First Trip and Hopefully Not the Last

After seeing the email from Karen Roth about the trip to New Orleans, I was excited about going. My oldest son has done many mission trips with the high school church group and has raved about the experience. With all of my kids being teenagers and above it was time for me to give back to the community. Application filled out and money sent in, I started to have second thoughts. I did not know anyone and was concerned about my kids’ schedules. My kids assured me they would be fine and husband said he would work from home a couple of days that week. He said go and enjoy.

After the orientation meeting, I was starting to get excited again. A week later I was at the airport waiting to board the plane. Plane was delayed 45 minutes on the tarmac and I was getting anxious to get to New Orleans. Finally we arrived in New Orleans, everyone was excited to get to the French Quarter to start explore (especially Robert). After a group lunch (thank you Ken), we broke up into smaller groups to explore the Quarter and to do some window shopping to look for the perfect souvenirs.

Monday morning the group was excited to get to work at Harriet Tubman Charter School. The school looked very impressive from the outside. However, inside was a totally different picture. We were told in a brief meeting that third and fourth graders were reporting in a week for summer school. The halls and some of the classrooms were packed with furniture and classroom materials. We were all thinking that there is no way the school was going to be ready. They needed our group to break into 3 smaller groups to tackle painting cafeteria pillars, painting a classroom and sorting books by reading level. Pillar painting went quickly, so we move to the classroom to help. Staples needed to be removed and then the painting could begin. While working in the classroom, we meet a young gentleman, who was working on the lights, who said that the classroom was his kindergarten classroom and was happy to see the school being taken care of.

The rest of the week was spent working on odds and end painting jobs, setting up classrooms for class, and don’t forget the never-ending books. With the help of two or three other groups of volunteers, the school looked ready for some students and well on its way to open for all students to report at the end of August.

After some hesitation at the beginning, I truly had a great time. The group, from the first week, made me feel young, but not young enough to ride the bull. Thanks for a great week and hopefully I will return next year.