Volunteering in Onagawa

We joined with the Mormon Helping Hands to go to Onagawa, a town that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. The group had gone up right after the tsunami to work, and Onagawa's mayor had extended the invitation for us to come back and do a cultural exchange day. The plan was to spend the day with people who are living in shelters, doing American style games, and provide American food.

We left the apartment at 10pm on Friday to go meet the buses looking like we were escaping the city.




The buses got started at 11:30pm. And since the Japanese have rules about how often bus drivers need to stop, we got to see rest stops every 2 hours. The picture above was at our 4am stop when we had breakfast.




When the sun came up we could see some beautiful landscapes around Sendai Japan.

But as we got closer to the coast, you could see the damage from the earthquake and tsunami. This is an example of a foundation from a home. There is nothing left of the house.




This is a collection point where rubble is being stored temporarily.




The town is right on the water, and when the tsunami hit, it demolished buildings and swept away homes. The wave was 50-60 feet high.




This 4 story concrete building was ripped up and toppled over like a lego. You can see the foundation in this picture as the building sits on its side.






Up the hill from center of the town, is a school which has become temporary housing for about 300 people. They will be living there for at least the next 2 years. We got off the buses and started to set up for the day.





We got off the buses and started to set up for the day. After we got our game and cooking assignments, the kids from Onagawa began to arrive. You could tell our group by the yellow tops we were all wearing.



Of course, we started off the day with an official opening ceremony. We heard from the Mayor who explained that Onagawa is a town of 10,000 people. Over 850 people in the town were killed by the earthquake/tsunami.

This is a picture of him showing a large picture of the town after the tsunami.



We started the games with the kids. Cynthia and I were assigned to a spoon relay game with cotton balls. We had grandmas...




And grandpas...




And little kids...



We were asked to speak English as much as possible. Kaela and Tommy did a great job communicating with the kids.




This guy was in Kaela's group. He was a riot all day.



This is him directing music.

We ate lunch with a wonderful family who survived the tsunami. They opened up and shared their story with us. I'll post their story separately.




At the end of the day, we got on the buses and drove back to Tokyo. It was a wonderfully uplifting and yet heart-wrenching experience to go to Onagawa.

- Posted from my iPad