Down in the bayou

Above: A portion of the Dulac Team poses for a group photo before pulling out from Chapel Hill Church on Saturday around 2 p.m.

Donna S. writes:

First, the big news. We made it.

After two pretty challenging days of travel (have you ever tried to simultaneously move 13 vehicles — 3 with cargo trailers and 1 with a camper — and 40-plus people and keep them together?) we made it to Dulac, Louisiana, on the Bayou Grand Caillou at around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday

That was after being halted for several minutes in the small town of Des Allemands south of New Orleans by a Mardi Gras parade. Beads literally covered the stretch of U.S. 90 that was the parade route.

Our home away from home for the next few days looks pretty good. The area still very much looks storm-battered, notably with many shrimp boats that are partially sunk or in great disrepair visible along the bayou. Shrimping remains this town’s biggest source of commerce.

After a welcome and orientation by the Dulac Station Manager, John Paul McGuire, everyone settled in to get clean (high priority item), snack on something courtesy of the many people who sent food with us — bless you all! or watch a little bit of the Super Bowl.

John Paul capped off our orientation by teaching us a new beatitude: Blessed are those who are flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.

Some of us could have used that earlier in the day.

Speaking of earlier in the day (much earlier), somebody needs to be thinking about recruiting Denny Howard for the Chapel Hill Praise Team. There’s nothing like hearing him sing “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning” at the top of his lungs when you’re still snuggled up in your sleeping bag.

But back to John Paul.

In his very detailed orientation that included information about everything from alligators to black widow spiders to the history of our host community, he helped us fully realize that we are needed here.

We are here to be in conversation and be in connection with the people in this very small, very close-knit community.

We are here to rebuild confidence, rebuild hearts, rebuild love.

We are ready to go to work.