74,309* steps for Tohoku

Here is an email that I sent to a few of my colleagues and friends.. hope you enjoy it. There will be a behind the scenes post soon. Stay tuned my good lookin readers and followers.

74,309* steps for Tohoku

Our team of 10 headed for Ishinomaki with the other Peaceboat volunteers, one of the most devastated areas hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. After a 10 hour bus ride, we arrived at 7 in the morning; we were briefed, charged up and started with clearing out the mess that the tsunami had left. We knew what kind of people this trip had brought together when we all formed a line from the bus to the warehouse to carry everyone’s bags. With love. With care. To help. We devoted the first day to digging out the toxic sludge from the drains of the first home. As a team, we were on our knees and dug deep. The stench overwhelming - by the end, our backs hunched like that of an 90 year old nanna, but completely rewarding. We found a set of 6 rings inside a jewelry box in the sludge. They were beautiful rings; we cleaned them up and gave them to the owner of the home. It wasn’t theirs. It had floated down the trains and was buried in the sludge. We turned it in to the police. We will never look at drains the same way.

The sludge from the drains were dug out and placed in white bags that lined the streets.

That evening, a local visited and shared his story with the Peaceboat volunteers. He’s story was so heartfelt that he left most in tears. He told his story about running for his life. He told his story of the importance of saving yourself. He told his story of the menace of the monster waves and the force of the water. He told his story of hearing people calling for help, most cars enveloped by water; car horns wailing, masking the cries of the passengers stuck in them. He had returned to Ishinomaki a few days later to the smell of human flesh, rotting carcasses and general stench. He never told us if he was reunited with his family. We never asked.

That night we felt an earthquake. The story we were just told never felt so real. It was a real warning to not take the situation lightly.

After the first night with a curfew of 7, lights out at 10, and a warehouse shared by 140 others, we were set for another eventful day of cleaning. We started the day with radio taiso (Japanese morning exercises), and we embarked on our second project. We dug up the foot-deep toxic black tar and mud from under a beautiful traditional home. The once beautiful polished wooden floorboards- sawn off to reveal the terror of the tsunami. Teams from diverse backgrounds worked hand-in-hand unified with one purpose. We found a beautiful handwritten postcard in the mud. It didn’t belong to the owners. We cleaned the carport. There was a stiletto shoe jammed on the roof of the carport. The team dug up the debris-ridden garden and hosed down the yard. The owner's gave us a small box of cherries to thank us. We thanked the owners, and continued on.

 

The second evening, one of our team members spoke with an 85 year old local missing his front teeth. He had saved himself by swimming his way out of the tsunami, knocking out and losing his teeth. But not his life.

We took a walk around the neighborhood that same evening. Most roads cleared by the armed forces, and other volunteer groups. Eerie when we walked past a cemetery and found a car wedged between the gravestones. The first house we worked on, there was a car wedged in the backyard, a notice plastered on the front windscreen stating the owner had not reclaimed it. The owner was never found. We walked towards the ocean; there was a huge pot hole in the ground near the coast guard. The building torn - they said the locals did not hear the repeated tsunami warnings because the coast guards were wiped out first. The water was quiet and still.

The third day we worked on another house similar to the last. Cleaning the toxic mud from

under the floorboards – the house that was once inhabited by a beautiful family, and who

we thought was owned by a silent samurai. His wife gave us flavored ice-blocks and milk to thank us for our efforts. We thanked them for letting us help. 50% of the neighborhood had vowed never to return, or could not return - their lives lost.

We pushed the tools-filled wheelbarrows back, some rode on bikes, some dragged their heavy boots from the day’s hard but satisfying work, sharing and motivating each other with their stories. We were surrounded by homes stripped off of walls, schools ripped apart with only water logged artworks reminding us of how young the students were. Sheds stood on their roofs, and cars totaled - some with their windscreen shattered, and most with the driver seat window torn out. Whether they were broken to save or retrieve people, we will never know.

On the fourth and final day, without showers, we were prepped by the Peaceboat leaders to be weary of the heat, after two heatstroke victims from the previous day. As exhaustion kicks in, so will injuries. We were handed heat stroke candy and started on the fourth project- The Leo Palace apartments. We walked up to the site to see the waterline a half meter above the door frame. We cleared the pavement, the side walk, the garden, the back garden, under the carport, removed tatami mats (bamboo house mats), corrugated iron, dead trees, electric saws and clothes rotting in the mud. This took a team of initially 5, but later completed by 20. We moved on - we knocked out the walls of another home, it started to thunder and rain, as if the house was crying out when we tore apart this historic home. On one side of the room was a beautiful mirror. A mirror passed down from generations, still intact but covered in dirt and remnants of the flood. This was the owner’ s hope.

Each day, we would return to the warehouse, thank each other for their hard work, shared dinner as one family, and gave thanks for the fact that we were here to help. The experience cannot be explained through words, but if you can, you should definitely put in a few days and help the Tohoku community. It will change you.

Tohoku – keep on fighting. Ganbaru!

# 

*Courtesy of the Global Corporate Challenge pedometer 
# We asked for love from one of the Peaceboat leaders. He gave us lots of if.

How can you help? We volunteered with Peaceboat, who is highly regarded in the Tohoku community. They have continued to hold a strong presence in helping the locals however their volunteer numbers have decreased recently. They have a permanent site in Tohoku - you can volunteer for a longer period or short stay. They would be estatic if you volunteered. You can form a group within the firm and head up together, or you can go with a few friends, and be assigned to a group. Please contact me and I can definately put you in touch with the right people.

Leave a comment if you're a keen bean.