After being home for two days I would have thought that I would have been completely back into my usual routine but it feels different being home than any other break. My mind is still very much in Dulac rather than in Ossining. I miss all the people from the trip and everything that we saw and did in both Dulac and New Orleans. It’s so hard to explain to everyone here, especially my family, why I’m not overjoyed to be home and why I’m not my usual self. I am also finding it very difficult to answer the ever-present question of “How was it?!?” I want to say “Great!” but at the same time it was so much more than that. For me it was a mix of fun and sad and memorable and frustrating and so many other things all rolled into one. I’m not sure that there are any accurate words to descirbe the whole experience. Being able to talk with the group before we left for home and then Arielle and Katie in the car has helped because I know that they all understand what I’m trying to say since they are all in relatively the same place as me. Hopefully as I see more friends and family I’ll find a more accurate way to describe my trip that explains both the happy and the sad aspects of the experience.

I think the hardest moment  I’ve encountered while being home was when I went to the mall today. I was walking around by myself in the heat of holiday shoppping season and the ignorance of everyone around me and the excess of spending that accompanies this season in contrast with the devesation in Dulac, and all the other rural Gulf state fishing towns, was really hard to accept. Yet there isn’t anything that I can really do to change the self-centered frenzy and attitude of my fellow shoppers. It made me want to scream and I eventually had to leave becuase I just couldn’t take it anymore. I hope that everyone on the trip is able to have a happy holidays and enjoy being with their families and I can’t wait to see you back at Union in a few weeks!

We left New Orleans yesterday and our now continuing our work in Dulac. For the first few days we are staying at a church in Houma so we spent most of the day getting settled in and playing basketball/dodgeball in the gym. Molly Head and I explored the streets surrounding the church by going for a run…in the pouring rain… Despite the weather it was nice to get outside for a little bit. I had a lot of mixed emotions about our departure from NOLA. I am excited to start helping rebuild Dulac, especially since they were so devastated by Gustav and Ike but at the same time I was really enjoying everything about New Orleans. The last two days in New Orleans I worked with a group on Ms. Olivia’s house. Unlike the other house we worked on, Ms. Olivia was there the whole time and was one of the kindest people I have ever met. She and her brother are hoping to move back into their house by Christmas. We were able to make a lot of progress on her house in only two days and I really wished that we were able to help complete her house and see her move back in. While we took our lunch break, Ms. Olivia and Roy (her brother) sat on the porch with us and talked. Roy, who is a musician, also played guitar for us and it was such a memorable experience. I feel like Ms. Olivia is someone I will remember for the rest of my life despite the fact that our paths only crossed for a brief time.

Today was our first day working in Dulac and it was extremely emotional for me. Just driving around the town is heart-wrenching. Even though most people know that New Orleans was spared from Gustav, many don’t realize that the wetlands of Louisiana were absolutely ravaged by both Gustav and Ike. As a result, they are years behind NOLA in the recovery process. As we drove around the streets of Dulac we saw boats that were uprooted by the storms on the side of the road and scores of houses that are still waiting to be gutted. We helped to gut one such house. The father was home and helped us to gut the house. I had a hard time with the whole process and kept thinking about how we had just put up so much dry wall in New Orleans but here we are ripping it off all the walls in this man’s home. We also helped to clear his house of all his belongings. As we threw his couch over the railing onto the ground, I felt my heart sink with it. Despite his appreciation for our help, it was hard for me to feel like we had really helped since we were basically throwing away most of his life. He has two teenage daughters and we threw away all their childhood toys. Even though they are obviously not still playing with Fisher Price toys, I couldn’t help get choked up as we threw them in various huge garbage bags. I think it will definitely take me a while to fully process today’s work. Time to brave the cold and go across the street for dinner!

We’ve been working hard all week and today we have our first day off. Besides sleeping in a little bit we are planning to use it to explore the city (in groups) on our own and then our leader from PNOLA and SAFER, Jim, is going to give us a full tour of the city. On Thursday and Friday I worked with a group on Ms. Chris’ house. We weren’t able to meet her but it was still really rewarding. We primed and painted her whole house in two days! I think I may have gotten about as much paint on my clothing as I did on the walls but it was so worth it. I think yesterday was my favorite day of work, even if I am extremely sore today. We worked on the KABOOM! playground at a local elementary school. It was a truly inspiring event. The group of 200 plus volunteers who were a mixture of community members, Capital One employees, University of New Orleans athletes, and another group of community service volunteers from Ohio, worked together to construct a full playground in only 6 hours. Everyone was split into different groups so that you were able to interact with different people. I was assigned to the mulch group. We moved a HUGE pile of mulch from the spot it was dumped to the playground. I worked alongside a woman who works from Capital One and we ended up talking about her experience with Hurrican Katrina. She lives by the 17th Street levee that broke and as a result her house was under 6 feet of water. She was the first person who I have been able to talk to on a one-to-one basis about their Hurrican story. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to talk to even more people and hear their take on the storm and how they have been able to recover afterwards.

Now that we are just two days away from leaving I’m beginning to get really excited for the trip. I think that this morning’s lesson in power tools was really what finally made me truly excited and has left me itching to leave. Through all the articles and books we’ve read as well as the movies we watched I feel like I’m prepared as much as one can be for what we’re going to experience. The one thing that I’m still a bit worried about is the slower pace of life that we will have to get used to. I’m so used to running around from one meeting to class to practice (even this week…) that I think it’ll be a big adjustment for me. I’m up for the challenge though and it’ll probably be good for me to slow down and take some time to breathe. Despite my worries, I am beyond excited to just get down to New Orleans!