Today the group volunteered at the Louisiana Children's Museum as well as Dragon Cafe at St. George's Episcopal Church. It was an intense day, but rewarding.
The museum was really cool, it is 3 stories high, and filled with many different activities for the kids from science/educational sections to a toddler section, and even a Mr. Rodger's neighborhood. The group spread and and covered different posts; there was a face painting booth (VERY popular), a finger puppet station, craw fish creating table, a mini grocery store, and so much more.
We all settled in and had no clue what we were in for...about 5 different summer school field trips amounting to about 300 screaming kids running amok. it was intense to say the least! We handled the surges as best we can and enjoyed the eager faces of the many children, and the somewhat stressed out faces of the school chaperones. It was quite an afternoon.
Everyone handled the chaos really well, and had a lot of fun in the mean time. At one point there must have been 25 kids in line for face painting and 30 kids surrounding the craw fish station, so intense. At one point I even got to partake in story time, Rachel G. and I read the Cajun version of Little Red Riding Hood which was quite a task. Trying to figure out the accents and Cajun terms was comical, many of the kids were quite amused. We even got a few volunteers to come up to the stage and help me act out the story which was pretty funny, one young boy took on the role of the croc (AKA the wolf) and he was keeping the audience and Rachel and I laughing the whole way through. It was a whirlwind afternoon!
After the museum we headed to the church to help cook and serve a hot meal to numerous homeless and low-income residents as well as volunteers in the area. The staff and volunteers at Dragon Cafe were AMAZING, we felt so welcome and at home and had a blast. We cooked mac & cheese, tomatoes & okra (a southern staple!), and garlic bread and the dinner also included salad and dessert. They do this meal on Thursdays and Fridays every week and they definitely had their process mastered. There was a high school youth group from South Carolina there as well, and we had a lot of fun getting to know them throughout the evening. They were extremely energetic and helpful and one girl was quite the entertainer and spent her free moments dancing and putting on a show for us. Her energy after a long day of volunteering was admirable.
After dinner was prepped we braced ourselves for the mass of people that wait outside for the doors to open. At 4:30 we let the first wave in, there were about 50-75 people, and they rushed to the serving table. It was pretty crazy. The staff says the feed about 120-150 people a night, and provide seconds to whoever is left at the end. It was pretty cool to interact with all the locals, and we got to sit and eat with them and hear their stories which was a great experience.
Once we were done volunteering for the day, the group was pretty tired so we settled in to watch Act 1 of When the Levees Break by Spike Lee, which put a lot about Katrina and New Orleans into perspective. The movie is pretty intense, and I think impacted everyone pretty deeply. We all felt we knew why we were there, we felt our purpose and that was a good feeling. All in all, the day was great.
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