Earthquake Diary 86

This post is different. Below I have pasted in a short article written by my friend Marc, who I first met about 30 years ago. I had thought about going with Marc when he volunteered but my age, 15 years older than Marc, and the fact that I can not buy the required rubber boots to fit my big feet made me realize that I would not be much help. Also yesterday, I had to spend much of the day at the dentist for treatment for infected gums.

Marc was out of the country at a conference during the big quake but he was back in time for the biggest aftershock, thus his having to pick up twice. I will stop now and let Marc tell you about the experience of volunteering to participate in the clean up.

Marc: 

Just realized I’ve been back for a month.  So far have cleaned up my office and a couple other rooms (a big classroom and the part-timers room – both of which I’m sort of responsible for twice). Also doing preparation for classes, what little we have left of first year student orientation, gotten the paperwork done for my trip to Thailand with students this summer (we are still going, dammit. We have to keep on with life).

Anyway, by yesterday, I figured those things were covered. So I went to the volunteer center late in the day and asked where they needed help.

On the way home, I stopped by a home center to buy knee-height rubber boots, good gloves and a good mask.

Caught a train just after 8 to get to Tagajo by 9.  Tagajo is in the east part of Sendai. Got hit by the tsunami but flooding was the major issue. If you remember seeing giant, round gasoline tanks on fire – That’s Tagajo.

Registered as a volunteer, got my insurance card. Pulled out my wallet and they said – “Oh, no. It is free. And you are covered for a year.” I said I was just pulling out my wallet to put the card in it. Then went upstairs to wait for my assignment.

There are maybe 50 seats in 4 or 5 rows. You sit in the back, then move up until you are in the front row. They pull teams of 4-6, one person is identified as leader. Then you go downstairs, pick up the equipment you need (shovels, deck brushes, bags to fill with sludge, a wheelbarrel, whatever.

I was in a team of 5. The leader is Endo-san. Tanaka-san is also important. They've been doing this for a while. A young woman from Tagajo is also part of the team. She graduated from my university (didn’t know her, she didn’t know me). Another guy who grew up in Tagajo. Lives in Tokyo now. Was there when the quake hit. His family’s house is OK. He said he just had to come back to help. And me.  The old guy. These people are all 20’s or maybe early 30’s. I’m 56.

They send us to a place very near the ocean. It is a mess, although it has clearly been cleaned up a lot, mostly by the Japanese self-defense force (the military). It feels like a war zone.  Piles of garbage 2 stories high. Cars overtuned. A shrine engulfed in stuff that should be somewhere else. A few work teams, lots of military. and our little team. The guy (Abe-san) whose house we are supposed to be cleaning up is nowhere around. Apparently he has to be there for us to do any work. Endo-san calls the volunteer center and they start to look for him. They never do find him but this gives us time to look around. The neighborhood is tragic. Factories, so f-cked-up they will never produce anything again. Houses that are trashed.

After about an hour, the volunteer center van comes back for us. They reassign us to a house not so far from the giant gasoline tanks. Here we have work to do. The water-line on the house shows it has been flooded by at least 2 meters. It is (was) a traditional Japanese house with a beautiful garden. It reminds me of Masumi’s (my wife’s) folks’ house. So that probably makes it harder. We start by scooping up the dark, skinking mud that flooded the house. We have a new team member

by now – a young guy who came all the way from Fukuoka (I don’t know how far that is but it is a long way – a lot like those of you from Minnesota who went to New Orleans to help with Katrina.

He’s my partner. We are scooping up the mud. He’s freezing (we Sendai folk think the weather is great). He keeps scooping while I fill the bags. 

We break for lunch. We’ve all brought rice balls or sandwiches except Fukuoka-kun. Luckily, I (not knowing what to expect) bought an extra on at a convenience store yesterday. We all have enough.

After lunch, we look at cleaning. The water works so we spray, and scrub, and do what we can do. Things you forget: We thought we had cleaned out the bath. It had been filled with that black, funky mud. We had a clean. Then someone thought to run the hose thought they heating tank – back to funky. It happens.

Eventually, we got the place cleaned up.

Here’s what I find interesting. As you know, in Japan, we don’t talk or complain a lot. Mostly we just keep on keeping on.  As we were cleaning, there wasn’t much talk.

(what would one talk about while cleaning up crap).

But, when we finished, we called the van to pick us up. They said it would take a while. And while we waited, the woman whose house we cleaned totally opened up. With a subtle tear in her eye, she told us all about the experience of the quake, the flood, the tsunami.

She clearly needed to share it.

And I was so glad to spend a day making her life better.