Excellent piece and good for you, Kay!! After Katrina, I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for weeks to not only clean out homes damaged by the storm but also to help build affordable homes in the 9th Ward which experienced a shitload of damage. And I found the same thing that you did doing that work!! And the bonus was the people I met along the way -- both fellow volunteers and the people whose houses we cleared, as well as those who would eventually move into the homes I worked on. That was probably one of the most fulfilling times of my life!