The World Village Game - script

The World Village Game

The world has about 7 billion people living on it right now. That's this number right here. Let's count the zeroes together.7,000,000,000. (Show the number) Wow! 9 zeroes! So in our village of 100 each person is really 70 million people. That is this number right here. (remove 2 zeroes)

Okay! Who is ready to be 70 million people? (get name and volunteer)

If our village today has 100 people, it was a long time ago that the pretend world village had just 1 person. It would have been all the way back at the time of King David we read about in the Bible, about 1000 BCE. (We had a timeline on the wall, made with painting tape, and pictures of the events/peoples/times we mentioned.)

This 70 million people that ______ represents lived and had families and the village grew. So we need more volunteers. As you join our world village, you will be handed a book of papers of what your 70 million people are like, so hang onto it and get ready to follow directions. We'll start using our books right after we have our 100 villagers.

It took our village 500 years to add one more person! So now it's 500 BCE at the time of Siddhartha Gautama, or Buddha.

500 years later, at the time of Jesus, we're up to 3 villagers! This is going to take forever!

Wait! We add two people next! 1000 years after Jesus at the time gunpowder was invented in China!

And now we need 3 more villagers 500 years later - putting us at the time of the Aztec Empire. So our village now has 8 people!

Next on our timeline is a beautiful building in India. It's called Taj Mahal. It was finished in 1650, and our imaginary village then would have 10 people.

Now we add 7 people all at once taking us to the time of the French conqueror, Napoleon. That's the year 1800.

Only 100 years later our village jumps from 17 to 32 people - we add 15 villagers for the time when the Wright Brothers figured out air flight!

We still need almost 70 more villagers. We'll add 4 in 50 years. In the early 1950’s was when Dr. Seuss wrote Horton Hears a Who. And now in 1980, when Mt. St Helens errupted, and around the time many of your parents were born, we're almost double that! We need 28 more villagers bringing us to 64.

Finally, we're going to jump forward just 33 years and add our last 36 villagers and we are ready to learn about the people of the earth, right now!

Remember, each of our 100 villagers is 70 million people! Where do they all live!? Well, let's find out.

Everyone look at the book you were handed. On the very front is a paper with a number 1 on it. See what color of paper your number 1 is on and go stand by the big colored paper an adult is holding up that matches your paper. In other words, if you have a light green 1, go stand by the light green 1. If you have a red 1, stand by the red 1.

This is about where the villagers are from. Look down at your feet. (on the floor we had mapped out the world, again in painters tape) Do you see what continent you are on? Lets have everyone who doesn't have a light green number 1 sit down right where you are. I have 61 Asians standing. 61 of our villagers are from Asia. How do you fit? Asia is a little crowded. Thanks Asian villagers, please sit down now.

And let's have the Africans stand up. That's all my villagers with a pink number 1. There are 14 people from Africa in our village!

Now let's have the villagers with a gold number 1 stand up. (Africans, sit down). We have 11 Europeans in our village.

Next we come to Latin and S. America. That's my dark green's. 8 villagers are from Latin and S. America.

In North America, where all of us really live, there are only 5 villagers! Let's have my blues stand.

Last, way out in Australia and the islands around it we have one villager, red.

Okay, now everyone on your feet and turn your number one to the back and look at the next paper with a number 2. Find the adult that is holding up a number 2 that matches your number 2 and go stand by them.

These are the languages spoken in our village. If you knew 8 languages you would still only be able to communicate with about HALF of the people in our village! Let's have the reds stand up. These are our 15 Mandarin Chinese speakers. Blues - these are our 9 English speakers. 8 dark greens - these speak Hindi - a language spoken in India. 7 with a cream number 2 - these speak Spanish. Gold - 4 Arabic speaking villagers. Light Green - 3 Russians. Purple - 3 Portugese speakers from Portugal and Brazil. And 3 orange - these are from Bangladesh, they speak Bengali! Now imagine you speak all these 8 languages: Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portugese, and Bengali. Let's have my white number 2's stand. These 48 villagers would be all the villagers you STILL wouldn't be able to communicate with! They speak French, Italian, German, Swahili  and all the other languages in the world!

Let's move on to your number 3. We'll find out what all the villagers DO! Find your number 3 that matches in color. One group is much bigger than another. My big group, the light greens, are the adults in the village. There are 74. The smaller group are the smaller folks - the kids! There are only 26 kids in the village!

Now everyone sit down where you are with your group, kids with kids, adults with adults, and we'll find out what the adults do for work- though 4 don't have a job. If you have a red number 3, stand. These 28 adults work in agriculture - they are farmers, they raise animals, jobs like that. Now let's have my blue 3's stand. These 14 adults work in industry - they make things. Like cars, or cell phones, or can openers. Or buildings or roads, or lay the wire for electricity. Last let's have my green 3's stand. These 28 adults work in services. They sell things, or they design websites, or cut your hair - jobs like that.

Now everyone, find your 4 and stand with your matching color. This BIG group reads. There are 86 villagers who can read. But 14 don't. Now everyone sit. I have 7 red 4's. If your 4 is in red, will you stand. These 7 villagers are the number who have a secondary education - the number who have gone to college or a trade school beyond their basic education. And we have one blue 4. This villager is our only villager with a college degree.

Now let's find out about the beliefs of our villagers. Everyone find your 5 and stand with your matching color. First, let's have the light greens stand. These 33 villagers are Christian. Now our orange 5's. The village has 20 people who believe in the religion Islam. Light Purple- 13 people in our village are Hindus. Cream - 6 villagers are Buddhists. Dark Green - the village has 12 people who aren't really religious. Pink - 2 villagers don't believe in God at all or are Atheists. And my last 14 reds. 14 villagers belong to other faiths we haven't mentioned.

We're almost to the end. 2 more to go! Now find your number 6 color and group. These groups are about food. My smallest group has 16 people (the florescent greens) - they sometimes get enough to eat, but sometimes they don't. My 24 blues do get enough to eat. And the biggest group - the golds - these are our 60 villagers that are always hungry.

Finally to 7. Stand with your color. This big group of light greens, these are the 78 villagers who have electricity, though many only use it when it's dark outside. That means there are 22 villagers who don't have electricity, those are my pinks.

Of course, only back a few hundred years to the time of Napoleon none of the villagers then would have had electricity. But there were fewer villagers then than all the villagers without electricity now! (Who is ready to be done representing 70 million people! It's a big job, but you did great!) The world and it's people have come a long way! It's fun to think about people all around the world and what kinds of lives they live. We are blessed to live where we are! And it's fun to think about how fast things have changed for the world village since even your parents have been alive. Think of how different the world village will be when you are telling your kids about it!

Thanks for playing this game with us!