Amaterasu

This week we present the Japanese folk tale of Amaterasu, a goddess
who was in charge of the sun, and went to hide in a cave when her
feelings were hurt, taking the sun away with her. How did her siblings
coax her into returning and bringing back the sunshine? Find out in
this, one of many, many tales of catastrophic floods and storms from
many cultures throughout the world.

We chose one of these stories for this week because we just paid our
first visit to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina hit. We found the
city itself in pretty good shape, but in St. Bernard Parish, the
destruction is still jaw-dropping 16 months after the disaster.

We were in town to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, expecting to
wield hammers and saws in the reconstruction of damaged buildings.
Instead, we were hooked up with a partner program called Play Helps,
created by the Children's Museum of Manhattan to use the arts as
therapy for children traumatized by 9-11. We spent a couple of days at
Andrew Jac