I’ve only spent two hours at Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia but I’m already depressed. This is the site of the largest Confederate military prison during the Civil War.

The visitor center also houses the National Prisoner of War Museum. There have been POWs from time immemorial and the museum wants to give you a feeling of what it was like to be a POW. Former POWs of mostly the Vietnam war, Korea and WW II talk about how they survived. I walk through the gallery as if I was a POW. Rifles come out of the wall pointing at me. Lots of pictures of POWs and their families adorn the wall. And all of this before I’ve even gone to visit the prison site or the cemetery. That’s tomorrow.

The closest “big” town is Americus, only 15,000 people.

But it is the international headquarters of Habitat for Humanity. The successful nonprofit was started by a couple who had lived in an intentional community around here, way before intentional communities  were popular. Because Americus is only ten miles from Plains, GA, the home of Jimmy Carter, it made sense to ask him to become active in the charity.

More of Andersonville tomorrow.