Today our group set out to our first two work sites, helping individuals move out of FEMA trailers and back into their homes after 2 and a half years.   When we arrived at one gentleman's place, crammeed beneath the airport's landing zones and next to the frieght train tracks, I got a glimpse of just how drastic the impact of Katrina was in the lives of New Orleanians.

The size of the trailers was another moment that illustrated the hardship of the survivors of this storm.  Cramped is an understatement.  Plus, each of our friends today had had to try and fit their undamaged belongings in with them into these tiny trailers.  Mr Strogel seemed also to be lacking not just in living space but in interactions with others.  With each "Lissenamee!" he exclaimed in his Bronx accent we knew that either an interesting ife lesson or important instructive comment was on its way.  It was like he had to get a lot of actual interaction with real people in before he went back to his apartment, internet chat friends, and television.

Perhaps the most poignant but humble sign for me today, though, was the "Evacuation Route" signs tacked up onto light posts along the streets of New Orleans.  Even in the midst of rebuilding, of reconnecting with others, af enjoying the stories of Josie and other residents that we worked with was the spector of the community being called to do this again sometime i the future.  I guess it will be God that gets us through these days and those to come.