Volunteering Day 2, Friday June 3

IASW ALERT #4! At breakfast I was chatting with Tim Reece. He's a missionary kid who went to CAJ (Christian Academy in Japan in Tokyo) and graduated in 1975. His wife also went there. Turns out she and I were born in the same hospital in Osaka. But wait! She and my sister were born one day apart at that same hospital AND their mothers shared a room!

We had been advised not to bring stuff with us from the States to hand out, as folks living in cramped quarters might not have room for any extras; plus we had no idea of their needs. Also, showing up at an evacuation center with 25 of an item might cause a problem if there were 40 people living there. The Japanese way is one of equity. It would upset the group dynamic if some had to go without. Also, we were asked to be sensitive with our cameras. Taking pictures of devastation was one thing; taking pictures of people might be intrusive. These folks have been the subject of much media attention since the tsunami, and they might feel as if they were in a zoo, what with all these gaijin (foreigners) taking pictures right and left. We were also told not to solicit stories, but if they offered to tell us, we could listen and go from there.

One more bit of explanation, of distances, travel times, etc. The nearest devastation to Sendai is Natori, a suburb a few miles away. Another is Ishinomaki, about 30 miles away, but because of two lane roads, it takes over an hour by vehicle. Speed limits on these roads is about 25-30 mph. Other areas we helped at were several hours away! There's only one expressway in the area, the Tohoku Expressway, which runs north-south, from Aomori to Tokyo. All other roads are surface streets, narrow, with traffic lights, and usually a lot of vehicles. Therefore much of our volunteer days were spent actually getting TO and from the job site!

Besides the group I was in, others did the following: visited an evacuation center for the developmentally disabled, cleaned up around a school, cleaned up homes, helped set up shelters, and helped at a food distribution center. One other option was to go sightseeing at Matsushima, one of Japan's most scenic spots. Turns out our group was the first foreign tour since the tsunami! The locals were very happy to see us.

Friday morning the bus going to our volunteer work area left the hotel at 7:00 am! We headed north and east to Kesennuma, one of the towns hit hardest by the tsunami. That leg of the bus ride took 3 hours. Thank goodness for a rest area along the way! If you watched the video on CNN and youtube where folks were on an elevated walkway above the town looking down at the tsunami come through and the water level rising, we went right smack into that zone of devastation.

One group of 15 folks got off the bus to help a family clean up their apartment grounds. I was fortunate to be in the second group of 17 (I'll explain why later) that stayed on the bus and drove another hour north (yet only 13 miles!) to Rikuzen-Takata, a city hit worse than Kesennuma! Whereas many buildings were left standing in Kesennuma, albeit with some damage, RT was basically leveled.

We went to a Junior High School, fortunately located on a hilltop, where the first floor was an evacuation center, and the athletic field had been converted to a site for temporary shelter units. As soon as the supply truck arrived, we outfitted 78 units (which will house 232 people) with brooms, wastebaskets, futon, sheets, toiletry supplies, a mystery brown box, a small table, and dishware.

As we finished up our last unit to stock, a woman in an adjacent occupied unit called out to us and said her daughter and granddaughter were moving in THAT NIGHT to one of the units we outfitted. She was so happy she was crying and thanking us for our help!

As we headed back to pick up group 1 in Kesennuma, we had to take this detour along a seawall. The road was so narrow! Congrats to our bus driver for his diligence.

When the folks working in Kesennuma got on the bus for our return trip to Sendai, they REEKED!! They'd been moving muck, dead trees, and even dead and rotted fish. Yowza, we had to open all the windows! I'm so glad I wasn't on that job!