As some of you might know, on March 11, 2011 Japan was struck by the strongest earthquake ever registered in the country's history. Besides the earthquake, what was really a problem was the Tsunami that destroyed a huge area of Japan's east coast... This event was really indescribable.
If you want to read detailed information from the earthquake you can visit
this Wikipedia page.
At the time of the earthquake I was in
Setana working in my first volunteer program. I was taking a nap that afternoon and I remember that I woke up for some reason, but I can't really say I felt the quake. Setana town is far from the epicenter and I had no clear idea of what had happened because my Internet access was very limited and I never watched TV there...
After a while I could get more information about the event. Because in Setana the earthquake's impact was little and everything was normal I had no real idea of the disaster's magnitude.
It was until some months after and back in Tokyo in June, that the people from ICYE Japan (the volunteer organization with which I was working ) told me that there was an opportunity to help in the tsunami affected area and immediately I said yes! So after
the final volunteer programs in Tokyo and Yokohama and the final ICYE Seminar I prepared my back pack and rode a 8 hour bus to Morioka in Iwate with the company and help of Kurose-San, Nobuhito and Anita.
Morioka was not our final destination. We stayed here one night and the next day from our arrival we departed for Miyako and finally to Yamada-Machi...
When we arrived, the shock from the devastated landscape was just indescribable. Never in my life I had walked in a place with so much destruction and even though most of the debris had been removed, the footprints from the disaster were still fresh. Before coming here I saw some videos and photos and I knew destruction was big, but visiting the place was a huge impact... This really moved me and I felt more committed to work as hard as I could during the volunteer program. Here's a video I took on the fifth day of our stay...
We stayed at a temple where, between 15 and 20 affected people were living. Almost every day we had coming and going volunteers from all over Japan, mostly Tokyo and nearby places.
Before Yamada I learned some things about the great fighting spirit of Japanese people but this experience took my ideas to a whole new level. Even if the situation had been very strong and complicated, the people here continued their everyday work with what they had, always very kind and ready to help us volunteers in anything they could with a smile on their faces. I never heard anyone complaining about the bad conditions. It was all the opposite, even in the toughest of times the people here were open to talk about what happened or they listened carefully to what a non Japanese volunteer could tell them. For me this was a unique example of calmness and a strong attitude to face even the most difficult problems.
Some shots from nearby places of where we stayed...
Once we settled in the temple (where we slept in futons, in a big hall in the second floor) they took us to the kindergarten where we worked with kids from 0 to 5 years old. The place was a bit far from the destroyed coastal area and I liked it very much there! I could see a very different landscape from the mega city that Tokyo is and I could get in touch with rural Japan and it's lifestyle... !!!
The kindergarten staff (mostly teachers) was very kind! I have to thank so much to Anita and Nobuhito for the translations of almost everything I had to do because the Japanese the teachers used was far from basic level and they also had their own dialect from the region that it was sometimes difficult to understand even for Japanese people from Tokyo.
Work was great! Every day we took the bus or someone from the community would drive us to the kinder where we played all day long with the kids and helped teachers with some preparation tasks for a festival that was a few days away. Even though our work at the kinder was just for a few days, one makes very special bonds with the people and mostly with the kids. Our goal was simply sharing and having happy times after such a difficult situation as the one this people had. I never saw sadness here, this kids had so much energy (every day after the kinder I was exhausted) and even though I was a stranger they treated me like their old brother and they always wanted to share something with me! It was a very special experience and I felt so fortunate to have such a happy and valuable time! :D
Besides the kinder we also visited a care center for senior citizens where we share a special day. It was nice to work with 2 different generations but with the same interest for knowing who you are and having a new experience. This day we talked about culture and they gave us a very nice origami!!! This happened toward the end of the voluntary program in Yamada and the last day the friends from the kinder gave us a special framed picture of a day we spent together when we made bracelets with volunteer monks who also visited the place for helping. This picture is now in my room and every time I look at it very unique moments come to my mind! :)
We didn't work all the 10 days we stayed in Yamada. We had a couple of days off so we could visit some places near Yamada-Machi. One of the places we visited was Miyako which has beautiful landscapes and we had a super nice weather that day so the break was very fun!
This post has grown a lot so next time I will tell you about the day off at Miyako and the boat ride!!!
Be super happy!!! :D
