Dressed in an all black suit and tie, Issiaka Diakite looks more like a college professor or salesman than a fifth-grade teacher at Daspit Road Elementary School.

He has an scholarly air about him and is by all measures a polyglot — he counted seven languages including four African dialects he speaks fluently, which he plays down as normal at best given his upbringing.

“I’m not a good African,” he says laughing. “My mother and other Africans speak even more languages.”

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At Daspit Road Elementary, he enjoys speaking his native French with students and colleagues. On his first day at Daspit more than two years ago, he was blown away when greeted by a second-grader who was fluent in French.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “In college you always get these kids in 101 who just don’t care, but this girl was so confident.”

He loves working with children and is a popular fixture at Daspit. Walking the halls of the school on a recent afternoon, he greeted several of his favorite students with high fives and an enthusiastic “mon ami!” Most know him by “Dr. D,” as students and teachers of all ages struggle to pronounce his name.

It’s taken him several years to settle down, but Diakite, 43, said he feels right at home in New Iberia. He loves the culture here and the people, too.

The Cajun cuisine, he said, reminds him of many dishes he enjoyed growing up with in Africa.

“I really like the ‘laissez les bons temps rouler’ attitude here and all the festivals,” he said, adding he can deal with the heat, but the humidity, “that’s something new.”

He’s also a fan of the Southern hospitality. Recently, Diakite was outside clearing his drain after Hurricane Gustav swept through the area when a neighbor he barely knows offered to assist him in the clean up.

“You don’t find something like that in New York,” he says. 

New Iberia is a much bigger setting than Diakite is accustomed to. Born and raised in the tiny town of Dimbokro in the Ivory Coast, he grew up in a place “where everyone knew one another.” After high school, Diakite moved to the capital city of Abidjan, where he studied modern languages and literature.

His father was a teacher, but Diakite always dreamed of becoming a cook. After receiving his bachelor’s degree, he was accepted into an elite program for aspiring educators and decided to pursue a career in teaching. And taught he has.

His first teaching gig was at a high school in the Ivory Coast. Then he moved to neighboring Guinea where he got on at a private university and lived with family. Eventually, he landed a ticket to the United States and a teaching post in Thibidaux through an exchange program.

He lived there five years and took night classes at the University of Louisiana Lafayette where he earned a Ph.D. in French in 2003.

Diakite is still single and doesn’t appear to be looking. In his free time he plays soccer with friends in Lafayette and is learning the saxophone. And of course he loves to write.

“It’s a great stress reliever,” he said. “Especially when I’m mad, I just write and write. Being rich and famous? I don’t even think about that, I just love to write.”