e woke up a little later than we had intended, but after quickly getting ready our kind host took us to the local market. Apparently the
market has been running for a long time and after the disaster it was finally
restarted in spring of this year, through the support of the Canadian government or a Canadian
organization amongst others. It was smaller than usual due to construction, but it was
still decent sized. I was really hoping to get some coffee from one of
the vendors that I saw, but we ended up getting suckered into an sumi-e
lesson. I'm not really into art and I was as awful as I expected. But everyone
was kind and pointed out the nice parts of my crab picture, like the
kanji that I use for my name. I'm not sure if people are actually this kind, or if they're just humoring the foreigners, but anyway, that wasn't the point of today.
After the market and the lesson, we
needed to quickly get back to the junior high school that we had visited
the day before. This was the meeting point for the volunteer work we
were to join. We joined a volunteer project organized by STEP. There are
still 41 residents of Yuriage who are missing. So our job is to look for them. By
uncovering and digging through drainage ditches. Naturally we weren't
going to find a body in those small areas, but at this point they're
looking for anything, personal artifacts or remains. I know it's grim to
talk about but it's very important and this is what these people are
facing everyday. Being able to send loved ones off with a proper funeral
rite is very important in Japanese culture and until something is
recovered so that one can be done for each person whose life was taken
that day, closure can never be had for those families.
The
work was in no way fun. It was quite physical - some tasks more so than
others. I initially was set on cutting "grass and weeds" (I think they
had grown beyond those labels) down with a shovel so someone else could
lift the concrete panels up. After that another person dug all the dirt
out of the ditch. The ditches are about a foot across and about two feet down. I was then shifted to the task of raking through the dirt
looking for anything as I scooped the soil back into the ditch to be
recovered with the panels. Not much was found that day - some toy car, a
broken necklace, and some dishes. I found nothing more than pieces of
glass and lots and lots of weird bugs. I guess I also found a renewed
interest in doing volunteer work though. I hadn't done any physical
volunteer work since graduating university. I had done some proofreading in the past but I
never felt like that was really doing anything. I guess because so many
people aren't physically able to help and while I'm not in shape, I am
definitely able-bodied enough to do something.
We left
the work a little early because at the center there was a guest who
would be telling her story from the day of the earthquake and tsunami.
We arrived a few minutes late, but we made it for most of her story. I
only caught a fraction of what she said, but I got the gist of what was
going on. She worked at a nursery school near the coast and when she
found out about the approaching tsunami she made a quick decision on
where to go. There were three evacuation spots - the community center, the junior high, and the elementary school. The elementary school was the furthest spot away from the nursery school, but she figured the road to the other schools would have been extremely crowded. So she decided to take the long route to the elementary school. She talked about how
they tried to protect the kids both from the physical and mental damage
from the earthquake. She worried about them looking outside and seeing
the destruction happening around them. She worried about what to do if
the children started crying for their parents. She worried about how to
feed all the children with only 7 bread snacks. She worried about what
to do about diapers for those still in them. She talked about how she
and the other teachers there dealt with this. She talked about the
lessons she learned - about the power of children's hearts and about the
importance of preparation. She, along with everyone else, realized we
can never underestimate the power of nature.
After the
volunteer work, I was physically exhausted. After listening to the
woman's story, I was emotionally drained. So after checking back in with
the volunteer group who had finished up for the day by that time, we
chatted a bit, said another prayer at the memorial in front of the
junior high school and then set off for the nearby spa/public bath. We
said our goodbyes and thanks to our gracious host, got cleaned up, and
then headed back onto the road. It was a long trip home filled with
traffic and some swear words at said traffic. Everyone was drained and
nerves were frayed. I don't know how my friend handles this everyday. I
suppose that he's become numb to it on some level, much in the same way
that the locals have had to in order to survive and begin to move on. I
don't know that I'd ever be able to do that, but I definitely want to
help again. And I can't even begin to express my gratitude for my
friend inviting me up to Sendai and for organizing this whole
experience.
Kairi Yada's blog: tsunami2011.jp
STEP's blog post: http://54renzock.jugem.jp/?eid=1942
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