Charleston - Children

3-26-2012

Although yesterday was a heartwarming experience for all of us, we were all looking forward for another gratifying day with magnificent children. We began our routine 6 AM, which consists of getting dressed, eating breakfast, and singing in the car. About forty minutes later, as some people woke up from their morning naps in the car, we arrived to Adaptive Gardening at Thornhill Farms. We met our incredible host, Jodie Thomas, once again on a beautiful morning. He greeted us with a great, big smile and thanked us once again for our work on the farm we completed the day before. We were informed by Jodie that the kids we met yesterday are not retuning and that we get to meet new kids. We were upset with this news, but were looking forward to meet amazing new kids. Our first job was to dig out the leftover grass and their roots from the loofa plantation, then a couple hours later, the kids would meet us at the farm and begin our work together. Our group of twelve students divided into two groups; one group to dig out one side, and the second group for the other side. We did as we were told and looked forward to working with the new kids.

A couple hours later, the sun was getting warmer and the kids showed up! There was one new kid in every four people of us. My group had a beautiful fifteen- year-old girl with endless dreams of being a nail technician. She taught us how to grow sunflowers and how to water them. She was like our magnificent farm teacher, since most of us are from the city and have never planted or even have been on a farm before. She was the best leader and taught us so much. We are really thankful for an amazing experience with such wonderful people. Not only the kids taught us how to work on the farm, but they taught us to overcome obstacles during difficult situations they are in and follow our dreams. We are all honored to have worked with magnificent people and we would love to work with the same organization again!

After a quick lunch, we headed over to Chicora elementary school to visit the children of The Wing's program. This would be our second day with the children and sadly our final day with these kids and everyone wanted to get the most out of it. I was with The Doves, who were the second grade girls of the school. As I walked into the cafeteria shouts of Mr. J could be heard all the way down the hall as the second graders saw me coming. Rules were put on the back burner for today as instead of forming a straight line and walking down the hall as they were supposed too. Instead, six of the girls decided to jump on me and have me carry them to their quote un quote "nest" which was a designated spot on the cafeteria. As the leader of the group, "Insert name" tried to quiet the mass herds of kids in the cafeteria. The Doves were fighting for spots to be next to Mr. J, and what was supposed to be a circle turned into a circle of girls around me. They all had name tags on and Kristen asked me if I would sign my autograph on to her name tag. Which always being one to please did so promptly. I soon discovered that you can't single out one of the Doves, because if one got a autograph from Mr. J well then they all would want an autograph. After putting, "Jay" on about eight doves, on the last one I decided to put Jay Powell. Not learning from my earlier mistake, I was soon forced to put Jay Powell on every single one of their name tags. As "Insert", talked most of the girls were rubbing my legs and asking me, "Why are your legs so hairy?" and I quirked right back, " why is your head so hairy!" to much giggles from the Doves. I then picked a topic any young American girl wants to talk about; boys and crushes. The Doves were especially obsessed with my love life asking, "Mr. J whose your girlfriend?" Knowing that I had their attention I would tease them saying, "I'll never tell you unless you girls are good!" This infuriated them to no end shouting at me every time a girl passed," is it her?" "Is it red shirt!" " No, I think it is black shirt! It's Miss Hailey!" But, my lips were sealed.

It was then time for free activity where all the groups got to go the group that they had picked. My group was the battleship group where we popped a balloon and had to solve a riddle. The kids were so excited to play the game. After the game we had snacks and all the kids waited for me to start eating and tried giving me all their snacks which I thought was very thoughtful of these kids since most of them come from underprivileged backgrounds. After free activity, it was time to go to the Academic center where we helped with homework. I thought it was funny how most of my Doves knew how to do their homework. But, they instead pretended to not know it so that I would come over and help them. Since they were correcting me in how to do some of the math problems which I thought was funny, the pupil teaching the teacher. After their homework was done, the girls wanted to take turns telling me secrets. Each one would raise their hand and whisper a secret in my ear. Most of the secrets were about how one of the Doves had a crush on me. Lajisha kept asking me if I had a crush on The Doves, which I quickly grinned that I did indeed have a crush on all of my little Doves. Nadia started to tug my shirt and told Mr. J to come see what she did. I walked over to her spot and saw three pictures of a man, a woman, and a small girl. I asked her, "What this is?" and she told me that it was Mr. J, his wife, and his daughter. As I inspected the drawings, each T-shirt had a captain such as, I love Ms. J, Iove Mr.J, and I love my mom and dad. I asked Nadia what my wife's name was and she told me it was Sierra. Not knowing who Sierra is I thought about how this could be Nadia mom and this was her idea of a happy family and how she related me a father figure. This really hit home as earlier during the day Sahee wanted to tell everyone a secret since this week's objective was to learn about trust and told the group that, "her dad was in jail. " and quickly most of the group said that their father was in jail, too. I felt like a father figure to these young girls.

After Academic hour, it was dinner/ free time. The girls then decided that it was time to find out who was really Mr. J's girlfriend. I told them it was a certain girl, and they would rush her asking a million questions a minute after hearing that this was not the so-called Mr. J's girlfriend they would run back asking who it was. And I sent them to another girl and the cycle repeated. Nearing the end of the dinner service, Tylar came up to me saying that it was time for her to go. I hugged her and said bye. As I looked into her face, I quickly found out that she was crying her eyes out. I quickly picked her up and whispered into her ear that I would always miss her and that I wanted her to be a good girl. She whispered back into my ear that, "I'll miss you Mr. J" and then she walked out the door. I was able to hold it together for a few minutes. But, soon the emotion of how much these kids meant to me and how much I meant to them soon hit me like a brick. I quickly ran outside to be by myself as tears starting streaming down my face. I'm usually not an emotionally person, but seeing that I meant the world to these kids and that I'm probably never going to see them again broke my heart.

After collecting my thoughts for about 20 minutes, it was time for us to go which I seemed to recover my composure. Alison, who was the person in charge of Wings, was thanking us for our time. Lakisha came out and yelled out, "Where is Mr. J!" and then she saw me and ran over to me and told me that," I'm going to miss you Mr. J." Really broke down the rest of the composure I had. I felt the waterworks coming and tried to rush to the car and try to get myself under control. It was weird feeling such an emotional bond with these kids after only such a short time. I know I touched someone's life today and it's something that you can't put into words. But, I know I will always treasure the bond I've created with my little Doves and I hope someday they will use what I've taught them and the memory of me to someday spread their little wings and soar throughout the world.