Posting from Kate

This was written on Sunday night, but we've had trouble with a web connection so I'm getting it posted later than I had hoped. Enjoy!

Today we went to New Orleans which, as a local Mississippi woman explained, is commonly pronounced “nahl-ins” in the South. It was an incredible experience that cannot be put into words (however, I’ll do my best). The most extraordinary part of this trip was witnessing the amount of destruction in New Orleans. Although it was highly documented in the news, there is no way to capture the magnitude of the destruction unless you are witnessing it first-hand. We were fortunate enough to drive through the 9th Ward and help unload a truck of water bottles with the grassroots organization “Common Ground” (they have a website if you want more information). They were a particularly energetic group of young people from all over the country and I was very inspired by their dedication to working in the most devastated community we saw. When looking around, it is hard to imagine how things could ever be rebuilt or how much time it would take to try to rebuild. In addition to seeing the 9th Ward, we took a tour through the city and suburbs with a local New Orleans resident who shared with us not only the history of New Orleans, but the entire history of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans (including his own personal story). This experience also had a profound effect on me because it felt like I was seeing the hurricane unfold before my eyes. Although photographs and coverage I had seen before traveling to New Orleans were very moving, they did not in any way compare to the emotion felt when witnessing the effect of the damage on entire communities.