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I am sorry I have not written the list in so long. I hope someone remembers me. My name is Leonie Berne Zweig, and last year I was a fresperson at Cornell and Rose Among Thorns #2's first fresperson humanities tutor.  In February of 2007, I got drafted. Naama  Roth, who runs Rose Among Thorns #2, wrote me letters of reference which means I am working as a tutor with  my own group of kids out here in Kansas. I also have a rank/rating of 7. That is the good news.

The bad news is flat plains all around me and big lonely sky. Sometimes I think the big blue sky is weeping invisible tears. The bad news is not the loneliness and vastness of the prairie with its bloughs and streams and fertile black soil locked under grass. The bad news is that this is a camp of exile. There is work here. The government and the state of Kansas paid for a Saturn auto parts plant to come to town and with it other businesses to provide jobs. The jobs came first and then the people. The bad news is that this is a relocation camp.

Where did the people come from, you ask? This is the Second Wave of Katryn/Rosa/Willa evacuees. You all know about Katryn which pummeled New Orleans the summer of 2005 and Rosa, another named storm that caused further damage. There were evacuees from New Orleans sent to Baton Rouge, Houston, and as far afield as Utah and Atlanta. Many never returned. In a way, that was a good thing. You'll see why.

The next question for the government was what to do about New Orleans. Some people wanted to rebuild the whole place. Others wanted to raise the public housing eyesores and leave the low lying neighborhoods deserted or built up as polders. In the end, the government chose a different course. The problem was that for the last hundred years or so, the Mississippi River has been trying to change course and flow out through what is currently called the Achafalaya to the west. The Achafalaya enters the gulf at Morgan City, Louisianna. A series of flood control structures and elaborate dams have been keeping the Mississippi in its current course, but like the levy in New Orleans, these have a limited lifepsan and keeping them going in the long run is a losing proposition.

The USGIS and Congress made a tough decision. They decided that rther than rebuild New Orleans only to have to defend it again (It's below sea level and the levies aren't in good shape) and continue to keep the Mississippi river from changing course, they would allow the Mississippi to divert in to the Achafalaya as much as it wanted to and not rebuild New Orleans until the reversion was complete. This meant that both the New Orleans, many of its wealthy suburbs, and the area in and around Morgan City required evacuation. Those in Sunflower Camp are from the Morgan City area. They are part of the Second Evacuation and are also known as Diversion Evacuees.

Kansas is not home to these deep southerners. We in the Ruby Palace of C-Block are foreigners, but at least we are not those among their own who betrayed them. Occasionally there are fights in the camp against those who left with more and those who left with less, those who tasted the humiliation of the long ride to Kansas in a convoy under armed guard (They have their own cars but the cars are not winterized) and those who came of their own free will once they received the orders. The white collar workers live side by side with the blue collar workers. Blacks live side by side with whites.

What they don't know is the school system failed all their children. That is why the kids here go to school year round though they call the summer school academic camp. I teach enrichment humanities which is not remedial because my kids can read and write, but there is a world they know nothing about. It is my job to bring them that world. It is not easy. We have just started Shakespeare. Yes, we are doing Measure for Measure. I chose the play because it deals with adult subjects. My seventh and eighth grade kids are getting their first taste of grown up literature. We do a lot of discussion about what makes literature about grownup topics different than smut. We also talk about law and morality and sex. Then I teach the kids to write about these things and put their thoughts in to coherent words. And yes we do read Shakespearea aloud.

Ruchama and Oola I was touched by your letters. Keep up the good work. Naama, none of us can cook and I'm sick of living on sandwiches. I ordered a 1990 Settlement Cookbook, same as what you use from Powell's out in Oregon. Please send me some of your recipes with instructions. I wish we had a cook down here. There is a huge supermarket called Kaleido-Mart and an underground mall nearby. We can get anything we need. There is even a bus to take us there on our shopping day. I just need someone to help me cook.

Leonie Berne Zweig

Golden Sunflower Camp

Golden Sunflower, Kansas zip TBA