So good to be back! The airport shuttle is taking an hour to board because they laid off all of their personnel after the hurricane and they’re now running on a skeleton crew. I take the local bus into Mid-City and I get off at at Tulane and Carrolton. One man holds the door for me and another helps me with my suitcase. Then they give the tourists from the bus directions downtown. A lot of the buildings on Carrolton have water marks that come up to my shoulder; this section of town got flooded pretty high. But the trash piles aren’t as conspicuous as they were last time I was here and I’m getting used to the trash and construction everywhere. A white Salvation Army food truck is serving hot meals in the Burger King parking lot behind us.

Trucks loaded with construction equipment and minivans full of Hispanic workers are pulling grabbing bottled water the Styrofoam boxes of food then driving off again. Here and there men hang out, leaning on vehicles, chatting. A homeless man is eating his meal on the steps of the ply board-covered Burger King. The parking lot smells like meatballs.

The tourists who rode the local bus are the archetypal back-packer kind that can’t afford a cab. A woman with her hair in a scrunchy and flowered pants wears those Teva sandals with socks and her boyfriend sports a baseball cap. They look awkward with their bulky bags on the ground and passing vehicles full of construction workers slow down and stare.

A few locals are also waiting for the bus; one of the women is staring at me (I fit into the awkward tourist category) so I catch her eye and smile. She smiles back. “I was just admiring your sweaters,” she tells me. We strike up a conversation about weather here and in New York. “Oh,” I love New York,” her eyes light up as she says it. The bus pulls up and we tell each other to “take care.”

It starts to rain so I go stand under the BK awning. As I walk by three men middle-aged men hanging out by a brand-new candy-apple red extra-long bedded truck ask me where I’m from and if I go to school. Then they tell me to go get myself something to eat but I tell them I’m a vegetarian. “You sho' don’t look like a vegetarian.” The men laugh and so do I.

I’m waiting for my Mom who is (I find out later) waiting for a parking garage elevator. Everything runs slowly these days. One of the guys asks where I live and says, that’s far but I can take you. I ain’t hittin' on you or nothin’ but I don’t want you to get rained on.

I know that the man is sincere and I want to take him up on his offer but my ride is already on her way. Just his offer makes me happy. Anyway, I’ve got three more days down here and there will be plenty of kindness going around.