Gift?

Now, birthdays are great fun. Of course, one of the reasons for such fun is that you do often get gifts, ranging from the thoughtful to the mundane. But every now and then you get something truly great. Well, a friend had a birthday last week and she received in the mail a package from her brother.



That's supposed to be candy. Korean candy.

Now, I don't want to knock Korean candy here...not specifically. I know enough to know that different cultures and peoples enjoy different things, especially when it comes to food. On top of that I will say that in the grand scheme of things, I am probably a fairly picky eater. So it is essential that we all understand that my opinion is not alone when it comes to this so-called candy box. Example number 1:



A mutual friend of both the birthday girl and myself. Trying candy. And that expression is about what you need to know. Some were average. Some were tolerable. Some were downright nasty. The crowd favorite as far as most terrible? Start with the empty box in the upper left of that first picture. Then go one down and one right. The two circles that are kind of lavendar colored. With no discussion or collaboration the opinion of everyone who tried it was this: tastes like playdough and feels like chalk in your mouth. Yum.

However, just to buck up the spirits of the sender we should note here that this questionable candy (and we are all curious to know if Navin tried said candy) also sent a couple other gifts.



Socks and cell phone bling. Hmmm. I'll say the socks are impressively original when walking the mean streets around here. So I am excited to see the birthday girl take them on their maiden voyage. I am also excited to make fun of the birthday girl if the cell phone bling makes it onto her cell phone.

In the end, these gifts, while suspicious, have provided days of intrigue, discussion, and memorable tastes. Who knew all of us as kindergarteners eating playdough actually knew a thing or two about foreign sweet delicacies?

Renew Orleans

We got back from New Orleans last Saturday. What do you know about the current state of things down there? When I went down I knew that things were bad. I also knew that almost a year has elapsed since Katrina hit. I figured there would be sure signs of progress. I also figured, being in the city proper, that there would be some sense of workking together. I can almost understand living outside of a major city and feeling like you are doing things on your own.

What I saw amazed me. I saw house after house fatally damaged by flood waters. I saw houses crawling with mold and cockroaches. I saw neighborhood after neighboorhood of deserted land. I talked to people beaten down and betrayed by the storm, their own government, and their own insurance companies. I talked to people who are still waiting for a FEMA trailer, were given $5,000 by an insurance company and were able to get their house partially dry walled before the money ran out. The insirance companies now refuse to cover the house. These people stopped being people, and were apparently now viewed as a liability.

I saw a day care and school, whcih previously had 50 kids in their door, now having 250 because other day cares have yet to open. The day care for the lower income areas barely had enough staff to cover the 50 kids. Now they have even fewer staffers because not everyone was able or willing to make it back to the city. Few staff people covering 5 times the number of kids.

I saw a house and gutted it. In the process we saw calendars wishing people the best of 2005. Birthday cards wishing the best of everything. Then the flood came. And here we were tearing apart what should have been the best of everything but was instead the loss of everything they knew. We found two guns in the closet which made me wonder, "What kind of neighborhood was this before the flood came? What will it be years from now when the surface damage is fixed?"

We left with questions. We left with disappointment in so much of what we saw. But we also left with hope. Progress is being made. People are getting help, although it might be slow in coming.

We left wishing the best of everything for the city.