Friend. Mentor. Anchor

Author reaches out to retired teacher who helped her transition from Africa to America

Joel Herron got an unexpected phone call near the end of December.

Thanks to the Internet, one of Herron' s former second grade school students found her phone number online and dialed her up. They hadn't spoken to or seen each other in decades.

"It was right before Christmas when she found me," said Herron, a retired teacher since 1992. "It was the best Christmas gifts I received."

On the other end of the telephone was Kou Weanquoi-Rac, her student from Dilworth Elementary School. Weanquoi-Rac had written a memoir and dedicated the second chapter to Herron, her mentor and mother figure.

Herron was the first teacher Weanquoi-Rac had when her father brought her to Charlotte from Liberia, West Africa in 1984. She didn't have a formal education in Africa, so when she came to the United States, she had to play catch up.

Weanquoi-Rac, now 37, says she should have been in the fourth grade as a 9-year-old, but due to the language barrier she was placed in the second.

"(Herron) was my first American teacher and the most important," Weanquoi-Rac said. "She made the biggest impact on my life."

Weanquoi-Rac says Herron went above and beyond teaching.

"She worked one on one with me," Weanquoi-Rac said. "I basically clung to her and I loved her."

The two would study together sitting on the bench during recesses and in the cafeteria at lunchtimes.

"We used to do a lot of fun type of things together," Herron said. "I was really hands-on."

Weanquoi-Rac says she was teased by other students and had trouble at home. Herron was her sanctuary.

When Weanquoi-Rac' s father remarried, she had five stepsisters whom she didn't have the best relationship with. Herron was her only friend.

"I always enjoyed going to school just to be with Mrs. Herron," she said. "I just wanted to learn."

Herron remembers when she would tend to Weanquoi-Rac when she was sick in the ladies room, unaccustomed to American cuisine. Or the first time when Weanquoi-Rac saw snow and the times she would call her at home.

"I remember she called me up because she left her homework at school and I would tell her, 'it's OK'," Herron said. "For me to give her my home phone number was no problem because I didn't mind her calling. She had a lot of things working against her."

After a year, Weanquoi-Rac was tested and moved up to the fourth grade. After that, her family moved to Norcross, Ga. Weanquoi-Rac never forgot Herron.

"I was doing good in school in Georgia," she said. "I was a cheerleader and I made friends."

In high school, Weanquoi-Rac got pregnant with her now 18-year-old daughter Deleah Weanquoi. After graduation, she moved to Mississippi. She left for Africa at 23 to get away from an abusive relationship and to see her mother whom she hadn't seen since coming to America.

She returned to the Ivory Coast, where her mother fled to after the Civil War, for a year before she re-entered the country. Upon returning to Charlotte, she attended Central Piedmont Community College and earned a degree from Pfeiffer University in criminal justice.

Weanquoi-Rac had another daughter, 14 year-old Essence Wilson, and married Jouan Rac in 2008.

However, someone was always missing from her life.

Three years ago she started chronicling her life in her memoir, "The Journey."

"I was teased so much in school but I always could count on Mrs. Herron," Weanquoi-Rac said. "I felt so comfortable with her. She was such a blessing in my life."

Herron read the book, which she says its quite graphic, but honest. The book begins with Weanquoi-Rac's migration to America and her experiences with teenage pregnancy and abuse.

"She's had a hard time through life," Herron says. "I feel for her because she has been through a lot. The book shows that you do need loved ones."

Weanquoi-Rac spent two years in Europe, teaching English Literature at the University of Novom Pazaru before moving back to Charlotte.

"For her to not speak English when she got here and to know she taught English... that just tickles me," Herron added. "When I told her things back then she would just absorb them. I always knew she was smart."

Weanquoi-Rac's book is available online:

www.amazon.com

www.blackbookplus.com

[Sidebar]

Kou Weanquoi-Rac (right) and her former second grade teacher, Joel Herron. The two were reunited after Weanquoi-Rac found Herron online.

[Author Affiliation]

By Ryanne Persinger

ryanne.persinger@thechariottepost.com