Louisiana

I've decided to break into sections, while the situation here is quiet, with no more incidents to report.. It's much easier to describe parts of this area in categories.

I'll start here with my take on Louisiana

Louisiana has a very unique culture. This cajun culture they embrace seems more real than I expected. I thought it was just a tourist attraction like Hawaii. The truth is, they love their cajun culture (I'm sure Hawaii does too). Unfortunately I haven't come in contact with too much of that culture. I learned what king cake was; kind of like a huge cinnamon roll with icing on it, that you hide a baby small baby doll in. The tradition goes, who ever gets the piece with the baby has to buy the next king cake. This tradition runs just prior to lent and mardigras. Besides kingcake I come in contact with more local 'flavor' than cajun culture.

Once you get south of the highway 90 line, you get into southern Louisiana, a joking point for most Louisianans. Instead of white trash there are people referred to as “Coon asses”. Which is basically a cajun redneck. And they're everywhere. The term is about as derogatory as “white trash”, and used fairly often. These backwoods swamp locals speak with a heavy cajun accent, and are very hard to understand. They come in every color, love to fish, hunt, and smoke. Most of them aren't very nice. Infact, Louisiana hasn't been very nice to me. Going into town, I get eyed, ignored, and mouthed off too. Being a local seems very important to people here, anyone else just doesn't fit. As with Lousiana Wildlife and Fisheries and the locals, they are very hard to get to know, but once you do they are very nice.

A few sterotypes justified:
Yes, some people speak a different language, which I guess is creole? I'm not sure.
Yes, some people do have a recipe for everything down here
Yes, once you cross the highway 90 line you feel like you've left America.

Louisiana is dirty. Conservation is not an issue. When you fight nature, building highways over 20 miles of inhabitable swamp, and contain the best fishing in the nation, you don't tend to think natures in trouble. Trash is everywhere. This isn't about garbage thrown from a car. Stuff isn't taken away, it's left where it sits. Your house or car was destroyed in Katrina? Just leave it there. There are signs on ripped apart houses that say 'Do not Destroy', why? I have no idea. When an oil company is done with a well pump, they leave it in the water, letting it sink into the ocean, never marking it as a danger. There is an area in the delta that looks like an oil pump graveyard. Miles of sunken oil platforms, some barely above water. Oil platforms are put up anywhere they can, with almost no visible safety precautions for the wildlife. There is oil drilling in wildlife management areas and wildlife refuges.

The motto on the river is, “Just throw it in the river”. Trash? Throw it in the river. Sewage? Throw it in the river. There are no styrofoam or glass laws around the water. Recycling ofcourse doesn't exist once you get too far away from a major city. In the middle of the delta 100 miles from a major city, you can see the smog surrounding you from the oil drilling. It's a nasty place.

Louisiana is a terrible place. If it wasn't for the wildlife, I'd hate it here. As it is, I love it for the rich diversity in animal and wildlife. It feels like I live in the lost world, sometime.