We were out at Onagawa today, and caroled for the school kids at the Onagawa Elementary School. A privilege in many ways and a lot of fun.
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| Caroling for students at the Onagawa Elementary School |
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| The local radio station interview |
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| With Rob Lehne, the English teacher (back) and the radio station crew (right) |
A little local radio station has been set up there for Onagawa, and they hopped over for a quick interview - more fun! The town itself is really getting cleaned up and the basics of rebuilding are getting into place. Heard the plan was to build a 5 meter high wall / road on the water front and all housing and essential services will be above the tsunami line. Below that will be industry, fishing, etc. Got some good photos.
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| The tsunami was above the gridded hill on the left. |
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| On the right was where 2 buildings were with a car on top of each; note the power poles being replaced. |
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| Heard at least one of these buildings will be left as a museum. |
From there we went back to the big Aeon mall for a debrief with Gilberts at the food court. Good time to chat through the trip and concerts, and it was all pretty positive. Lorna asked the gals to help her do some final shopping for the big "takisashi" tomorrow, so Keith and Andy and I had a cup of coffee together. At 5:45 we left to go north on the highway up to the Samaritan's Purse camp at Tomei. Through a chance meeting with some SP workers, we had gotten an invitation to go up there for supper and to sing for them. Many are international workers who come for weeks or months at a time.
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| Caroling for the Samaritans Purse staff and crew |
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| Enjoying sounds and memories of Christmas |
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| Invited some volunteers to wear the hats and join us. |
What a privilege to connect with their staff and the crew - some 50 people. We sang about 45 min and stuck around for their 15 min prayer time.
Got back here around 9:45, and are getting ready to pack up, clean, and say "sayonara" tomorrow morning. We head to Sendai for a 2 PM concert, then leave there around 4 PM to drive to Chiba. Gonna be a late night. We'll sing a couple songs in the morning service on Sunday and then be tourists in Tokyo for a bit of decompression and personal fun.
It's snowed several times around here today, but nothing sticking too much on the roads. Unless it dumps overnight - it's not supposed to - it shouldn't be too problematic to drive.
Am feeling ready to come home - eager to be home! - but just finally getting past jet lag. Plus the group is getting to sound pretty good now too. Sigh….
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