NATCHEZ &8212; Somewhere in China &8212; which the students are sure is past Texas &8212; there is a paper doll from Adams County Christian School.

That particular doll, Flat Stanley, has had a longer trip than his dozen other clones from the first-grade class who&8217;ve seen the world and made it home to Natchez.

The students in Phyllis Toney&8217;s class can find China on a map and know a lot of people live there, but that&8217;s all they know about the country, so far.

If and when Stanley returns, he&8217;ll bring some more knowledge with him.

The Flat Stanley Project has become an international activity based on the children&8217;s book about a boy who gets flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. Stanley makes the most of his flatness and mails himself across the country for trips.

Several other Miss-Lou schools have participated in the project in recent years.

ACCS student Kyle Williams sent his Stanley to Iraq, where the paper doll visited with a member of the 155th from Natchez who sent back pictures.

&8220;He was standing on a gun and was in an Army Jeep,&8221; Williams said.

Flat Stanley&8217;s visit was Williams&8217; first real exposure to the war in Iraq, the student said.

Daniel Campbell&8217;s Stanley went to Pennsylvania.

&8220;He roasted marshmallows, saw a cat named Mickey and rode a tractor,&8221; Campbell said.

With each Stanley &8212; which the children colored &8212; students included a letter explaining the project and asking for information about the place Stanley visited. Some Stanleys came back with pictures, letters and souvenirs from the location. The Hawaiian Stanley now wears a hula skirt that was added by his recipient.

The project taught the first-graders about geography, other cultures and simple things like letter-writing skills, Toney said.

&8220;They loved getting the mail,&8221; she said &8220;It teaches them how other children live.&8221;

And when a child from another portion of the country returns Stanley, the ACCS students send them postcards from Natchez in return.

The Flat Stanley Project Web site includes a printout of Stanley to use and addresses of places around the world to send him.