Today is the last day in Dulac, LA. We have been hitting a ton of rough patches both in terms of personal issues and the logistics of the community service in the bayou. This trip has really had a powerful impact on me and my views on society, government, and most importantly myself. The journey has showed me both my strengths and my weaknesses. I came on this trip with the intentions on making a difference to those in need without ever considering the affect this interaction would have on myself. In the end I have realized that I am a part of something much bigger than myself and should feel privileged even when times are hard because there are people making it in the world on less resources than I. This has truly been a humbling experience that I will treasure. The good, the bad, and the ugly have all accumulated to give me an adventure that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Today was supposed to be another day of painting, but the weather did not cooperate. So, we gathered in the kitchen and were assigned small task for the day. Some of us were setting for the Indian Santa event in the Dulac Community Center Gymnasium; some were organizing the closet in the back of the DCC gym; and Leigh, Joe, and I were going back over the Shrimper’s Row to re tile a bathroom floor in an abandoned house. When we arrived at the house to inspect the condition of the floor, we discovered that someone had already tried and half completed the flooring incorrectly. An adhesive was used to connect the pieces of flooring, some pieces still didn’t fit correctly, and it was just a mess. Needless to say, my first reaction was frustration and we decided the best way to handle this was completely remove the work that had been done on the floor and start from scratch. We ripped out the flooring and gave Jamie a call; our new assignment was to scrape up flooring the front room, which I assume will be re tile or repainted in the near future.

Today, when the five of us; Kayla, Leigh, Shari, Joe and I were scraping up the flooring, I must admit I was starting to get sore almost immediately. Bending down and scarping off flimsy pieces of flooring was again frustrating, but eventually it got done and after putting the tools away and loading up the van, we were headed back to DCC.

As soon as we got back to DCC, we got another call from Jamie asking for our help moving plywood and sheet rock from her house to the center. After waiting a few minutes, I voiced my decision to help with this project and so did Leigh. Shari and Kayla decided to go back inside, and honestly I can’t blame them because today’s weather was certainly not ideal. The lighter pieces of wood fit into the van easily enough, but for the sheet rock and plywood, we needed Jamie’s dad’s pick up truck. So, it ended up being Isaiah, Joe, Leigh and I moving wood pieces, plywood and sheet rock to DCC. I was extremely grateful for everyone’s help today because I just feel exhausted. I think this trip has finally at least some toll on me physically if not emotionally.

It’s been more than a week in Louisiana and we have just moved on from city life in New Orleans to what seems to be the middle of nowhere known as Dulac. Before this drastic transition between such contrasting places, I learned a lot in New Orleans. I have never in my entire life felt more welcomed to a place than I felt by every single person I met here. It was fairly obvious how passionate the people here are for this place and it seems as if their main goal is to show everyone that comes here, exactly why New Orleans is so valuable. From this, I have drawn the conclusion that there is not a catastrophe devastating enough that could stop the heart of this city, and it will stay alive forever with the passion exuded by its inhabitants.
Aside from living in the constant epitome of southern hospitality, I also learned so much about the institutions and organizations that I thought were implemented for our protection but instead are fraudulent and plagued with scandal and deceit. I am less eager to trust government institutions like the FDA who blatantly ignore and provide cover-ups to the obvious dangers of dispersants and the oil spill just to see the numbers they want on their paychecks. I am less willing to support a criminal justice program filled with dirty cops out with racist attempts to fill the jails in New Orleans and take advantage of people ignorant to their rights as citizens. Its just amazing to me to see the extent people will go to amass wealth, even if that involves neglecting their actual occupational purpose which results in mistreatment of the citizens the institutions were ironically set in place to protect.
The day at Our School At Blair Grocery (www.ourschoolatblairgrocery.org) was the most inspirational day on this trip thus far. Nat Turner lives without walls or electricity and has often times found himself living off of bags of coins and teaching out of his only possession; a school bus. He teaches kids from his neighborhood that have been brought up in environments not optimal for high success rates, fraudulent with drugs and crime. Regardless of the fact that the visible success that he has with these children is a slow process that often contains multiple set backs and disappointment, he has devoted his entire life and intelligence to making his world a better place, slowly but surely. That to me is volunteerism at its highest form, because he has committed every ounce of his energy to his passion of helping the children around him that wouldn’t have a chance at success without his attention. It was just so inspiring to meet a man that has invested everything he has into seeing the change that he wishes to see. He mentioned that only one of us would walk away and actually do something with the knowledge and tools he shared with us. I want to be that one person and I have made a promise to myself not to let him down, because he deserves the best and I would love for him to be the start of a chain reaction of passionate good deeds that I too will pass on. Thanks to Nat Turners immaculate perspective and level of articulacy, I am motivated now more than ever before to give everything I have to change the world, and I promise that I will make it happen, just wait….

