Today was refreshing. I got away from Camp Premier for a while and helped set up a soup-kitchen just down the road. Fourteen other volunteers and myself setup 500 chairs for the residents of this parish in the gymnasium of an elementary school. The needs of the parish are about 1000 meals/day for the residents who still don't have transportation to get around to get food, not that there are really any markets open in this area. I heard today that as of last month, only 1% of the electricity had been restored here. That really makes it hard to make progress restoring this community.
This is as close to a modern ghost-town as I will ever see, in America.
This afternoon, as we were unloading an enormous order of tools from Lowe's hardware at another gym we use as a warehouse, we ran across a group of families who were taking advantage of the park that Extreme Makeover restored for the community. It was great to see these families who are recently reconnected. All were from here, but they've been living in locally and in Texas and Baton Rouge and were enjoying the day off together. They even helped us unload our trailers, to thank us for our work in the parish. As I was leaving, I ran into Eva who talked to me for a few minutes. She told me she and her husband were working hard to reopen their diner, and that's why he wasn't at the park with her and her three children.
I wish I wrote well, because I cannot describe the sincerity and gratitude with which these people welcome us. It is that single act of kindness from them that makes this worthwhile. I cannot wait to go to the Gold Star Diner when it reopens.
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