On the Friday evening before our flight, I was too excited to sleep. Granted, accidently oversleeping and missing our 4 AM flight was a big deterrent to me getting some much needed ZZZs, but I was still counting the minutes until I would finally leave my dorm room with my backpack and suitcase in hand. The journey to LaGuardia, however, was turbulent – from waiting an hour for the elusive M60, to falling asleep on bus and getting off at the wrong terminal, endless things seemed to go wrong. But once we passed security, it was relatively smooth-sailing that followed. A quick carb-loaded breakfast, waffle-cracker airplane snack, and countless uncomfortable napping positions later, we finally reached our long-awaited destination – Lafayette, Louisiana.
The team brought our travel-worn selves over to the Hertz car rental desk at the airport, where an employee named Judy recommended a few restaurants in the area, gave us motherly advice, and sent us on our way to seek our car from another fellow named Derek. Derek turned out to be the inside joke of the trip – Oliver, our designated driver, informed us later that Derek put on the entry list for a club down on Jefferson Street, which we planned to hit up later in the week. Despite some initial difficulties putting the car in drive mode (it’s driving 101, Oliver), we were on our way to meet Joelle, the Lafayette Habitat for Humanity volunteer coordinator.
Joelle turned out to be a sweet woman who had a “Welcome Columbia University!” sign greeting us, as well as a horde of sugary breakfast cereal and snacks. Let the magnitude of the snacks not be understated – when I say horde, I mean an entire counter top and fridge full of Cheez-its, Shrek gummies, Oreo cupcakes, and pretty much the entire variety of snack foods. As college kids though, we knew the stash would be gone within as couple of days, and clearly some real food was needed to make sure we didn’t have sugar highs and crashes each day on the build. A trip to the local Walmart was direly needed.
But before we could even think about buying food for dinner, we had to figure out lunch. At Judy’s suggestion, we decided to hit up Prejean’s, a family-friendly Cajun restaurant about 10 minutes away from the house. Apparently, on the list of top things to do in Louisiana, Prejean’s was number 7. The level of effort put into the decorations was phenomenal by New York standards. The bathroom doors had the very Shrek-esque crescent moon on them, there were six-foot-long fish mounted on the wall, and there were fake willow trees with hanging greenery. The dish of the day was the seafood gumbo, which everyone eagerly scarfed down. I personally don’t like fish too much, but my order of crawfish nachos was phenomenal as well. We ate heartily, and headed back home for a quick siesta before going to the swamp tour.
While Dorothy and the gang were excited about a swamp tour, I wasn’t sold beforehand. I thought it would be yet another one of those walking tours where the tour guide would drearily point out a few different type of plants and the most exciting part might be seeing a bird in a nest somewhere. But my preconceptions were blown out of the water – literally. The swamp tour was clearly the highlight of the day. Instead of being a walking tour, the tour was conducted in a boat, in which a white-haired old man drove through the waters of Lake Martin. His knowledge of the swamp captivated us from the start, as he spoke about the patient and lethal Great Blue Herons. These birds are the largest wading bird in the heron family, and feed by standing still in shallow water, waiting for fish to swim near, and then striking with rapid thrust of bill. Even in zoos and aquariums, handlers have to wear extremely-thick goggles so the heron doesn’t poke their eyes out. These herons are one of the few predators of alligators, and can eat alligator young as a part of their diet. We also saw multiple alligators, a few invasive species of plants, different species of birds such as anhingas, great white herons, egrets, roseate spoonbill and, of course, ducks. There was another family in the boat with us, and the mother and son of the family were gifted in their ability to spot the most hidden and camouflaged animals. They spotted an owl that we spent a couple minutes observing, until finally it hooted a few times, spread its wings, and swooped down right over our boat. The tour went on for three hours, and despite the cold evening air, the stunning reds, oranges, pinks and blues of the sunset warmed us. The night was so magical, and I couldn’t wait to share pictures with my friends and family.
I haven’t been to a Walmart in a couple of years, so going back to one was definitely a feels trip. The team split up to buy dinner ingredients, but people kept going back to buy more things and we ended up spending almost two hours just shopping. But the prized purchase of the night was the aux cord, a necessity to play our own music in the van. With the spoils of our shopping adventure in hand, we headed home for the night.
All in all, the day was simply fascinating. I learned so many things, from how to use a coffeemaker, to how to spot alligators in a swamp. Most of all, I felt that I really bonded with the rest of the people on the trip, and am really grateful to have the ability to travel with them and do something beneficial for society over break. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s trip to New Orlean’s with the crew, and the week of building that is to follow.