Rather unique concert today: a Ladies Tea in the afternoon requested just the women to sing. Plus we were asked to bring some cookies (which we bought at an international store yesterday) and cake (which Lorna made last night. The guys weren't needed, so we left around 7:00 AM to spend the day working for Samaritan's Purse (see below).
We've been ramping up to this for a couple days now, because changing from SATB to just SA (or thanks to Cheri's low alto, even SAT) takes some reworking of the music. And not all of our songs work well without the guys parts. But with 5 strong female vocalists, it all came together, including a sing-a-long lyric sheet. Off they went around 11:00 AM toward Ishinomaki, stopping en-route for a ramen lunch ("really good!").
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| Lorna, Cheri, and Mika |
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| Celia and Rachel |
They arrived in town around 1:00 PM, and went to the Help Tohoku House in the Koganehama neighborhood (a block from where we were on Saturday for the "takidashi" event. This house was damaged in the tsunami, but repaired and made available by the owner for MTW relief work. Lorna was asked to help decorate the interior in a "country style" but hasn't had much time or resources to get further than some nice curtains. The gals changed into their costumes, then helped finish up the refreshments.
Ten ladies showed up for the tea, which seems small, but it's really all about building relationships, and that happened pretty well. These are all women who have suffered incredible loss and are trying to rebuild their lives. The gals sang well, the lyric sheets worked well, and the cookies were delightful. Lorna was pleased and the impact was strong.
Meanwhile, we guys worked hard all day at a house being renovated by Samaritan's Purse. SP has agreed to clean and renovate 300 houses in the area - a gigantic task. Each house needs all the debris removed, all walls and flooring soaked by the tsunami removed, all mud and crud removed from the crawl spaces. All this is preparation for disinfectant spray and bleach to remove toxic bacteria and mold, then carpenters come and rebuild floors, walls, and the rest to normal standard of livability.
Our job list today had 3 parts: 1) finish cleaning the floor joists, 2) remove an bathroom sink & counter, and 3) pull up and remove the last 6' x 6' area of floor and clean those joists too. I thought we'd have it all done by lunch time, because the whole floor area was only 15' x'30'. Took all day. The sub-floor was pressboard, and removing the remaining sub-floor staples was relatively easy work, but removing the adhesive bound globs was crazy hard and needed hammer and chisel.
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| Keith with the result of 30 minutes effort - it was hard work. |
The house we worked on belongs to Mrs. Ogata who has been living on the undamaged second floor - many people with low to moderate damage have chosen to do this. She talked a little about her experience during the tsunami, and how she saw her neighbor's house ripped off it's foundation and float away with the family still inside. She said that house and those people have not been found. Unimaginable.
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| The tsunami came over this 4-meter high sea wall... |
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| ...and destroyed the neighborhood which is now mostly clear of debris. |
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| Keith found this family photo album in the remaining rubble. |
During lunch break we walked 100 meters through now vacant lots and some remaining debris to the sea wall. Very sobering to think the tsunami rose over where we were standing and gushed a flood of damage and destruction inland to all the neighborhoods for miles and miles along the beach, and then sucked a lot of it back over the wall out to sea. Awful.
BTW, our SP coordinator was Jordan Foxwell, a great guy who was a little middle-schooler when I knew him in Tokyo. Fun to meet him again, now a college grad and helping here.
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| Jordan Foxwell, Mark, and Andy |
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