3/17 Sat - Ishinomaki & Onagawa

Wow, quite a few highlights for today.  For Gilberts, this is a key day because of the weekly "takidashi" event.  They collaborate with several other groups in what has evolved into an amazingly crucial time for the survivors.  It's part social event, part relief supplies distribution, part free lunch, and part moral-boosting enjoyment.  They tell amazing stories of how people are finding hope and connecting with each other.  One guy was ready to commit suicide, but found welcome and a renewed direction via the community relationships here.


Each time follows the same pattern, but the specifics have a lot of variety.  Today, a local businessman brought fresh oysters from the nearby Mangokuura Sea, and offered them raw or cooked - yum!  

Unloading the oysters

Ralph enjoying a raw oyster.

During the morning, a delightful young singer, Miyuki Hara, sang gospel enka.  She was amazing both musically and in connecting with the people who enjoyed her presentation and sang along.

Miyuki singing for the survivors

Then the most fun of all: Andy led the bingo game where everyone gets a chance to win relief supplies.  This is a great concept because it gives everyone a fair chance at limited supplies, plus is provides an morale boost for everyone there.

Andy (upper right with megaphone) leads the bingo game.

Everyone is welcome to stay for a free lunch, provided this time by the Grace Mission Tohoku, a volunteer team from just outside Tokyo.  We got to enjoy lunch too, and then helped clean up the tent before heading off for a quick visit with the son of our businessman friend, Mr Saito.  He owns a large seafood transportation business that was wiped out in the tsunami, and his wife almost drowned when her leg got stuck in the stairway.  They are doing pretty well, the business is renewing itself, and their son showed us the renovated office.  

Meeting with Saito-san Jr.

From there, we drove out to Onagawa.  This town is where my heart hurts the most - maybe I'm welded to it because it was here that the full impact of the disaster hit me on the April trip.  A few things have changed since I was here in December: the electrical system seems to be in place, the roads have been raised to avoid high-tide flooding, and the harbor looks more active with quite a few boats. Even so, it's still bleak and desolate, and hard to see much optimism here at this point.

At Onagawa harbor looking back at the hospital; the wave went above that embankment.

Somberly we returned to the Guest House, and began preparing for our departure tomorrow.  Little by little our spirits lifted, and then got a big boost when Ralph made a great supper of enchiladas.  It was a bit of trick, but he pulled it off with flour tortillas we found at the import food store in the Ishinomaki mall.  

In the evening we had a good visit with Gilberts to plan for future teams and funding of future projects.  So many opportunities - going to need a lot of wisdom for how to proceed.  Hard to believe that we head back to Tokyo tomorrow.  This has been a great trip!