Week 9

Busy week and long post to follow, so hang on!  Tuesday we visited at three homes in Marksville, and especially enjoyed visiting with the Relief Society President and her husband.  We had never met him because he suffers from leukemia and is too weak to leave the house except for his weekly blood transfusion.  But what great people and what interesting lives they have led.  We left with 18 fabulous brown eggs from their 9 chickens. 

We had quite a lovely little excursion starting on Wednesday.  The couple from Shreveport drove the two hours from there to our apartment, then we drove us all about an hour and a half to Lafayette.  We joined the couple from Ruston (also two hours north of us, but east instead of west) at the Acadian Cultural Center.  It is actually a national park, and had a very interesting movie about the history of the Acadians--the French Canadians who ended up in Louisiana and morphed into Cajuns.  I naively thought they left Canada willingly--they were forced out by the English, who were suspicious of their "Frenchness" and their Catholicism. First they went to New England, were they were not welcome, many went back to France, but didn't really fit in after generations in Canada, and finally migrated to Louisiana.

Just an aside--for the first time today we heard some of the older Cajun members of our branch speaking Cajun French to each other.  Any relation to the French spoken in France is coincidental.  It was fascinating to hear, and for most older Cajuns, English is a second language.  A fascinating heritage that is dying out.

Anyway, after the cultural center, we went to Avery Island where Tabasco Sauce has been made for 150 years.  The man who started the company was a banker, but after the Civil War, he couldn't get back into banking in the South.  He decided to make pepper sauce to add some spark to the very bland post-war diet, and the company has been going every since.

In Lafayette there is a lovely cathedral with an incredible oak tree and a very interesting cemetery (notice that most are above ground because of the high water table at sea level).

Several years ago I did some consulting at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.  I remembered the interesting feature of a swamp full of alligators in the middle of campus,  so we went to look at that.

A couple of 'gators on a platform on lower right

Thursday we drove to Baton Rouge to the mission home, where the Varners hosted several senior missionary couples, the mission nurse, and a woman who is being baptized tomorrow (and her two sons).  A lovely time with delightful people.  Then we and the other two couples in our group stayed the night (in three of the 6 or 7 guest rooms in the 5700 square foot home).

President and Sister Varner middle top--the mission home below

Friday we toured the state capitol (tallest in the nation [34 stories], built in 14 months, completed in 1932, and very impressive).  Huey Long, the governor who had it built and one of the most corrupt of politicians, was assassinated there in 1935.  There is an observation deck on the 27th floor.

Senate and House chambers, main hall, Huey Long

Then we went to the old state capitol.  When we walked in, we were greeted by four sister missionaries who do some service there every week.  What a fun surprise.

With missionaries on spiral staircase with stained glass dome above

We drove home from there.  

Today we had a Linger Longer after church.  This room is the chapel, we have Relief Society and Sunday School here, and it becomes the cultural hall for other activities.

The man across from me is 86 years old, and a true Cajun

We have much to be grateful for, and this was a wonderful week for reflection and learning.

Evolution of the word Cajun