Train Cross way

Have you ever waited in front of the train's cross way?
We just had the day before. In the morning we were busing down from our dorm on the mountain down to our base, just as our daily routine goes.  When we got close to the cross way, the safety bar was lowered and there was a little line up in front of it.
"Oh, how I  have missed this!"  said Mr Wada, our bus driver.
We all poked our little heads to see through the front window.  Slowly but surely, a small train head passed through the crossway as we bursted into cheering and clapping our hands.

The lifeline of train tracks was destroyed in the tsunami in the coastal area, since then train service has been suspended.  Hearing the sound of train is like hearing the sound of the footsteps toward recovery.  Slowly, but surely.

How odd it is now that the usual stressful wait in front of the cross way become so moving.

Stardust

Yesterday when Mr Kawahara learned that it was the last day of one of our volunteers Mayumi, he said, "Please don't forget Ofunato."

My dear people of Ofunato, do not be afraid
We can never forget  you.
We who come from all over the world have met you in the debris of mountains and sea
We have laughed together, we have cried together.
When we leave, your lives are like stardust
ingrained on our hearts.
Perhaps one day, when dark night comes onto our path
it would be these sparkling stardust that save us from the starless nights

Thank you for sharing your smiles and tears with us
Thank you so much.

Park 2: The Bricks

Before 

After

We found out this the hard way.  

At the final finish of the brick-laying, we pour fine, white silicon sand to fill the gaps between bricks.  

Using a brush to push aside the excess, a beautiful brick road comes into being.  

As I was brushing the excess sand off, I discovered that a few bricks appeared to be very loose.  Soon we realized those were the bricks that weren't hammered well enough to be sturdily lodged in the sand base.  Painfully, we had to take them out, filled in the extra sand that was needed to become the solid base, then pound it back. 

I was wondering why we have to sweat so much effort to fix the sand level and everything.  Now there was the answer.  I thought of what Jesus said about people who hears His words and put them into practice.  

Jesus concludes at the end of The Sermon on the Mount, ""Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock."    (Matt 7:24)  

All looks beautiful, until the trial comes.  

Read Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7

Park: A Park!

Laying down bricks in a park was my major task of the day.  I'd never thought about how that piece of brick road under my feet have come into being.  Ever.  And I am giving birth them right now!  After flattening the sand, we lay bricks down and hammer them down.  Each brick needs to be at the same level as the rest of its buddy, else somebody is gonna trip over it.  It's not as easy as it sounds, because each brick is not exactly the same thickness, and could be uneven on its own surface.  So we put different amount of sand underneath each brick to level it, and pound to its perfection.  As the day went, my hammer managed to miss any parts of my hand most of the time.  But finally I managed to miss the gigantic brick and hit my tiny little finger with the rubber hammer.  Oh I feel so smart these days when learning how to do handy work.

We are making a park for the kids in the community.  Most of the recreational space like park have been used for temporary housing, leaving the kids nowhere to play. One afternoon when I was killing my back with the brick-laying work, a small voice asked, "May I ask what you are making?"  I looked up, and saw two elementary school kids standing on the path in front of the bench area I was working at.  

"It is a park.  Please look forward to it!"  I smiled.  

"It's a park!  Isn't it great?"  The boy who asked turned to his friend exclaimed with excitement.  

I stood and watched as they walked away with a smile.  I never knew a park could bring so much joy to a little soul.

More bricks please! 

Park

Sharing my Finger Tip Joy ;)

After bundled up my finger for a good couple of days, the wound is healed!  and I managed to shave off 2mm fibrous skin off it before taking this picture.
Oh what happened to my finger?  Nothing.  The rubber hammer just missed a gigantic brick and went for my tiny little finger tip instead (I feel so smart these days when I learn how to do handy work).

to my radiation therapist friends:  tegaderm and paper tape are great for finger tip wounds!

A small  price to pay for the making of a community park ;)
Park story coming soon!!

At the Door

Today's work is to take people to spend money! XD
Most of  locations of temporary housing are inconveniently located in the middle of  nowhere.  People who don't own a car, esp the elderly, can only wait for the mobile food truck to come, or take the shuttle bus to shop grocery which comes to the area once or twice a week.  The temporary housing area that we serve doesn't even have a shuttle bus service.  Honestly, I am pretty upset about the negligence from the city officials!  On top of that, the shuttle bus service, when it is available, is not free.  Each time they will have to pay 600 yen.  When you have lost everything and the government is not paying you much, it is a lot of money.
The grannies and grandpas really appreciate our help to get some food.

One of the grannies called Mrs Asano asked me to carry her grocery to her house.  It was definitely my pleasure to give her a hand.   When we arrived at her small square box, she stopped in front of the door.  She turned around and said to me, "It is really embarrassing inside, you can leave the grocery here, thank you."
I was a little stunned, and was overwhelmed with sadness.
Usually Japanese are very hospitable.  They would double the miles if you have walked them one.  And I wouldn't be surprise if the little old lady attempts to feed me.
She could barely lift the bags herself...  How much shame does it take for a japanese old lady to refuse someone who has just helped her to carry heavy grocery to even step inside?
Yes, with a roof over their head.  A roof that reflects their embarrassing and stranded situation.  A roof that makes them feel they are not good enough to open their door to welcome a guest.
I suddenly remember the vision of Habitat for Humanity:  A world where everyone has a decent place to stay.  I wish for the day to come, that they can smile and open their door to guest with all the warmth and pride in the world.

Pieces of broken lives.

One of the important works that we do is to clean ditches (sewage system, canals... whatever you like to call it!).  The tsunami has brought loads of mud and all kinds of debris into the canals along the road side clogging the water sewage system, thus floods the area when  it rains.  What we do is to lift all the concrete cover of  canals, pull out the weeds that blossoms in the tsunami mud, then dig out the mud/earth shovel by shovel.  After we dug out the soil, we must sort out the concrete and debris from the soil, putting them into different bags for disposal.  Just a fun side note, there was a fish factory in one of the area before.  Many fishes were washed to everywhere, including ditches.  After so many months, the fishes decomposed into the mud, wherever they had landed.  The mud becomes kinda  sticky, gluey  aka asphelt-like (I am sure it is full of collagen and protein!), emitting a distinctive obnoxious smell.  YYYyuummmmmmmmmMMm.

In the usual japanese cleaning standard, we use a brush to clean the ditch after digging the mud out.  A straw-made broom is used to clean whatever is left behind before the final touch of a lighter broom to rid the dust off the sidewalk.  To be honest, my room has less treatment than the ditch!!

As we dig thru the ditch meter by meter, lots of different debris are recovered:  a watch, calender, penguin-glass paper holder, red wine bottle, fragments of fine china... I feel I am picking up broken pieces of people's lives.  In the midst of all the debris, we found a collection of train miniatures.  We carefully put them aside as we found them one by one.  over the span of that morning, we found a total of 4.  We were all abit quiet and heavy.  Perhaps they were once a favorite toy of a little boy.  At the end, we couldn't manage to throw them away.  Heather brought them back to the base in a small towel, and gave me 2 of them after washing them.

I carry them around in my bag during my break in Osaka and Kyoto, as a reminder of why I am here in this far far land.  At times, I tell their story to my new friends.  My new friends would look at these little trains with a tint of overwhelming sadness in their eyes.

I feel this has become a part of my mission.  It is not to sell tragic tearful stories, but to tell the stories and lives of the earthquake area to others, so people of the Northeast will not be forgotten as they try to live their best in the midst of loss and grief.

Forget them not.

For more photo:

Ditches