New Orleans - February 22, 2018

 Thursday, February 22, 2018

7:37 A.M. That was the time I woke up to start the day off. As everyone got ready and their lunches packed, we all left for Chahta-Ima Elementary School. 

Chahta-Ima Elementary School serves Kindergarten through 3rd grade in Lacombe, Louisiana. The name of the school changed multiple times throughout the 1950s and after being organized, it was named in honor of Father Adrien Emmanuel Rouquette, who the Choctaw Indians called Chahta Ima. It was named after him because his primary concern was the minorities’ education and well-being. An interesting fact about this school is that it was burned by a student in 1976! After being rebuilt, this school became coeducational and elementary. To this day, it has been renovated and remodeled plenty of times and the school still makes sure to live out the memory of Father Rouquette. 

As we walked into the school, we were immediately greeted by the coordinator (Mrs. Pechon). She was extremely friendly and brought us into a multipurpose room where we laid down our belongings and got settled in. Eventually it was time to leave the room and be assigned to a classroom. We were all hesitant and nervous to be separated from each other, but I got the best class there could be in the school. Jeovany and I were assigned to be in Mrs. Talley's kindergarten class for the day and the kids were sure fun. As soon as we walked in, all the kids greeted us and Mrs. Talley was also ecstatic that she would have us for the day. The first thing we did in the classroom was Mrs. Talley reading a book about Louisiana and a letter for something that had to do with it. For example, B was for bayou and A was for alligator. After that book, it was play time in the classroom. This was a time where I could interact with the kids for once. I met many kids during this time such as Abel, Kelsey, Selena, Wesley, and other students. Activities would range from reading books to playing with legos. Minutes after playtime ended, the kids headed onto P.E. For today; the gym teacher was teaching the kids simple drills in soccer such as dribbling and trapping the ball. The kids had a good time, but there was a special moment for me when I was holding Kelsey's hand on our way back to class and she said to me, “this reminds me of what I used to do with my dad.”  I didn’t know at that time if this meant that her father is not in the picture, as many of the kids in this school don’t have a father figure in their life, but it made me closer to Kelsey that day.  I learned the next day that her father had passed away a few months ago.

Finally, it was lunch time and all of the BC High students met back in the room. There was lunch made for us by the principal and other people and it was lovely. After feasting on that delicious food, we all talked about how our day was going so far. Everyone had different stories because most of us had different grade levels. For instance, in the third grade, Wyatt and Dan were helping kids learn fractions, adjectives, and other things, while Jerry and Paul were helping out in the first grade and editing paragraphs for each kid. Shortly after lunch ended, it was nap time for kindergarten, so Jeovany and I decided to play with other kids outside in the playground. There were many things to do such as football, basketball, running, and even cooling in the shade. The bell rang, and it was time to go back to Mrs. Talley's class. When we came back, the kids and I started to set up snack time and birthday cupcakes for Seth who turned 6 today. His mother and uncle came to support him and we all sang happy birthday to him. It was such a great time and everyone was so happy. As time passed on, it was 3:30 p.m. and it was time for the kids to go home. Immediately as we walked out, Kelsey held my hand all the way up until she got on the bus and I had to say bye to her. Thank God I would have the chance to see her one more time before I left for Boston. 

For the last hour, all the BC High students would help out with the 21st Century Program. This was where we would help students ranging from elementary to middle school with tutoring in all subjects. For me, I was assigned to help Rylee in the 6th grade with her vocabulary. She was a smart student and at first she was struggling with memorizing the definitions and part of speech for the words, but she started to get the hang of it. Eventually, the hour flew by and I was shocked because the day had gone by so fast. However, relief came to me as I would have a second day to do this.

Naod

(and at Chahta Ima, they treated us AMAZING, with lunch cooked by Mr. Marlbrough and loads of snacks!  THANK YOU!)