Today, work was cancelled due to a terrential downpour of rain and flooding so here I am in the computer lab of the Dulac Community Center writing an update. Being in Dulac has definitely been an interesting contrast to the experience I had in New Orleans working with PNOLA. Since Dulac is located in the wetlands, it has a much more “small town” feel and the area is sparsely populated. My group has been working on a house an hour away in a town called Golden Meadow  and we are almost finished putting in wooden flooring in the front room. Some of the other groups have been working on tiling and flooring in the other rooms and others are working on a completely different house closer to Dulac. We have received a lot less direction than we did in NOLA about how to do everything but all is well thus far. The group has been in Dulac since Friday and began work here on Saturday. We did a grass planting project in Port Fourchon on Sunday, which was quite an experience, but the work has been very rewarding. Each night we have a lengthy reflection period and last night we discussed our reasons for coming on this trip. I feel that all of us at Union have everything we could ever need and therefore have a means to give back to the community. Here I am working on someone’s house so that he can have a roof over his head and, to me, I am making a positive difference in the world- even if it is something as infinitesimal as planting grass to prevent further damage from hurricanes in the future. I met the owner of the house I am working on in Dulac and she was beside herself because of how much work the group had done. She marveled at the floors even though they were half-way finished and could not stop praising Jesus, quoting the bible, and saying that we will always be in her prayers. Her response to the work we had accomplished was not only inexplicably gratifying and motivating but it also really made me stop and think about how priviliged I am. The group will continue working on the house for another two days and then we are heading back to New Orleans on Friday and fly home on Saturday. Even though the trip is not over yet, my concern for others has certainly be augmented by this experience. Most of my life I have focused on my own well-being- schoolwork, personal life, daily decisions, etc. but these past two weeks have forced me to focus my attention on others and how I can help them to better their lives. I absolutely plan to do more community service projects in the future as a result of this trip and the important lessons I have learned from it.

My first post from Dulac:  Rain, rain, and more rain!  We are getting a good taste of it here!  Today we were supposed to be back at our two houses in Houma and Golden Meadow, but the regular schedule has been cancelled due to spotty flooding all over southeast Louisiana.  Schools closed or opening late, roads impassable, and even some homes flooding.  The region has had so much rain in the past few weeks that the ground is saturated. So, any rainfall pretty much has nowhere to go.  This kind of flooding happens often here.  It doesn’t take much to saturate the ground since the water table is so high.  In New Orleans, people just have to wait for the city pump system to do its work.  In the small towns, you wait for it to drain away — usually pretty quickly.

We have no flooding here in Dulac at the moment and the sky is quite bright.  Our dorm is built about 15 feet up on stilts, so we are in no danger.  Plenty of food, lots of games and puzzles and even a TV with cable [new this year] should keep us busy. And, we also have access to the computer lab in the main community center building.

I’m hoping to get us up to Houma midday so that we can at least finish drywalling one of the houses.  The challenge is mostly to get the drywall sheets from the warehouse to the house without getting them wet.   

Students are all back in bed for the moment… some much needed sleep.  We’ll stay safe.  The showers are supposed to let up by later today… stay tuned for more… Jan

I look like I have the chicken pox.  NO joke!  I have bites all on my legs and arms, but I would say it was worht it.  Yesterday, we spent the day in the Port Fourchon planting grass on an area of land that has been rebuilt.  I had war paint on my face and mud on my legs.  Hence how I got the chicken pox style bug bites.  It was a good time though and even though it was a long days works it made you think about the football field worth of land that is disappearing every 38 minutes. 

Today was a bit more boring. Sure we are helping a man and his wife rebuild their home, thier lives.  I spent the majority of my day sheet rocking a ceiling.  So far we have three rooms done and insulation around the house and in the ceiling were we have installed drywall.  In addition, the weather was quite interesting today.  In the morning it was humid and rainy and then there was a thunderstorm and then the sun came out for about an hour and then the same rain and humidity came again.  It was like the opposite of Floridian weather.  Either way I felt that I am making a difference in one person’s (family’s) life and even though that is something small it is a difference and someone else could be inspired from these two weeks that I have done.  Hopefully, this can incourage a Domino effect.

RACHEL

As I sit here after a day painting in beautiful 70 degree weather, it is hard not to feel a bit guilty about the 10″ of snow I hear we had back home in Schenectady.  Students are working hard and learning a lot. 

We’ve had more than our share of technological challenge:  a 7 hour delay in getting here while Delta flew both a part and a technician to Albany to repair our plane and a really pitiful internet connection with AT&T.  So, you probably won’t hear as much from us on the blog this year as in the past, at least for now.  I finally remembered that they have free WiFi at the Rue de la Course cafe down the street… so I’ve just hastily published about a dozen posts students have written over the past 3 days.  I’m hoping that the internet in Dulac will be more reliable!  Friends and relatives, please be patient!

