Day Four (Wednesday)

This morning Nick and Alana surprised us with donuts for breakfast! It was a great surprise and totally unexpected! We all loved it!

At the Food Bank, we did buddy packs again, but we didn’t pack for the whole three hours. However, what we did get done was impressive. We upped our speed by 25%, accomplishing 1,920 buddy packs today. If we would have continued for the whole time, we could have completed a little under 2,500 packs—2,475 to be exact. Within the two hours and twenty minutes of packing we did, we averaged 823 buddy packs per hour. Yesterday, we completed 9 pallets (a board with 15 bins on it, 15 packs in each bin), and today, if we went for the whole 3 hours, we would have completed 11 pallets! Wowzers!

We stopped early because one of the Food Bank people in charge talked to us about the organization. She told us all about their programs throughout Charleston and gave us some statistics on hunger. In Charleston, 1 in 4 kids will go hungry and are “food insecure,” which means they have no idea if they will be fed. Nationally, 1 in 6 kids face this issue, too.

Nap time arrived just in the nick of time! We were all so tired since we were up until 1 playing games.

After nap time, we went to WINGS as usual. Today, was a great day! My Hummingbirds came in and hugged me, happy as ever to see me. One of them, though, Davona, was upset. She was crying because people in class were teasing her. I kneeled down in front of her and told her, “Just because we didn’t have a good day at school, doesn’t mean we won’t have a good day at WINGS.” She nodded her head. “Can you smile for me?” I asked. She refused.

I decided to start singing to her, coming up with a song on the spot about how I love to see her smile. “I love to see you smile! I love your smile! Let me see those pearly whites! Please smile! You are so beautiful! I love to see you smile! Smile! Smile, Davonaaaaa!” I took her hand and then began dancing with her. We two-stepped, I spun her around, pulled her out and in, and dipped her. Slowly but surely, she was smiling from ear to ear. Soon enough, two other girls joined us. It was too fun and it made me so happy that it worked.

Today was also interesting in that when I arrived, and all throughout the beginning, and all throughout the start of academic center, my WINGS leader was not there! So, basically, I was running things with my girls. It went better than I expected! The girls did a decent job of listening to me and following directions. One girl, however, was not very fond of my leadership. Talajah did not participate in any thing that the other girls and I were doing together. It then occurred to me that this whole week, she was the only one who had not warmed up to me. She’s my mission, I told myself. I would win her over.

Academic center was a struggle in that we had to share a room with another nest. Finally, my WINGS leader arrived. She had class, which surprised me that she was allowed to show up late. We also struggled since our normal classroom we use was locked. So, we had to move to a different classroom, which had none of our supplies. It was difficult, but the girls did a fine job of being flexible. I was proud of them!

After academic center, we went to choice. I went to painting again. As I sat with some of my girls, I told them, “Guys, tomorrow is my last day. I’m going to miss you all.”

“When will you be back?” one of the girls asked.

“Tomorrow,” I told her.

“No, after that, when will you be back?”

My heart sank. The realization hit me. Already, I was so attached to these darling girls, and they were so attached to me. And I had to leave them and probably never see them again. “I don’t know,” I told her.

Despite this low, I had a great high, though, during choice. As I mentioned, I made it a personal goal to win Talajah over. She sat behind me during the read aloud and I had placed a sticker on my forehead. I looked over at her, and then took the sticker and put it on her. She looked down at the sticker, then back at me, and smiled. Mission accomplished!

After choice, we all ate dinner and the gang headed back to our house. Tonight, Kristen, Abby, and Conner are making breakfast for dinner—pancakes, eggs, bacon, and biscuits. All of this food is delicious, but Lord have mercy! It is so unhealthy! While I’m enjoying the yummy noms, I’m looking forward to getting back into my healthy eating and exercising. At least the food bank is a little bit of a work out, so that’s a plus.

Reflection got deep. I ended up almost crying about some of the things that I shared. It was hard, but I’m glad that I opened up to the group. After reflection, we brightened the mood by playing Heads Up, a game on a smart phone that involves guessing what the subject is. For example, if the category is “Kids,” the word “Shrek” might pop up and everyone has to describe it for the guesser to guess it. We had a ton of laughs with that and were all able to go to bed with big smiles. All in all, I’d say it was an awesome day.