Tomorrow is our last day in Dulac, and it has definitely been a lot different from our week in New Orleans. My group has been working on a house in Houma that is owned by a Houma Indian couple. They have been out of their house for a long time now, and have been living with their daughter who also lives in Houma. They visit us and their house pretty regularly, and we have had some great opportunities to talk to them and gain a sense of what their experiences have been like in Houma. Though they are hoping to be in their house by Christmas the house still needs a lot of work and it looks like an early move in is probably not possible. 🙁

My group has been working on insulation and sheet rock in the house. The insulation was pretty frustrating because it contains fiber glass which has been making us all itch for the past couple days, but it has been really rewarding to see all that we have accomplished at the end of the day. Today we also did sheet rock which the other group working on the house has been doing. The sheet rock makes the house look much more complete and it has been really cool to see the way that the house is coming together.

Tomorrow is our last day of work, and then we return to New Orleans for two more days before heading home for the Holidays. Dulac has definitely been an interesting experience, and it is so different from any place that I have ever been before. It has definitely made me gain some perspective on how differently people live in other parts of the United States, and how diverse our country really is. Dulac is home to a lot of Houma Indians, many of whom make their living off of the land, through fishing or other activities. This lifestyle has been really interesting to see, and I have definitely learned a lot about the culture of the people who live here.

On Saturday we went down to Port Fourchon to work with BTNEP, a wetland recovery program. Our task was to plant swamp grass on a piece of land that had been articficially recreated. The idea of the whole project is to recreate and rebuild the wetland and bayou areas that have been eroded over the years. Doing this creates a buffer from future hurricanes and hopefully prevents future eroding. However, there has been a lot of damage to the areas and progress has been slow.

It was definitely a long day- we planted 4,000 grass plugs and by the end of it we were all dirty and tired. However, it was rewarding to think that in some small way we may be part of the restoration of such an important part of land. For the people living in areas like Port Fourchon, it is their homes and their towns that are dissapearing, though to us the idea of our hometowns literally sinking into the ground or being washed away is completely foreign. At some points it was definitely hard to think that what we were doing was actually going to make a difference because our planting was so little compared to the huge amount of land (a football field) that is dissapearing every minute. However, it is small things like our planting that will eventually make the difference between the land being preserved or being washed away forever.

Today was our first day in New Orleans. We arrived last night after two missed connections and a five hour delay, but we got here safe and sound, though exhausted. This morning we were up bright and early for orientation at PNOLA, and it was really interesting to learn about the history and the mission of the organization. My group was working on a house with Luke. We were mostly painting and priming, and a lot of the work was tedious, to be honest. It took a long time and sometimes when we were done it looked exactly the same as it had before. However, at the end of the day the house looked much better and it was definitely rewarding. After work my group made dinner which was actually pretty good thanks to Dolev, who taught us how to make chili. There was a minor crisis when it was all gone by the time Janet arrived back from Rite Aid to eat, but all in all we managed. Overall it was a pretty good first day, and I’m definitely looking forward to going to bed tonight.

-Ali Littlefield