When people ask me how the trip was, I usually say that it was really fun. When they ask more about it I tell them about the poverty I witnessed and how much still needs to be done 5 years later. I tell them about the wide spans of new levee I saw, representing the area that had been breached in the hurricane. I tell them about the gutted houses we worked in. I’ve asked myself why this more detailed response seems to contradict the initial one-that I had fun. I think that the people in New Orleans and Houma, as well as my classmates, had such a positive attitude about Louisiana and it’s future, that it was easy to overcome the sadness of the situation down there, without forgetting it’s importance.

One new thing I learned in New Orleans was about Brad Pitt’s project to build sustainable new houses in the lower ninth ward. I thought it was cool because it addresses not only the problem of the ruined homes, but also a cause of the hurricane that helped to destroy them.

This week at the urban farm nat talked to us about service and volunteering. He said he would rather have employees than volunteers because he felt that employees would be more committed to working at the farm long term and doing a good job short term. I think that this is a good ideology to have because in the real world we will more often be employees than volunteers, so being a good employee is something that we must learn to perfect. To me, the difference between service and volunteering is that volunteering is short term–I can volunteer to clean this dishes or tutor kids for an hour—and service is more long term–one can serve their country in the army or as president, for example. This distinction became clearer to me after my second day at work last week. The first day was good. I had plenty of energy before and after and didnt lose motivation. But each day got harder as I began to understand how much work each day required and that the next few would be exactly the same. It was much harder to be motivated the last day of the week than the first, and for that reason I felt much more accomplished after 5 days of work than I did after 1 or 2, and not because I had accomplished more, but that I had committed more time to the cause. I hope that by continuing volunteering after the mini term, that I can serve Schenectady and the wherever I live next.

Today we arrived in Dulac! It’s a lot different from New Orleans, but I expect that we will work outside more which I think I’ll like. Last week was pretty wild. I did construction in 3 houses and got to explore the area once the work was done. We also went to an urban farm on saturday. It was a mini version of the plant nursery I grew up on-lots of greenhouses and raise bed gardens. The best part of this experience was the talks we had with Nat-the guy who runs show. He talked about a lot of things, one of which was social activism. In a nutshell, he basically motivated us with the ever popular question “if not now, when? If not you, who?”. I’ve heard this many times and never really thought about it until Nat put it into context for us. One idea he gave was to get kids from the poorer schoools in schenectady and run with them, to promote good health. He said that Michelle Obama has a program within “Let’s Move!”-her campaign for healthier kids, where if you document an after school program that you do with the kids that promotes better health, then you can get the school a significant grant of money. More details can be found here: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/healthierus/index.html. I think I might try to initiate something like that when I get back to school. You can check out the farm’s blog here: http://schoolatblairgrocery.blogspot.com/.

Another thing that was interesting this week was my encounters with New Orleanians. At the Rock N’ Bowl I met a guy named Ben who taught me how to swing dance. It was really fun and he was interesting to talk to. He told me that he is from Mississippi and comes down the Rock N’ Bowl every week! A stranger encounter occurred while walking in a french quarter: I gave a homeless person a dollar and he offered to sing for me. I couldn’t really say no so he took my shoulders and sang to me about “Keep on, holding on” very close to my face. It was very uncomfortable. It almost felt like this guy had seen so many people walk by and ignore him, that the first person to really interact with him, he felt the urge to really engage. I can understand that one must feel very isolated being ignored all the time, wanting to explain themselves or just plain talk to someone (besides the woman and child who were with him). All in all the week in New Orleans was filled with new experiences.

Overall, I’m not really sure what to expect in New Orleans. I know that there are a lot of depressing neighborhoods and some more lively ones. There will be a lot of poor people there, which isn’t especially new for me given some of the neighborhoods that I have lived in. I’m looking forward to seeing the French Quarter and listening to Jazz, and just experiencing the culture in general. I’m pretty curious about what it’s like to go out in New Orleans—and if there are a lot of young people there or not. I’ve also never been in a majority African American city, so I’m looking forward to having that new experience. My impression is that restaurants aren’t as vegetarian friendly as they are in the north, so I’m a bit nervous about the food situation. I’m more excited to go to Dulac and also to see the urban farm than I am to work with PNOLA, because I’m more of an outdoorsy than a city person (although I do like cities). More specifically, I’m eager to know what projects we will be doing in Dulac. I think that it would be cool to be a peer listener and hear some stories from Louisianans firsthand. I’m also looking forward to the wetlands tour. From what I’ve seen in pictures/film they are very beautiful.