After returning from Louisiana I can only look back at the experience in a positive light.  I must say that beyond meeting a lot of great new people, learning about the culture and history of New Orleans, and contribute to rehabing devastated houses, we, more importantly, all have returned feeling very appreciative of the lives that we have here. 

I think the hardest part of returning from the trip has been talking to other people.  I feel like I haven’t been able to really explain to family and friends the complete experience I had and how much it affected our group.  I can’t help but feel like the entire trip was meant to help us keep in mind more than just our isolated, priveleged lives, but to live with the realities we learned in Louisiana that exist in the world, even in the United States. 

I hope that after everything we experienced and learned through the program will stay with me beyond my years at Union.  Even if that doesn’t bring me back to New Orleans to provide community service, I want to be able to use what I’ve learned in whatever I do in my life.   

Today we headed even further south to Grand Isle to volunteer at the Nature Conservancy.  Basically we cut down invasive trees in the barrier island and picked up garbage and debris from the last storm.  We worked in the morning in about 75 degree weather which was wonderful, but quite warm in all the clothing we were wearing. 

We broke for lunch and one of the leaders of the effort, Mel, spoke to us for a while about how the wetlands have become the most disappearing land mass in the world, the importance of conserving the wetlands and different measures that could be taken to build them back up.  It was great to get to go down and actually experience a community directly affected by the dissapearing wetlands and get to contribute to conserving them. 

After lunch, Mel gave us the option of going back to the “camp” that he stays at right on the beach to just hang out on the beach for the rest of the day.  Obviously, we eagerly got in the vans and headed over.  Almost all of us swam in the Gulf in 69 degree water- it made for an interesting and a bit chilly ride home. 

We stopped at Big Al’s on the way back to Dulac and all enjoyed an awesome meal of seafood.  Overall, we all had a great day and are ready to get back to work in Dulac tomorrow morning. 

Yesterday we arrived in Houma at the First United Methodist Church.  After settling in and claiming our respective futons, we enjoyed the plethora of recreational activities at the church.  There is a rec room with pool and ping pong and such and also a gym with a basketball court.  Overall, we spent the afternoon bringing out the 12-year-old in all of us.

This morning was all business, however.  We had a 7:15 wake-up in order to leave at 8 and arrive in Dulac by 9am, at which time we met some of the people at the Dulac Community Center, which we will be staying at from Saturday until our departure on Wednesday. 

Being in Dulac was a complete shock.  It was like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Yes, New Orleans had its areas that have still not recovered from Katrina and it was hard to see them, but Dulac is still freshly devastated from Gustav and Ike and it was quite apparent.  Driving through the small bayou town that is inhabited 80% by the Houma Indians or their descendants, it was rare to see a house that seemed what we would consider in liveable condition. 

My group went to gut a house today.  It was almost morbid tearing this man’s house apart.  We literally took crow bars to his walls and threw away what seemed like years of memories.  I was astonished that the homeowner, Terry, seemed so nonchalant about having to tear everything out of his home. 

Terry is a fisherman, as are most of the residents of Dulac, so their income during the year is quite variable.  Terry told us that in the winters they don’t really work but rather make repairs on their boats and simply prepare for shrimp season.  In this way, there is no real source of income during this time.   In addition, seeing as the economy is the way it is, the poverty in the area is quite high, which is apparent in the condition it is currently in. 

I think today was hard because, while in New Orleans it felt like we were rebuilding but it felt like today we were destroying someone’s house.  It was a little depressing for me and also the entire group.  I think when we were finished, we were a bit eager to go out and help so many more people needing our help but there wasn’t much else for us to do the second half of the day.  It was frustrating to want to be using every second of our time to help the community and feel like we just weren’t doing enough.  The truth is that sometimes there isn’t enough organization or specific tasks to get done. 

Hopefully this week will prove to help us learn more of this close-knit community and really make a difference in their lives.  Until then…   

Today we took a tour of New Orleans with Jim as our tour guide.  The tour was so much more than any of us expected.  We made stops at the three locations where the levees broke during Katrina.  It was scary to think how devastated these places were because of the levees breaking; houses were completely washed away and water inendated the surrounding area, trapping many people and destroying many houses.  Going to the lower ninth ward was probably the most shocking.  The levee break there was tremendous and caused an unfathomable amount of damage and death.  It was so strange to see an area that was once completely inhabited be overgrown with brush and practically void of  people or homes.  I think we all agreed that it felt almost erie.  The area was like a ghost town, even three plus years after the storm.  All I could think of was that those empty plots of land used to be homes for so many people.  It was especially evident when we could see steps or foundations of homes still standing without the house.  It was interesting and also disturbing when Jim told us that people used to visit the lower ninth ward in the year after Katrina when debri had not been cleaned up yet.  He said many of the residents were terribly offended by the lack of compassion of people; for example, people picking up remains of their homes as souvenirs.  Overall, the tour was a great experience and Jim was very informative about a lot of the gaps in our previous knowledge.  It really helps us understand what a great impact our hard work can be after such a horrific tragedy. 

I’m feeling very excited and anxious about our upcoming trip to Louisiana.  After all of the reading, diversity training, seminars, and documentaries, I think we are all feeling prepared for the journey.  The preparation for the trip has been extensive, but I think it will prove to be extremely pertinent and useful to the work will be do in Louisiana.  I feel unbelievably more comfortable about being immersed into the culture and being surrounded by the residents that were so impacted by the disasterous effects of Katrina.  With everything that we have learned, I think that our group will be able to assimilate, learn and contribute very efficiently with the little time we will be down there.  Today we went the the Schenectady Landtrust and learned how to use certain tools, especially those pertinent for construction of houses, which obviously will be beneficial for us in Louisiana.  The visit to the Landtrust got me very excited for finally getting down to New Orleans, Houma, and Dulac, and getting contribute to the relief effort.