Comment For You or For the People You Are Going To Help? (Score 2, Insightful) 534
I live near the Katrina zone. I've been hit by Ivan, Dennis, several tropical storms this year, then Katrina and brushed by Rita. I still have a house, a bad back from boarding up my house four times this past year, and anxiety about the last third of this hurricane season.
For you, high-top leather boots to keep the snakes from getting to you. Don't walk in water unless you have high-top waders. Farmland chemical run-offs will burn your skin, the snakes and alligators will bite. So stay out of the water. Maybe an inflatable raft if you are adventurous. Since you won't be down here long, don't worry about comforts of home, like your MP3 player or hair products. Live a couple of weeks like the locals. Hope you have an epiphany.
For the people you are coming to help, bring lots of tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant and soap. Clean clothes would be nice, or something to wash their current clothes with (Era, Wisk).
Since you are with a church group, I would guess alcohol would be out of your delivery agenda. If not, a small bit of fine brandy, rum would not go unnoticed.
Before Katrina, I had large bags of childrens clothes, shoes, adult clothes ready for my local mission to donate. After the storm, I just went through my closet and dumped a lot of my currently wearable clothes into bags to add to that. We donated about $4,000 worth of clothes. That's my donation this year, without the US tax receipt. So the Govt gets the money I would have gotten for the tax deduction and the people still get the clothes. The bags of clothes were donated to my local church who went there right after the storm.
My recommendation: Bring things you are willing to give away off of your back. This is devastation down here. Don't bring your comforts of home crap, unless you are willing to leave them to someone in need.
For you, high-top leather boots to keep the snakes from getting to you. Don't walk in water unless you have high-top waders. Farmland chemical run-offs will burn your skin, the snakes and alligators will bite. So stay out of the water. Maybe an inflatable raft if you are adventurous. Since you won't be down here long, don't worry about comforts of home, like your MP3 player or hair products. Live a couple of weeks like the locals. Hope you have an epiphany.
For the people you are coming to help, bring lots of tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant and soap. Clean clothes would be nice, or something to wash their current clothes with (Era, Wisk).
Since you are with a church group, I would guess alcohol would be out of your delivery agenda. If not, a small bit of fine brandy, rum would not go unnoticed.
Before Katrina, I had large bags of childrens clothes, shoes, adult clothes ready for my local mission to donate. After the storm, I just went through my closet and dumped a lot of my currently wearable clothes into bags to add to that. We donated about $4,000 worth of clothes. That's my donation this year, without the US tax receipt. So the Govt gets the money I would have gotten for the tax deduction and the people still get the clothes. The bags of clothes were donated to my local church who went there right after the storm.
My recommendation: Bring things you are willing to give away off of your back. This is devastation down here. Don't bring your comforts of home crap, unless you are willing to leave them to someone in need.