Why hello there,

We arrived in Abbeville about two weeks ago. Our first residence was in the attic of a church. The pastor gave us an hour and a half orientaion to what we could and couldn’t do in the church, but made sure that we knew to “make our sleves at home.” An example of what we could do is breath, talk in quiet vioces, not touch each other, not touch anything around us, and play basketball in the gym as long as it didn’t hit anything. Just in case we didn’t understand him for the 1.5 hour orientation, he then wrote orange posted notes on everything reminding us not to use or touch anything…but to be sure to make ourselves at home.

Needless to say, we left this Spike housing, and moved to a less psychotic place of residency. We are now living on an experimental solar-powered farm about 20 minutes from anything. We are surrounded by beautiful fields filled with wildflowers…and cows…lots of cows…

We have been working in Delcum, which was a town where the houses were all flooded with at least 5 ft. of water. We have been mucking/gutting/demolding the houses. These houses are disgusting, and in any other area, they would all have been condemned and torn down. It would make a lot more sense to start from scratch with these houses, because there is no truly effective way to treat the mold. Unfortunately, in this area, there are no building codes, so if the owner wants to keep the house and rebuild, they are able to. I predict that in a few years, there is going to be a lot of sickness in these areas along the gulf. The mold will have regrown in all these houses and there will be an epidemic (black mold is rampant).

One of our site supervisors used to be a bomb specialist for the Marines. His suggestion is just to drop Napalm on this whole region. This explosive would “sterilize the ground” and people will be able to start from scratch without the fear of disease…this is a good idea, however, unfortunately, we do not have the funds to truly rebuild down here, so basically we are just putting a band aid on an amputated leg. So basically its been a little frustrating working because we feel like we aren’t fixing the real problem. Especially since the next hurricane season is projected to be bigger and more severe than the last.

Beside the frustrations, I went to New Orleans again this weekend to visit some of my AmeriFriends. We had a blast and stayed at a Hipppie-type commune place with TPs and lots of dreadlocks. Everyone was so friendly. They serve organic food to the residents of New Orleans.

Like Abbeville, New Orleans also needs a lot of work. Especially since it is the site of the largest oil spill in North American history (happened during Katrina). Also, the 9th ward has barely been touched. It is a festeriing wound that once opened is going to present 100s of other problems around the gulf. As Steve said, “Napalm…pure and simple…” I am kidding…but seriously…right now simply rebuilding isnt going to fix any of the long term problems.

I miss and love you all!

Please keep writing, I love hearing from everyone!

Love,

Alena