Thursday, November 17, 2005

"The main story here is cooperation," he added. "It's a beautiful thing."

Hippies and Christians, in perfect harmony...

Chicago Tribune | Amid ruin, `a beautiful thing':
"Church volunteers and hippies find common ground in Katrina's wake, collaborating to feed, clothe and comfort a storm-ravaged town

... Located inside a cavernous geodesic dome, the cafe offers three meals a day that are served by the Rainbow Family of Living Light, a scruffy assortment of dreadlocked, tattooed and pierced crew members, most of whom are in their 20s. Guitar and drum music wafts from nearby tents, and the Center for Alternative Living Medicine offers condoms and massages.

A few yards away, the scene at the Waveland Market is quite different. An open-air market (a misnomer because everything is free) that offers everything from laundry detergent and clothing to potato chips, it is run by a neatly groomed staff of evangelical Christians in bright green T-shirts. They are considerably older, and as one might expect, more conservative than the cafe staff.

The New Waveland Cafe and Market is one of the most curious yet inspiring stories to emerge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Located in a devastated town that took the brunt of the storm's fury, the cafe and marketplace are the combined effort of two groups from radically different backgrounds who have come together to help residents of the beleaguered Mississippi coastline."

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