NY2NO

For the last five days I've been in Hammond, a town about an hour away from New Orleans. The town is filled with fast food restaurants, Winn-Dixies and Wal-Marts, but the place my group was staying was entirely different. The woman with whom we were staying is named Sunflower. Before Hurricane Katrina, she had a store that sold natural products and clothing. After the storm, her shop was destroyed and Klan members stood at her exotically painted gates, warning customers away. While at Hammond, we worked on cleaning up Sunflower's property by cutting grass and underbrush. We cleaned up trash. We played with her seven adorable puppies, lay on her hammock, and enjoyed her wonderful Cajun cooking. For my last night I am back at OSBG. We are about to have the most important debrief of all-the one that addresses how we are going to bring what we learned on our trip home. We may also watch the Matrix, depending on whether anyone is going to bother sleeping before getting up at 3:30 for our flight home.