Today was by far the most stressful day of our trip. We ran into a lot of problems at our work site that we were not at all prepared for. Going in, we knew that the house may have not been cared for properly, and that unsanitary conditions might exist. However, based on the failure of our action plan, it became clear that none of us were expecting the condition of the house to be as bad as it was. We realized that trying to fix different parts of the house that were clearly in bad shape, like a few boards on the wheelchair ramp, insulation under the house, and a floor tile would be like trying to cure the symptoms of a disease without trying to cure the disease itself. What we found was vermin infestation, mold, and bad jobs that would have to have been completely redone. In all honesty, however, I feel like the way that we confronted the problems was worse than the actual problems themselves. From the get-go there should have been communication about the possibility that houses might be in such severe conditions, and what we might do if we encountered such conditions.

I couldn’t help but thinking, at least in this case, we were committing some pretty blatant “voluntourism,” in which we came to “help” people we knew were in need, but did not prepare ourselves or do enough research to actually be able to have any impact. I began to wonder: wouldn’t it have been better for us to use all the money we spent on air fare for 17 of us on fixing up this persons house? Part of me still thinks that that would have been more effective. The only thing that I can tell myself to justify the way we did it is that maybe, after learning all we have on this trip, we will each go out in the world thinking more about how our actions, and the careers we choose, effect other people and society in general.

In the end, we had to face our situation and simply finish the small jobs that we had started; we just didn’t have the resources to completely tear apart and rebuild the entire floor. I can only hope that the Dulac Community Center will one day have the resources and volunteers to do so.

One thing I learned today is the importance of swallowing our pride and admitting the fact that we really have no idea what we are doing, and being honest with ourselves about the conditions of things and what we can really accomplish. Like at the house today, nothing can get done if we had not assessed the severity of the situation. However, it was just as important for us to remain positive in the face of the impossible, and do what we could with all that we had.

After hurricane Katrina occurred in 2005, there was always information on television or in the news discussing some aspect of the disaster. Eventually all of the disaster hype seemed to slowly disappear. Five years after the disaster happened, it is surprising to see how parts of New Orleans have been left devastated and left in poor conditions. I expected that five years after the storm, the government and the people living in the area would take the initiative and the time to fix their city and make sure everyone had a decent home to live in and in proper conditions. I did not expect to see that the lower 9th ward had most of the houses boarded up, left deserted, or homes that still have to be gutted and repaired. It was shocking to see how it seems that repairing  New Orleans has been left to volunteers and non profit organizations than to the government and other top organizations. Also, although that many thousands of homes still need to be repaired, the people of New Orleans that we met were very kind to us and very thankful for how we were spending our time helping their community. I would have expected the people to feel very bitter about their situations and want to move away from future disasters.

This week I learned that communication, patience, and dedication are the main factors in making service work smoothly. If people are willing to work together for the same goal and listen to each other a project can successfully be completed. The groups we have worked with so far need volunteers who are willing to stay at a project site until the project is complete. It takes much longer to finish a project with different volunteers only at a site for a week at a time then to complete the project at one time with people who are already familiar with the work. These groups also need volunteers who are dedicated to getting the job done well. I think good service is distinguished from just volunteering by getting the job done by seeing the project through and getting to meet and understand who you are completing the project for. The longer a group or person is a part of a project donating their time helps them learn about the culture and the surrounding environment, which can differentiate volunteers from good service.

My experience so far in New Orleans:

What did you learn this week about the situation here in New Orleans that you didn’t expect or hadn’t thought about or were surprised by?

All my life, I have been told that the government is here to make our lives better. They create policies that protect our communities, provide us with basic education and are there to help when we need it. I found out that all of those are false. The organization that we have been raised to trust is not trustworthy at all. Jim, one of the co-founders of PNOLA said that the government did not help rebuild NO at all. It was the people in the community and volunteers that have contributed to NO’s restoration.

What have you learned this week about service? What kind of volunteers do the groups we’ve worked with need?  How is good service distinguished from just ‘volunteering’?

