Ishinomaki Day 1

Each day at the Samaritan's Purse base started early to fit in as much work as possible.  I hadn't slept well because the night was colder than I expected.  By 8AM, we had left for the area of Shintate, Ishinomaki and got our first real look at the disaster area.  I didn't bring my camera with me because we were cautioned not to take pictures.  Past teams from other relief groups had spent a long time gaining the trust of this neighborhood.  Taking pictures might make the people living there feel like victims, and we definitely did not want to offend.  However, here is a Youtube video of the area by Mr. Abe (whose church I went to that Sunday) from sometime in April.  People have been working really hard to clean up and the main street in the video was completely clean by the time we arrived.  It's an unlisted video, so I can't embed it, but here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mvl106xfxE

There were three groups working in the area with us: Pastor Dean, an acquaintance of Dr. Mehn, lead the overall operation; Samaritan's Purse; and Japan United, an organization made after the disaster by some Japanese churches.  Together, we went to work.

Although the roads had been cleared, there was still a lot of debris in people's yards.  For instance, the trailer from a semi somehow managed to get in between two houses without destroying them (and Japanese houses are close together!).  It's now stuck and will be really hard to get out.  It was strange seeing the destruction, but I had been bracing myself for a while.  It wouldn't be until after the trip that the emotional stress would get to me, actually.

Anyways, the first job I was given was to help clear the yard of an elderly gentleman named Mr. Sugiyama.  The leader of the Japan United team, Nick, explained that Mr. Sugiyama had allowed them to use his water supply, and they wanted to repay him.  He also talked about how Mr. Sugiyama had tried to save an elderly couple in the house across the road, but they ended up underestimating the power of the tsunami and were killed in their house.

Mr. Sugiyama's yard was mostly a large garden with a number of trees and bushes.  The tsunami had killed almost all of the bushes and a few of the trees, so I, along with my teammate Aaron and Nick, started pulling them up.  I have done landscaping once in my life, and that was probably the hardest physical work I had ever done up until I pulled out trees from Mr. Sugiyama's yard.  That first day was absolutely brutal.

Thankfully, Mr. Sugiyama would come out every once in a while and offer us coffee or soda.  My partner Aaron is a boisterous, amiable Hawaiian man, and would often try and engage Mr. Sugiyama in conversation, even if his Japanese needed more work.

Even though I didn't take pictures, Nick did.  There are even a few with me in them on his blog at http://unitedjapan.blogspot.com/.

The first day ended with me being tired, sore, and still a few more trees left to pull.  But I felt good to have put in a day's work, and Mr. Sugiyama seemed to appreciate what we did.  I was a bit worried, though.  The week had only just started and I was already exhausted!