As I’ve continued to work at my service learning site, Walter P Carter, my connection with the students has become stronger and stronger. Last week, I spent the majority of the time assisting the lead educator of the PIEL program in reevaluating the students to determine the level of support the students needed with their phonemic awareness. As we were reorganizing all of the documents, I took this opportunity to talk with the lead instructor. She explained to me about how influential the use of the Loyola volunteers is to their program, because without it there would simply not be enough time to support all the students who need support. She also explained to me many of the struggles the students at home face, which plays into why many of them are so behind in school. If they do not show up to school, they are not able to learn. However, many students have never even been enrolled in school before, therefore falling further behind then anyone in the age range. As we spent the day organizing all the various student groups, so many of the students walked in and out of the classroom to come and say hi or vent about their day. I heard one story that broke my heart, one little girl came in saying she felt “fat” because she ate cake for lunch instead of fruit, and her friends thought so too. It broke my heart to see such a little girl hate herself so much.
The poem, “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott talks how, for whatever reason, we dislike ourselves, but one day we will fall in love with who we are once again. In the poem he writes, “… sit here. Eat. / You will love again the stranger who was your self”. This line is emphasizing the idea that there will become a day that you will love yourself again, and you will love the person who you always knew to be a stranger. I can only hope that one day, the little girl from service learning will be able to eat foods she loves and still love herself for the wonderful person she is.
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