“Home is where the heart is” must be the oldest cliché in the book. Yet after spending a week with eight newly acquainted volunteers from Berklee College of Music helping to build a home for a family of displaced Katrina survivors, I have a newfound respect for the cliché.

The thoughts that linger have much less to do with the hours of work covered in sweat, sawdust, and paint, or the quality of work we did (which was excellent, truth be told!); they have everything to do with the people I met and the stories we shared.

Read the rest of Marian’s dispatch from New Orleans on Boston.com.

Read more blogs from the Gracenotes New Orleans 2011 Trip.