The most frustrating thing about this entire experience so far is being utterly unable to describe what this experience has been like in a few words.
It has been so many different things.

Personally, I still feel like I am in the process of fully realizing what this experience is going to mean to me.

Today we visited the levees where Katrina flooded the lower ninth ward.

We have talked to many people this week. Each person had a different story and perspective. Connecting with those people has given us links to this community. Through these links, we have connected not only through our minds but through our emotions and hearts.

As I stood at the levees today, I realized that even though I have gained these links this week, I will never be able to fully fathom what it is that New Orleans went through seven years ago.
These people have been through something that I will never fully understand.

And even though that realization is ultimately frustrating, I will always be pushing against that wall. I have those links. I have those conversations, the afternoons building in that house, the reflections with my group members.

It is through these links that I will reach out to other human beings. It is through these links that I will take further steps to understand.

Being here has made is all the more clear to me how important it is for human beings to take care of each other.

Hopefully all of us will take these links back home with us.

- B.E., 3/22/12