Ishinomaki Day 0

I'm sorry I haven't updated in such a long time.  Even though I returned to Tokyo last week, between my normal responsibilities here, some sightseeing, the internet going out, and just plain procrastination, I haven't gotten to this blog until now.

Our team of seven left early Monday, May 30 for the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture.  We were told that Ishinomaki had been hit especially hard by the tsunami: almost 20% of all the deaths caused by the disaster were in that city alone.  One middle school had 74 of its 108 students die.  And in the area that we were working in, there are no churches at all.

The eight hour drive was a bit of an adventure.  One of the major roads was closed, so we had to drive through the city of Sendai instead of going on the highway.  There was a truck that crashed in the middle of a tunnel we went through. And at one of the rest stops, I saw some Japanese girls trying badly to hide their laughter as I failed at using chopsticks.

 The scenery was very pretty, though.

Eventually, though, we ended up arriving safely at the Samaritan's Purse base in Tome City, about a half-hour's drive from where we would work.

 

My home away from home away from home

It was actually very comfortable.  I had assumed that we would be roughing it in an evacuation center, but this place had cots, showers, running water, and even a cook!  Exhausted after being in a car the whole day, we ate and went to bed early.  The next day would start bright and early.

I'll devote one blog post to each day of my trip, so the next one will detail my first day working.  Thanks for reading!