On our first day in Dulac, a group of us gutted the inside of a house. We had to rip out the drywall layers and insulation and throw away the ruined furniture and toys. The first room we did was a little girl’s room and it was hard for all of us to throw away the toys, dolls and clothing. Most of the toys seemed salvagable to me and it felt like we were throwing away the memories of this little girl’s childhood. The homeowner Terri was very kind while he helped us but I couldn’t help but wonder how he could possibly be feeling about throwing away all the furniture and toys that he had worked hard to purchase for his family. The way he spoke was positive and it seemed as though his family would be able to rebuild and eventually get back into their home but it was still devastating to have to destroy the house. This day was definitely the hardest I’ve faced so far. Before we had been fixing things and making the home better but this job was the complete opposite.

The past two days I have painted and last night we went to the Jolly Inn for some cajun dancing and edible food! We all got really into the dancing and learned the darryl and the Cajun Stomp. Kenny was the best dancer out of any of us. Tomorrow we are going down further south to work in the wetlands. It takes about 3 hours to get there and we are going to be witnessing many of the images that we saw and read about in our pre-trip assignments.  We aren’t exactly sure what we are doing but we know that we are helping in the preservation of the wetlands and it will be a far different experience from everything we’ve done so far. I can’t believe we only have 3 days left. I am not ready to go home!