Before I start rambling, some words from today's edition of USA Today: Kids Trade Spring Break For Chance to Help

There was also coverage on the local news channel about a 200-strong group of volunteers from Common Ground breaking into a school in the Lower Ninth Ward so they could begin clearing it out and hopefully get it re-opened faster.

As for us... everyone was really tired today. We did finish the house we were working on yesterday on Hermes Street, and walking through it with the supervising contractor and hearing him say that everything was as it should be (ie finished) and that we'd done a great job was really satisfying. We put the personal items we'd salvaged back in what had been the dining room, and moved on the our next project, on Holley Lane.

That was the point where everyone started crashing. I was totally exhausted - I must admit I didn't really do much at Hermes St or at Holley Lane - and the weather wasn't terribly nice, and the Holley Lane house was really, really depressing. I actually needed a torch to see what I was doing in the master bedroom, and for some reason that really got to me. I was also terrified of finding the woman's wedding dress for some reason, and I'm really glad I didn't - I don't know if I would have been able to cope with that. Somehow the idea of something so significant, and so evocative of beauty and love, being covered in mud and mold, was something I couldn't wrap my mind around.

I'm very excited about tomorrow though - we're going to visit the Lower Ninth Ward, and then we're finally going to get to participate in the after-school program I was talking about earlier in the week. I can't believe it's going to be our last day! I'm looking forward to going home, but I have completely fallen in love with New Orleans.