Day Four: An Early Start

Good Morning New Orleans :)

A small faction of us decided to hop the early bus to Algiers this morning to get a great jump start on our day at Harriet Tubman Elementary School. When we arrived, we were absolutely THRILLED to see ACTUAL CHILDREN lining up for their full day of scholarly knowledge. Red and Blue polo shirts designate their grade, with well pressed black slacks and shoes. There was a readiness in their eyes, which makes every move we make here worth it times one thousand.

When we arrived in the "Book Room" (as it's been lovingly dubbed this week) on Monday, it was an absolute disaster area.... The boxes full of books were not even close to being organized, and piled high almost to the ceiling, arbitrarily placed all around the room. Today, we have come so far as to have an alphabet all along the walls, A-Z with labelled boxes full to the top with the books that belong there, two full size tables stacked high with reference books we've found in our organizing efforts. The change has been remarkable. At one point one of the teachers from upstairs came down to say hello, and his first words, when he crossed the threshold will stick with me forever.

"This is an enormous beehive of accomplishment happening in front of me right now, and I love it!!"

I have taken a moment every once and awhile while I'm here to just observe what we've accomplished so far. It's amazing! Every day when we head towards "home," we are sweating, exhausted and fulfilled. I think that if you work a full day down here and you're not utterly exhausted and complete, there must be something wrong with you! By the time we're headed back "home" to Bienville House, we are relying solely on our feeling of accomplishment and knowing that if we get there soon enough, there is a cold glass of lemonade and a smile from Ms. Brittani, Ms. Cynthia or Ms. Beverly waiting for us in the lobby of our house.

Our work is very tedious. VERY tedious. But it's the patience we are exercising this week that will benefit every single child in this school. One thing we must remember while we do the work we do is we are not doing this work for US. "This is not about YOU." - Persay... This work is about the children. This work is about their future. The school needs us to do what we're doing, so we must give it our all. And so we do :)

Tonight, provided we can scrounge up some energy after our 4th day of work, we plan to ride the Green Street Car Line to the very end, through the garden district, and turn around and come back :) Just because it's beautiful, breathtaking, and because we CAN!

There is only a small amount of books waiting to be sorted at this point. The end of leveling is in sight!!! We finally received the sticker dots yesterday, and so that is what will encompass the end of our day today, and our entire day tomorrow. This library will be COMPLETE!!! I promise you!!!

<3 Angela and Mama Nina
- 4 Year Alumni -