Second Day of Service!

On our second day, we had a rough time waking up. We were all sooo exhausted from the day before. But we were all ready to spend the day with our kids! As soon as we got to the classrooms, we started working with the children. They recognized us, and even gave us hugs in the morning. That meant a lot because I really felt like they knew me and being able to gain their trust is wonderful. Of course I did more drawing during the day for the teachers, and I recruited my group members to help me color them in!

Hard at work coloring the Dr. Seuss pictures!

In the afternoon Olivia and I danced with the kids. They have a song called "Community Worker," and it was stuck in our heads for the rest of the day. Dancing with them was so much fun though, and even though their parents were walking in to pick them up and staring at us, we kept on dancing anyway. The kids loved it! 

After school, we drove out along the lake, and went on a little hiking detour to go see the water. It was absolutely beautiful. Lake Pontchartrain is located on the outskirts of NOLA, and is the second largest inland saltwater body of water in the US behind the Great Salt Lake! Unfortunately, the lake is a large reason why the area flooded so badly during Hurricane Katrina.

Lake Pontchartrain!

When we hiked back up, I had a little trouble getting back up the retaining wall because of my lack of height, but my group helped me up haha. We were off to go get us some real Louisiana crawfish!! We went to a place called "Cast Net" on the recommendation of our teachers. It was FANTASTIC! We walked over and were a bit confused because there were three separate doors you could go in. A woman who worked there, Chantel, helped us. She first asked us what we wanted, and we just told her CRAWFISH!! So she asked boiled or fried, but when she said boiled, it sounded like bold because of her accent, so we were all so confused. It was an ordeal. But eventually she helped us to make our order. It was kind of like ordering from the deli counter at shoprite, just a lot more crowded. You pick a ticket number, and when they call it, they weigh your order out. Maggie and I got to try some fried catfish, while the rest of our group waited inside. Chantel brought them all some tasty shrimp and crab to try while they waited though! Once we got our two pounds of boiled crawfish, she taught us how to eat them! You rip their heads off, then peel the tail armor off and take out the meat. It was delicious! Very similar to crab and shrimp, and it was super spicy! We all enjoyed it very much, and we were so happy about our Southern Hospitality that we were receiving. Olivia went to wash her hands, and to her surprise, a live crawfish was on the ground by the bathroom. He must have escaped while in transport! Of course we played with him a little, then brought it back to the owner. We had such a fantastic time! 

Us with our delicious crawfish!

Me with our live crawfish buddy.

We came back to the fellowship and ate some dinner, (jumbalaya). I had some, but had to eat my sandwich that I had made earlier because the Cajun spices that are on everything down here were starting to get to my stomach! We were all exhausted from the long day, and had a short reflection, then everyone hit the hay. Working with kids all day is definitely draining, and I give credit to anyone that can do it every day!