NEW ORLEANS – The first night Philip Jones and his compadres endured a backyard "hippie camp" with compost toilets and solar showers. In other words, a bucket and a bucket with a PVC pipe attached.
       The next night at Light City, off St. Claude here in New Orleans, the group from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, ate a chicken nugget (yes, singular) and, as Jones says, instant mashed potatoes that they poured straight out of the box. And nighttime? "I'm sleeping with 3,000 of my closest friends who I've never met before."
       ...That need for emotional connection to a catastrophic event is one reason why so many have come - not to gawk but to understand, says Mr. Borochoff. "A disaster like this seems very abstract unless you're witnessing it in person," he says.
        At Pat Davidson's house, a group of students from the University of North Carolina hum hymns as they pull nails.
       Later, Ms. Davidson, a merchant marine cook and lifelong New Orleans resident, arrives and greets the students. She cries a little, then laughs. She tells the group that she wants to adopt them all, and promises them a full New Orleans supper. "This really gives us hope that our city is not gone," she says.

Dear Common Ground" - from a family of spring break volunteers