I learned that service is a good and not so good thing. It’s good to help people, but it’s not good to do all the work for them. Community service should be more about setting up the building blocks. The only way to provide service to the entire community is to teach them how to make their lives better. Nontheless, extra hands are always needed in rebuilding 🙂 Communities really need long time volunteers. This goes along with what I was saying about the Peace Corps. Volunteers stay in their community for two years to develop a connection with the community and to teach them how they can improve. They can taket or leave it, but seed planting is the important concept. Therefore, volunteering is a temporary job, but service provides a community with solutions (not just a band-aid).

Day (9) Update

Monday. We were back into motion! Monday was a nice day because we were able to see how much our work was appreciated. Jimmy is a disabled man who has a hard time keeping up with his house. Some of us helped inside the house and some of us worked on the yard. There were about 8 people working on the yeard and it took us about 3 hours to complete it. At the end of the day it was rewarding because we didn’t use any electric tools (ie. lawn mower or weed wacker). Instead, we just used our positive attitudes and a bit of hard work. At the end of the day, it felt extremley accomplishing. Also, it was nice working out in the fresh air!

Day (10)-Today

I have been waiting for this day the whooooole trip! We finally worked on restoring the wetlands or as Mel the coordinator would say “Saving the world!”. This was definitley a treat for me. If you don’t know, I am a plant ecologist and my thesis is on forest restoration. For my thesis, my professor (Hi Jeff!) and I planted 1,500 oak seeds over the span of two days. Today we plated 1,000 seedlings that had probably grown about 2 feet high. The bigger the plant, the more time consuming to plant. Nontheless, it was nice to work with something that I love. AT the end of the day, I realized that we have it pretty good in New York. Whenever a wetland is destroyed in NY (by a company), the company has to pay to rebuild a wetland. But, declicate, endangered wetlands are (usually) State Preserves. That way, they are protected by the state and there are strict regulations in destroying it. So far, we have not seen one State Preserve in Louisiana. Therefore, anything is free game for destruction. Maybe if Louisiana’s oil companies stopped messing with nature, restoration projects could be successful. But, I get the feeling that the state may be too interested in money to restrict oil companies. Since healthy wetlands protect against storm surges, hurricanes did not do a terrible amount of damage in the past. Due to the rapid depletion of the wetlands, hurricanes have a much greater effect on the communities within Southern Louisiana. In the end, money is what is destroying the wetlands and increasing storm surges. What a shame.

Unfortunately, we only have one laptop with us on the trip and I have only blogged once since coming to New Orleans. Luckily, I am among the few who have not blogged in NO yet. Nonetheless, I will update you since my last blog.

Day 5 update

Thursday was a fun day! We actually switched our Thursday and Friday on our itinerary for special circumstances. Thursday we went on our disaster tour which was extremely informative. One of the founders of PNOLA, Jim, gave us the official tour. We went to 17th street and passed through the Lakeview neighborhood. Seventeenth street was where the first levee failed. Little did I know before this miniterm that more than one levee failed. The seventeenth street canal failed due to the way that it was constructed. During the storm, the levee completely broke off at two ends and the fell. The second levee that we went to was at the Industrial Canal in the Lower Ninth Ward. This area of New Orleans got the most coverage because of its devastation and poverty. From the levee you could see that there were no trees within 200 ft of the levee because the impact of the water uprooted ALL of those trees. The Lower Ninth Ward is still not in good shape. It still has lots of empty lots. With all do respect, the Lower Ninth (five years later) looked like a community graveyard. Despite the realistic tour, we had a BBQ with PNOLA, had Po’ Boys at a hip 50’s looking restaurant and bowled to zydeco music at Mid-City Rock and Bowl. The zydeco music was most definitely the high light of the entire trip!

Day 6 update

Friday was our last day with PNOLA. This day was particularly special. You see, the house that we were working  at was being funded by a player from The Saints (Roman Harper).  We were told that Roman would be coming to help us sheet rock and what not. So, we waited ALL day and he finally came just as we were leaving. In reality, he just came to take pictures and take a tour of the house. He himself even said that he didn’t realize the bad condition of the neighborhood and that it was “messed up”. I think he was referring to the fact that is was messed up that the wealthier parts of New Orleans have been rebuilt, but the Upper Ninth Ward had not been.

There is a reoccuring theme in this mini-term. Things are messed up. As a player in The Saints football team, how did he not know that these neighborhoods were suffering. This area is practically in his backyard, yet he is too consumed with his life to notice. Even though he donated money to rebuild the house, I am still skeptical. I believe that money was just donated for publicity. Considering the fact that

-he didn’t come help us build

-he only stayed for 20 min to sign autographs and such

-and the film crew was at our work site 3 hours before he was makes me believe that this whole ordeal was just for show.

