Today began early for four of us; Megan, Tilyn, Ashley and Maddy went to Cameron Elementary School to work on a project with some seventh graders at 8:45 a.m., while Bailey and I got to sleep in a while longer. We had a lovely breakfast of toast and marmalade at the hostel before heading to our site. Our leisurely day rapidly became slightly more stressful though, when we accidently took the L-train the opposite direction of our site. Whoops!
We made it to 826 Chicago just in time to witness an amazing program that 826 puts on almost every day during the week – a class field trip! Second and third grade classes file into the main room at the site at the premise of helping one of the employees write a story! The students create the illustrations with a fantastic artist and then get their stories approved by the “boss of the publishing company”, the intimidating Admiral Moody. Complete with improv acting and creative story-telling techniques, the students create different endings for a story that they created together.
Bailey and I got to work with the students on their individual stories, which was, well, a really cute experience. The class was from a Spanish speaking school so they were allowed to write their stories in either English or Spanish. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Jesus, who finished his story about Chuck the Hamburger Man and his sidekick, Robo Jack, by having them vanquish the horrible villain Mike Ninja amidst a dangerous jewel heist. Sweet success.
The rest of our group joined us for lunch (boat-sized portions of rice and vegetables) and then we changed into our oh-so-attractive paint clothes to decorate the Boring Store, the front “façade” of the organization. Each 826 chapter is complete with an accompanying store. 826’s is called The Boring Store and sells spy supplies! We got to spackle and sand down the walls of the store and paint it a cool retro gray hue. Again, sweet.
As we have every day this week, we helped out with tutoring again. Tilyn and I took our coveted place at the writing table where we got to work with students like Yesi and Ingrid! Yesi, who was all-too excited about my “You’re on the top of a giant boulder in a magical dark forest. How do you get out?” prompt from yesterday, was desperate for more fun times. Today I told her to describe a day in her life, as if she was her cat and a day in her cat’s life, if her cat was in her body. Suffice to say, she had a very creative response.
Pancakes, sausage and eggs for dinner were the perfect almost-ending to our day. Post-deliciousness, we visited the room of our KState Alternative Break friends to set up a breakfast meeting. Bailey, our ever-cheerful leader invitingly knocked on their door, strode in and proclaimed, “Hi KState! It’s KU! We’d like to formally invite you to break fast with us tomorrow morning!”
Diplomacy at its finest.
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