New Orleans - February 23, 2018

Friday, February 23, 2018

We went to Chahta-Ima Elementary School in St. Tammany parish for the second day. 

After breakfast provided for us, we continued in the same classes as the day before. The kids were so excited to see us again, running up to us, giving us huge hugs. We helped the kids learn math, English and Social Studies. If a student needed extra help, the teacher would ask us to help just him/her get proficient in the topic.

At the end of the day the kids had “fish fest”. Fish fest is an event the school puts on for the kids with good behavior. Because of the rain the school played Just Dance on the projector. Just Dance is a dance video game that has you dance with the characters on the screen. The teachers asked us to dance at the front of the gym to show the kids how to dance. We jammed to “What does the fox say,” “24 kart magic,” “YMCA,” and “I got a feeling.”  The kids wore us out in the end. After fish fest, we went back to one more class with our kids and it was time to go. When we left, the kids gave us huge hugs and made plans to come to visit us in Boston. The kids gave us bags full of Mardi Gras beads and a moon pies, as a thank you for the work we did. The teachers stressed to us the importance of our visit, that some of these students do not have a male figure in their lives.  Our being there gave them that even for just two days.

Next we drove through the Lacombe Wildlife Center. We drove through the gate and circled around in a parking lot, where we saw lots of beautiful plants and trees. We also learned that people can do service if they are retirement age, and can park their RV’s there and might even be paid a little bit. This is a fun and interesting way to do service because it involves traveling around the county stopping at national parks. After we drove by the RV’s, we drove down a path where we could go and see the nature. The sign said no trespassing, authorized vehicles only, but Mr. McGonagle does not always follow the rules, and he gassed down the path. Ms. Myers was mad for a split second before taking the risk herself, and before we knew it, we were trespassing. Luckily, the gate for us, and we sped away from the center, heading for the house.

We got back to the house and began to clean. We cleaned the house to make it “better than we left it,” as Mrs. Myers put it. After about 30 minutes, the house was spotless and we were ready to head back to Boston. However, we still had more fun things planned for our short time in New Orleans. Later that night, after eating Cajun fish, we headed across the lawn to a civil rights concert featuring Greg Greenway and Reggie Harris and their program, Deeper than the Skin.  It was really fun because they sung truly from their hearts, and invited all of us to join in. They told their stories and how they feel on racism, which was interesting to hear. After talking and singing, they gave us a 30-minute intermission, where we went out and talked and ate food. We then went back for the second half. After about another hour, Mr. McGonagle began to dismiss people back to the house because the concert was running pretty late, and we had an early day the next day. We came back to the house and passed out. Our long trip in New Orleans had finally came to an end, and we were exhausted.

Wyatt and Daniel