Day 7 update

Saturday was our last full day in New Orleans. I wish I had more time to explore the srtistic and musical culture that New Orleans has to offer. On Saturday, we went to the Blair grocery project to help out on the urban farm in the Lower Ninth Ward. It was an interesting experience. I didn’t mind the wood chips, the decaying compost or the manure at all. Nonetheless, I was really surprised with the man who started the organization. I came here expecting to get a talk about urban farming and how it is good to be sustainable, but our talk was more about community service and how it is temporary. The people in the world who are not very fortunate need help in understadning how to improve. Most of the time community service makes us feel good, but we just do the work for them. In similar ways, the Peace Corps is an organization that puts people in a developing country for 2 years to create connections and imrpove lifestyles for many generations to come. That is why the man who owned the organization has made this project his life goal. I hold a lot of respect for him. He was a great teacher in one of the best schools in NYC and he gave it all away. He has basically been sacrificing his material life (clothes, a house, a car, a partner) to improve the life of others because no one else has even tried.

Day 8 (theoretically today…ignore the date on this post…I started it on Sunday and have not completed it until now!)

Sunday was a nice day. We all cleaned up the church and headed south to Dulac. Unfortunatley, I do not have cell phone service here (T-mobile is the worst) and there aren’t many things to do. However, I think that this will be the best part of the trip because we will be forced to grow together during our last week here without any distractions 🙂

The few days we have spent here in Dulac, LA have been so incredibly different than those that we spent in New Orleans. The most obvious difference is the landscape; it is as though you can see for miles across the fields and wetlands, dotted by houses sitting on stilts, infrastructure of the oil industry, and multitudes of boats (some of which appear to have been abandoned in the water decades ago). We learned more about Dulac when we met the coordinator at the Dulac community center, where we are staying. She told us about the struggles of the people here, and the efforts of the community center and thousands of volunteers who come here yearly to help ease their blight. The man that we helped that day was disabled and basically abandoned by his family. Though he lived with a partner, it was clear that they struggled to provide for themselves and take care of their home. Seeing the conditions they lived in, and talking to them about the difficulties they faced was by far the most difficult experience I have had so far on this trip. It was just so hard to see two people, who so clearly needed help from others, be left on their own to struggle with poverty, abandonment, and depression. Their hopes of leaving Dulac further emphasized the feelings that they (and many others) seem to have towards this struggling community. However, with the efforts of the Dulac Community Center, it certainly seems that there are people working to change it for the better.

Today was by far my favorite day of this Miniterm. We woke up early and piled into the van to make a two hour trip to Port Fourchon. When we arrived, we were greeted by members of BTNEP, a non-profit group working to restore the Barataria-Terrebonne wetlands. We boated to a sand bar, where we spent the day planting various types of native trees, such as Live Oak and Black Mangrove. Working in the wetlands was such a wonderful experience because of the beautiful scenery and wildlife that surrounded us. After we planted the 1,000 trees, we boated for a while around the area. It was amazing to see that scenes of pristine wildlife, such as a flock of hundreds of pelicans flying through the air, was just a short boat ride away from a refueling site for large oil vessels. It reminded me of a lot that we have seen in Louisiana; two things that so obviously contradict one another existing side by side, with no one saying or doing much about it.

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.

The community, work, and atmosphere is completely different here in Dulac. Dulac is pretty empty, but it is gorgeous! I’ve loved how pretty it is, you can see all of the stars, and last night I was siting outside and could here an owl! It is hard seeing people live in such harsh housing environments though. We worked in one house that left their stove running in order to heat their home and that was really sad but we did our best to clean up the house and support them. Ps. if anyone would like a dog, they are unable to bring their dog to the home they are moving to and are looking for a new home for their beloved family dog. They really appreciated it and we all left feeling like we made a difference for them that day. New Orleans and Dulac have both been amazing experiences in the community and helping those who need support and a kind word. Community service projects like these have no boundaries or limits and are and will always be needed, so I hope people can listen to our experiences and find a way to incorporate community service into their lives in some way that they can help and enjoy it for themselves at the same time. This trip really makes me appreciate the upbringing I have had and I think it strengthens your relationships with your family, y recognizing how precious family is.  With nothing else, and even in the worst situations, the people we work with are incredibly connected to their family and that seems to provide them with the strength to pull through even the roughest situations in their lives. It has been difficult, strenuous, and exhausting, but definitely worth it because we have been doing amazing things for people who need it, especially with the holidays so close. I’m excited to see what the rest of the week has in store, but I am also excited to get home and apply this to life back home.