid.

After the map was drawn, we traced it in permanent marker and began painting in the regions. A quick lesson in Philippine geography. The country is generally divided into three large regions: Luzon (where I am), Visayas (the center of the country with lots of islands), and Mindanao (forbidden to Peace Corps Volunteers). The country is further divided into 17 regions. These regions are divided down into provinces. Provinces consist of cities and towns, with each town broken down into villages or barangays. I live in the barangay of Mt. Data in the town of Bauko in Mountain Province in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Painting in the regions.

After painting the map (color coded by region), the students began labeling the map. Again tedious work because they are perfectionists when it comes to making letters. But it was worth the wait! My friend Becky (another Peace Corps Volunteer) also came up to lend us her eye for detail and make our map 100% perfect!

Labeling the map.

As of now the map is still not finished; the students are listing the names of the more than 80 provinces on the two columns on either side of the map. It has been a good project because the students have learned a lot about their own geography, now knowing the locations of all the places they here about in the news. We also continued the project by making a map of our region, province and town for a total of four maps! 

Nearly finished!