12/9 Friday: Ishinomaki - First Concert

After a quick breakfast, we loaded into a van on loan from "Help Tohoku" (a ministry of MTW) and drove into Ishinomaki.  I'm the driver again this time, and it seems so normal to be on the left side of the road.  Plus, I'm remembering the roads fairly well too, so haven't needed a map or the GPS much at all.  Weird.

First impressions of the disaster areas: 99% of the debris is gone, only a few damaged houses & buildings are seen, many "vacant" lots where houses used to stand.  

Note the debris pile in the background

     Thought we'd be seeing many work crews rebuilding houses or infrastructure, but have only seen a few. Odd, and I wonder what is delaying the rebuilding process.  I also find myself wishing the team could have seen the mess before so they could appreciate the vast amount of work that has been done.  Have heard that all people who used to live in emergency shelters (school gyms, etc.) have moved to temporary housing.  One such place is near the Guest House, and it has expanded from two long rows of units this past June to 5 or more rows now.  

      It takes 90 minutes to 2 hours to drive into the disaster areas of Ishinomaki where Andy and Lorna have been doing a lot of work.  How they do that commute every day is beyond me - they're looking for a place to live in the area, but it's tricky to find something appropriate when everything is either in ruins or long since rented out.

We stopped at a "conbini" - a convenience store - for a little snack.  Turned out to actually be a nice cultural plunge for the team, as they enjoyed exploring new foods, and doing simple purchases.

We headed into the Watanoha neighborhood, and found the house being used for storage of supplies for a weekly "takidashi" - handing out emergency food.  Our team job was to unload a van full of supplies and organize it inside the house.  Bev and Rachel like to organize so as we pulled box after box out, they did a quick sort outside on the vacant lot next door.  Then we arranged it all inside the house so Lorna could get the supplies she needed.

After lunch, we drove to a Homac store (similar to Home Depot) where we met Andy and Lorna and the Huddlestons, missionary friends also working in Watatnoha.  We changed into our costumes there (inside the van!) and drove a couple miles to an old folks home for our first concert.  

We 6 (Mika was still in Sendai) sang for about 40 minutes and people seemed to really enjoy it.  Our songs are mostly in English, but we include a verse in Japanese on several songs.  Some of the songs are fairly well known: Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Joy To The World, and Silent Night. People often start to sing along - fun!  Afterwards, we chatted with the folks and took a lot of photos.  They really enjoyed putting on the bonnets and hats.

Bev, Rachel, Celia, Cheri, Keith, Mark (Mika was still in Sendai)

Chad and Jennifer Huddleston were our main contact there.  They were delighted with the connections that the concert provided, especially because the leaders invited them to bring other such groups in the future.  Hurray!

We drove back to the Guest House, stopping at the Seiyu grocery store to get supplies for making our own meals.  We are taking turns making supper, and tonight Celia and Keith made an Italian style meal out of only Japanese items.  It was yummy!  Andy & Lorna and Anne joined us, and we debriefed about the day and the concert. It was a great day, and we're all pleased to be here and getting started in our music ministry.

At the Guest House: Keith & Celia, Andy, Rachel, Cheri, Mark, Anne, Bev, Lorna