Lots has improved here in the year since I was last down…. but still so much to be done!  And contant challenges.  Last night PNOLA’s warehouse was broken into and some of their good tools stolen.  So, we had a late start this morning as the staff hustled to find new tasks for us at the same time as they dealt with the police and doing an inventory of just what they had left.

I’ll publish things as often as I can get over here… perhaps we should think of this as an object lesson in moving to Louisiana time… slower and more patient!   bye for now….

Today was our first day in New Orleans at the different work sites.  The house that I worked on is in the 5th Ward.  There are two houses that are next to each other, that are owned by two sisters.  One of the sisters got money from the Road Home program, but the other sister didn’t, and so you are able to tell the difference between what PNOLA has been able to do with the two houses.  One of the houses has new hardwood floods and just looks nicer than the other.

Today was the first day of volunteering and it has been quite a long day. My group spent the entire day painting a house in the upper ninth ward and tomorrow we will be using power tools to install stairs to an attic. So far the work has definitely been rewarding but there is still a lot that needs to be done in order to complete the house. Other than the hours of painting, which i never realized was such a meticulous, labor-intensive task, I have thus far had a few other memorable experiences. The first was when my group went to a small local take-out food restaurant down the block from the house we were working on. Items on the menu included gumbo, po boys and when our food arrived it was a completely different style than the types of food I am accustomed to from the northeast. I came to New Orleans without any ideas or preconceived notions of what the city would be like and after being here one day I can confidently conclude that it is a place unlike anywhere I have ever been before. Today, I witnessed everything from boarded-up houses and gumbo restaurants to the gorgeous, elaborately decorated Tulane campus and a SAKS fifth Avenue store. These were just the first of many discoveries.

After many hours of airports, we finally made it! We had our first full day of work today and we were split up into groups to work at two separate houses in different neighborhoods.  Rachel and I ended up going with Greg to transport all the tools PNOLA borrowed for the Kaboom playground that they constructed last weekend.  Not only was it great to be able to see a lot of the different neighborhoods with someone there to explain everything to us, but it was so interesting to see how many non-profit organizations actually exist and collaborate.  Every place we went was full of new people from all over who were devoting their time to reconstructing New Orleans and helping its inhabitants get back on their feet again.  We made at least six trips from the playground site to three different tool distributers.  They distribution sites work like libraries, except they are full of tools instead of books!   They lend them out to organizations when they need them for projects and to individual families if they have the means to complete projects on their own. 

It was also really interesting to notice the differences in ecomonic statuses that was evidenced by the state of the homes in the different neighborhoods.  Some of the neighborhoods had only faint reminders of Katrina, while others seemed to have made little progress since the storm.  Driving down one street, Greg pointed out that five of the eight homes were vacant.  Many still had the spray paint on the sides of the houses or brown streaks that showed the previous water level.  It was a little eerie to see such reminders.  On one of our trips, Greg took us to see Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” houses (but unfortunately Brad Pitt was no where to be found! :P) which seem to be giving some families in the Ninth Ward another chance while creating very unique looking houses at the same time.  All in all, it was a very eventful, eye-opening day.  I’m really looking forward to the rest our of time here!

Ahoy folks,

Today was the first day of our adventures down here in the Big Easy. I have to say, there was a lot more to take in than I thought prior to our departure.  It has been a few years now, and still there is so much work to do.  One thing I did notice while painting in this quaint home in the upper ninth ward today was the attitude of all the locals; still up-beat and lively…which is a great thing to see after knowing about all the destruction and dispair the citizens of New Orleans had to go through. 

I’m exhausted from a hard day’s work, and ready for round two tomorrow…the bell dings  in 12 hours and once again, I’m pumped to get down and dirty.

Stay classy Schenectady,

 Ethan

We are waiting for our first dinner at the church. Although we were all exhausted from the long trip, we managed to get up in time for breakfest and our morning meeting. Working in the house was an exciting experience especially considering that the houses we were working on were for two sisters that lost their house from Katrina. We did a lot of painting since the house are close to being opened up again. Looking at the different houses on the way to the worksite, we can still see the effects of Katrina. The roads were tough to travel on and a lot of the houses are in no condition to live in. It is exciting to have our dinner now as we get ready for tomorrows work.

Today was our first offical day in New Orleans and already I’m suprised. Things look bad but not as bad as I predicted at least not yet. We still have more days to go and I’m sure we’ll see worse. In many ways New Orleans looks like Baltimore to me. Back home there are rund down houses and debris every where and there hasn’t been a hurrincane there. And the people are really friendly and approachable. Similar to Baltimore. And similar to the South. Already I’m feeling that Southern hospitality you can’t find anywhere up north. New Orleans seems to me is a place with a hopeful spirit. One of the directors at PNOLA said she was born and raised in New Orleans and that she planed to stay here the rest of her life. And the house we worked on was for two eldery women who were rebuilding and staying in New Orleans. Just in these two examples alone I see a pride in the people of New Orleans that will allow them to continue to survive despite the many adversities they face. There stories make me think that if the same thing a s Katrina happened in Baltimore I know without a doubt I would rebuild.