Getting down and Dirty!!

Wednesday was one of the funniest times that the 27 of us have spent here. We were all a little worried about what "getting muddy" would really mean, most of us have never even been to a marsh,  (or known the difference between a marsh and a swamp) yet alone plant anything on its shores. We were told to dress in clothes that we did not mind getting extremely muddy (and possibly not be able to use the clothes again) I brought jeans and an old T-Shirt. Most others brought work clothes with stains or paint. 

Before we got out to the marsh to do our wetland restoration, we got a short presentation about the economical impacts of allowing our wetlands to slowly be destroyed. It was sad to see projections about what the wetlands might look like in five or ten years if we don't start to prevent what is happening. One way to do this is to plant those wetland plants to keep erosion from taking over more of the land.

The canoe trips were a fun way to relax. None of the canoes tipped over, although we did have a couple close calls. :) We all got at least a bit wet from our amateur rowing, but all in all everyone was happy to just have a day off from all the hard work we had been doing. We did however see an alligator. It didn't bite anyone and just scared a few of us a bit. A couple birds and some small turtles were also around for us to observe.

We had a short lunch a little ways from the bayou that we canoed on, this mostly consisted of sandwiches and left overs from dinners past. (I had some of my food from the morning and so I ate that) There were a few Americorps volunteers that were going to be doing some replanting with us and so we spent some time getting to know them. One of the girls was just out of high school and had decided to take a year off to come volunteer. It was my luck that she was from Oregon and so we talked about Portland and our love for rainy weather. (She was also a fan of wearing many layers)

We drove another half hour or so to just about Lake Ponchartrain. We had a task that afternoon of planting a truckload of plants along the shore of the Marsh and interspersed where ever we could see empty spaces. Everyone had to wear chest high wadders (this was a hilarious sight, I don't actually think anyone can look good in them) that were either wet and muddy or that were a few sizes too big. A few of us grew bums about 4 sizes bigger than we had when we stepped into them. (yes I have pictures)

We were instructed to get dirty, tear the roots of the plants, walk into the marsh, dig a hole and then stick your whole arm into the hole (while holding onto the roots of the plant, mind you this meant that you had to literally go elbow deep into the worst smelling soil you can imagine) and then lift your hand out (which created some pleasent/unpleasent sound effects) and pat the dirt around the base of the plant. After a few minutes of pretending that I could stay clean, I dug deep and crawled around on my knees sticking my had in any hole that I could find. The soil actually felt great (a sort of therapeutic mud treatment that could cost hundreds of dollars at any day-spa) and I enjoyed getting a little....let me rephrase that, A LOT dirty. Walking around in a marsh proved to be very challenging and most of us ended up finding deep holes that left you chest high in that same smelly water.

We finished surprisingly quickly (probably because people were motivated by the idea of getting out of the mud, again I have pictures) and we all changed into slightly cleaning clothes before getting into the vans to come home. I could explain a little more about how this processed happened, being that we were in the middle of a marsh which just means that there was nothing to hide behind or secluded places to change. People got creative in how they got dressed (I changed in the front seat of one of the cars), one of us (I won't go into details of names of identities to protect the parties involved) even got into his skivvies to pose for our calendar titled "the men of the bayou".

Everyone had a lot of fun, it was really great to have a break from some of the really labor intensive labor to have a mud treatment. Lots of bonding happened that day and we were all very energized to go back to work the next day.

Peace,

Ernest0