Letter from South Louisiana
Dear Friends,
Summer institute had just ended, and I was in my new home in a small town in Cajun Louisiana surrounded by sugar cane and bayous. After finishing five intense weeks of teaching and preparation at the Houston summer institute, I couldn’t wait to meet the students with whom I would be working for the next two years. Apparently they couldn’t wait either. A group of students hosted a crawfish boil to welcome new corps members to their community that very first night. After teaching us how to peel and eat mudbugs, they took us on a tour of the local bayou in search of alligators. They made me feel at home, and I hadn’t even begun teaching.
When I jogged through the neighborhood, student’s parents would stop me to ask how their son or daughter was doing in class. It seemed as though a parent-teacher conference could happen just about anywhere. 
Over the next two years my students would inspire me in countless other ways. Whether it was Teronica coming to school before 7:00 a.m. to get extra problem sets, Chakerie acing geometry despite the challenges she faced growing up, or Megan – who started a summer school program for third graders when she was a junior in high school and continued to expand the program when she entered the Honors College at Louisiana State University – my students were always exceeding the high expectations I had for them.
Teaching in a small town gave me unique opportunities to work with my students. On weekdays, I would hold after-school study sessions at McDonalds, Burger King, or a local church. On Saturdays, I would host pancake breakfasts at my house – cost of admission: 10 additional homework problems! Even trips to the grocery store provided opportunities for me to interact with my students. I modeled trigonometry for Leon with half gallons of milk and discussed homework with Patrick as he bagged my groceries. When I jogged through the neighborhood, students’ parents would stop me to ask how their son or daughter was doing in class. It seemed as though a parent-teacher conference could happen just about anywhere.
These same parents introduced me to one of the other great things about living in Louisiana – food! One mother would occasionally come by with homemade peach cobbler, and others brought barbeque, and even boiled more crawfish. This was the start of what would become a two-year love affair with Cajun cuisine. Jambalaya, red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, and corn and crab bisque – all foods I never heard of growing up in the northeast – quickly became some of my favorite things to eat. And there is no better place to sample any, or all, of these foods than at the myriad festivals held throughout the school year. My favorite festivals include the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which celebrates the two biggest industries of Morgan City, Louisiana, and the International Festival in Lafayette, Louisiana, where you can listen to music and sample food from all over the world.
Rural Louisiana has more to offer than food and festivals though. The state is called the “Sportsman’s Paradise” for all of the outdoor activities it has to offer. You can hike and camp in state parks, ride your bike along a levee, or go bird watching in a wildlife preserve. My roommate and I bought a small boat so we could troll through the levees and unwind after a long week. Early one Saturday, as we were fishing in one of the numerous bayous outlining our town, a boat drove up to greet us with two men on board. We were surprised when we realized one of them was a parent of one of our students. We talked between casts about how Shawn was doing in our classes for 15 minutes, and then he gave us advice on where the fish were biting.
I left the classroom last year, and I miss my students, their parents, and our community a little more with each passing day. My students’ dreams and determination inspired me as a teacher and continue to influence the work I do today.
Bill Thompson (Corps '01)
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