Volunteering in Tohoku, Part 3 - Sunday Muddy Sunday

Mamma mia ! Here I go again !

Messy Tohoku is currently welcoming as many volunteers as possible, so here we are. Again. And it's not the last time !

AFJ's volunteering missions are far to be over : as long as there is a way to work without risking an apoplexy (understand : before summer), we will go to Tohoku and do our best to help a bit. We kept exactly the same scheme : leaving from Tokyo all together by bus, travelling by night, reaching Ishinomaki (Miyagi-ken) around 7 am and working all the week-end long in the city. Once again, thank you guys for giving us the opportunity to go in good conditions ! (Our group was twice bigger than the first time, which means more money for the transportation)

Talking about conditions : Oh my, we had a real bus this time ! What's next ? Limousines, maybe ? With a mini-bar inside ? Without kidding, I really felt the difference. I was so fresh compared to the previous trip...

 Still, after 7 hours on the road... it's 6 am, we're just arriving at Ishinomaki, and we will be working hard in in two hours. *LOL*

Ishinomaki is more or less in the same shape : huge areas are destroyed, and little (or big) WALL-Es are working on it everywhere.Work in progress...

The group on the sea wall, which coul not prevent the wave to flow in...

Day 1 - First Challenge : cleaning the gutters and watercourses around this house, which still proudly stands whithout huge damages.

The watercourse is covered with these super-heavy concrete slabs, that we have to remove before getting access to the mud... It requires several strong men each !

After that, same old job : get you shovel and put off the mud. It's sticky, stinky, and the gutter is too narrow for our tools, but we did it ! At noon, the watercourse was clean - and we were dirty.

Day 1 - Second Challenge : Back to the graveyard ! Remeber, it was the first my group has been given during the first mission. Surprise : the broken cars vanished (how did they do that ? With cranes ?) and the cemetery was absolutely crowded woth Japanese volunteers from the neighborhood (Yamagata and so on). During the break, I realized that they all brought "useful food" like collagen bars and salt candies to fight dehydration or something. So sophisticated...

We didn't know it, but one hour later we have been supplyied with mikan-flavor water ice-creams to keep fresh while working under the sun... Yummy ! Thanks to A-S who takes her desires for reality, and who made the dream come true !

The big moment of my week-end : I drew water from the well, for the firt time of my life ! I was so happy to do it !

It's 6 pm, this is the end of this long day... And we have been allowed to go to the sento again, so we were fresh and clean for the evening !

Little walk in sunshine-kissed Ishinomaki : so beautiful, so sad at the same time... But even if empty, I could not think of death and pain there. I had the feeling the city does not ask for nothing but healing and living again.

Sleeping beauties in the back classroom, our shelter for the night...

Day 2 - Challenge : doing something for the marsh in front of the Volunteer Center. We had to walk along the walls to reach the entry all day long before. Here is the school playground was looking the day before :

On the morning, a digger came and pushed the mud in the corner...

... so we "just" had to put it off and to fill the garbage bags. But actually it's an easy job because the mud was not mixed with garbages nor difficult to reach with the shovels... The only difficulty was about doing pretty intensive exercice under this sun...

And finally, clean it is ! Good job ! The mud mountain turned into a garbage bags one...

I have lost liters of sweat but I enjoyed working there, exactly as the first time. Not only it's useful for this broken city, but also the atmosphere of th AFJ's group is really pleasant and funny - just as the summer camps I definitely refused to go to when I was a little girl. As an adult - never too late -, I appreciate !

If by chance you are living in Japan (French or not, that's not mandatory at all) and you wish to come with us next time, please send a mail to the AFJ and join us ! The less we can say is that there is plenty of work for everyone ! So welcome...

Pour les amis francophones, voici mon petit rapport sur le site de l'AFJ : ici !

(Credit photo AFJ)