Saturday

Note to my readers: the next few posts (including this) were written quite some time ago--I just didn't have access to internet to post them. I hope you enjoy them despite their tardy appearance. Yes, I'm back in the States now, where toilets have fewer buttons, and more germs. 

Today we went to a different town (石巻 Ishinomaki) to work with Samaritan’s Purse to put together a meal for residents from the area that are still around. There are a decent amount of people still living there. The bottom floors of their houses have been ruined by the tsunami surges, but the upstairs are usually livable. Some people actually do need this meal every week (though they would never admit that openly), but many come simply because they enjoy the company. Some of them have told the Samaritan’s Purse people working there that they’ve never had so many friends in all their lives as they do now, in the aftermath of the tsunami. The people in this neighbourhood are all in roughly the same position and have been forced together because of this disaster.

The men were taken to show off their manliness by tearing down drywall and sheet rock, and the women stayed to put together the meal. We put up tents, made pots and pots of coffee, and chatted with everybody who came through. One of the first questions we were always asked was if we had children or were married. Anna was the only one who could answer in any way in the affirmative (she’s married). Other than Anna’s married state, this put the Japanese ladies out of countenance as they tried to think of something else even remotely interesting that we could talk about using simple Japanese.

It was really excellent to be able to sit down and talk to the Japanese people who came through. It was rewarding socially to talk to the people we’re trying to help and hear their stories and listen to them, and also very exciting from a linguistic point of view to try to understand what they were saying, and even more so be able to respond and tell some stories of our own. Very simple stories, granted, but a beginning!

The Samaritan’s Purse people were great to work with, as well: Virginia, Isaac, Lorna and Andy, and Tobie (too-bee) and Annalie (from South Africa and with the accents to match!).  Annalie and I were sort of designated coffee makers and were able to chat off and on for several hours while people came through to get drinks before lunch.

A couple hours in we girls were requested to sing. We put our heads together and came up with several songs—our favourite being “Down by the River to Pray” from the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack. Jen, Anna, Hannah, and I got some awesome gospel and harmonies going and it was a hit.

Then we went to visit Onnagawa. In my picture post I included a picture of some of our group and a few Japanese men who jumped in with us. That was taken at Onnagawa, as was this:

That building with the green sheeting was swept up (with some foundation) from its spot a couple hundred yards away and deposited on its side here. The gull was here of his own volition.

Onnagawa was very badly hit by the tsunami; it was basically leveled and there are very few buildings remaining.
Exhibit A:

 Apparently the waves were high enough that there were cars washed up onto the tops of that building.

We took these pictures from the parking lot of a hospital that is up about 40-50 feet above sea level. That’s the only reason the hospital survived, but even still it sustained some pretty decent damage when the waves came up over that wall and swept cars parked in the lot into the side of the building.

After that trip we returned to our cabins for dinner and an awesome hymnsing and met up with Christina. Her family had been missionaries in Kobe, Japan and as a result of that Christina spent eighteen years in Japan and is fluent with an enviable accent. She has been a great addition to our already solid team.