Before and After

I want to give you a tangible example of something we've done here.  Myself included, of course.  This is a photo (taken by an All Hands staff member) of a home we cleaned out before we started.

This is after.  The same house.

This is a bunch of us outside the home having a strategy meeting.

The owner if this building is the man in red.  On a different note, the city has come through with heavy machinery and cleared up all of the piles of rubble in front of the houses on both sides of the street.  It's slow-going.  They go about 10 meters per day.  There's that much to remove.

See the house on the right side of the road three down from us?  The tannish/brownish house?  This is another house that the group worked on.  The son of the family, a man in his 30s was in the house when the first wave hit.  He ran upstairs and waited for the water to recede and when it did, he ran down and fled to safety, higher ground to the far right of the photo (out of the picture).  Imagine being in your home when the wave hit.  The man in red, the owner of the home in this photo did the same thing.  He waited out the tsunami on the second floor.  What must go through someone's mind when faced with a real-life life or death situation like that?  For that, I'll muck out houses and interpret stories that make me cry.  Bring it on.

The power of people

I have the feeling "power to the people" and possibly even "power of the people" is copyrighted so I'm so I'm going with "the power of people." To be more specific, I'm referring to numbers. To be more specific, I'm talking about the number of volunteers. In the past two days, there has been a huge spike in the number of people who are here working. To be precise, there are 70 people here.

Seventy people can do a lot. During the past two days, there have been five teams working all around Ofunato and Rikuzentakata. The teams range from four to twenty people. The largest team is working on one of the campuses of Rikuzentakata High School where there are multiple buildings that needed to be cleaned out. One of the two gyms with a floor covered in an inch and a half of mud and then debris was almost completely cleaned out today. That's good stuff!

Other teams are cleaning out an old traditional inn, a home with a large antique-style vault (a kura), an apartment complex and individual homes that need mucking and gutting. A lot of work, good work at that, is being done. There is absolutely power in numbers and power in how much a large number of people can do.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk around town and pictures of things I want to share with you. It will be another posting but of a different nature. Key word being "nature."

How's that for a teaser line?

Something personal

I'm a bit fried tonight.  I'm not exactly sure why but I'm beat.  Maybe it's the sleeping-on-concrete that's getting to me.  I'm not quite sure.

All this to say, I honestly don't have a story for you tonight from people I've spoken to recently but I do have a story from me.  It's not earth-shattering news or anything except to say I'm giving you a heads up. 

Tomorrow is my two week mark.  I've found I have a pattern in my moods and my tolerance for holding things in.  I have four days where I'm fine and then I follow that with a meltdown day.  Today is day four.  I'm scheduled for a meltdown tomorrow.

I've felt it coming on all day.  I've fought back tears multiple times and have been okay not breaking down in public.  I'm not sure I can do that tomorrow.  My heads up is essentially to say I probably won't be writing much tomorrow--I'll need another night where I walk around and cry--or I'll unload onto all of you in a way I can't predict quite yet.

I do have a story.  It's one of those moments I had to hold back and not breakdown.  There are three women from the community we've spoken to over the past several days who have offered to help with the cooking.  We will have 20 people staying in one of the new bases (which I'll move into tomorrow) and we need someone to help cook dinner.  This is meant to be a paid part-time position but these women said they would be willing to volunteer their time.  Their exact words were "we're volunteering so you can volunteer."  Hold back sob, hold back sob, hold back sob.

Then one of the women asks how we're going to bathe.  We say we aren't sure yet (buckets, probably?) as there's no shower facility in the building or hot water.  One of the women says she could offer her bath for us five nights a week.  I almost lose it.  Dirty, smelly volunteers, many of whom are foreign, walking in and out of a stranger's home five nights a week (in shifts, of course)?  This is quite an offer.  People are good.  I'm reminded of that everyday.

Devastation first hand

If you know me you know I am not a woman of few words.  If you know me well you know I like to talk.  I have opinions and am not shy about sharing them.  This is important why?  I'm glad you asked.  I took the bus up north and was met by the leader of the volunteer group at the train station/bus stop.  He drove us through Rikuzentakata to get to Ohfunato where the base is. 

I am officially at a loss for words.  I first started seeing the debris up the river 9 miles away from the coast along the riverbeds.  The closer we got into town, the more we saw. 

I've never seen anything like this.  The whole downtown area near the ocean was flattened.  There were gouge marks on the side of one of the few remaining buildings where the water carried the debris 20+ feet high. 

Cars, buses, trucks, large equipment and such were tossed around, upside down, dented and destroyed.  Few buildings remain standing and those that are were hollowed out by the water.  I could see right through them through the curtains that some how stayed behind and were flapping in the wind.  Teddy bears, twisted metal beams, roof tiles, trees, telephone poles, clothing, bicycles and stop lights, you name it, it was strewn all over. 

I have nothing to compare it to other than a quiet hell. 

Then there were the crews.  Men were out shoveling dirt off the side walks that had been cleared by earlier cleaning crews.  The sidewalks had then been swept.  Except for the destroyed buildings on both sides of the street you'd never known just a day ago massive amounts of junk cluttered those same sidewalks.

Things that were washed out from inside buildings had already been sorted.  Appliances were in one area, books in another, wooden beams somewhere else, tatami mats stacked up neatly and placed on the sidewalks.  There is so much order here.  Seeing the devastation is one thing, seeing the patience and care by which this clean up process has already begun is yet another experience altogether.

I guess I'm find words after all.  I will keep sharing my thoughts, observations and feelings. 

A different kind of culture shock

In many ways, Tokyo is home.  This is where I am most comfortable.  Here, I am happy.  I know the rules.  The city recharges my battery.  I love the crowds, trains, and the constant buzz the city offers.  I walked around today and did last minute errands with my colleague as we prepare to head north tonight to Ohfunato.  We will be riding the overnight bus for 10 hours.  The scenery tomorrow will be entirely different than what I see today.  I have no way to prepare to this other than to conjure up the photos I've seen from someone's camera lens.

Seeing the destruction in Ohfunato first-hand will be an entirely different kind of culture shock.  This is a Japan I've never seen.  This is pain, en masse, as I've never experienced it.  Even the disaster relief workers who are there now, those who have seen devastation all over the world are shocked at what they have encountered.  Knowing this, it reinforces the fact I simply can't prepare for what I will see tomorrow.

My Grandmother loved the Serenity Prayer.  This is what I take with me.  Some days I need courage over wisdom, other days I need serenity over courage and at yet other days wisdom over serenity.  For the next two months I will need all three at all times.  Knowing this, I'm humbled all over again.

Fly United!

I'm not allowed to get specific on what United Airlines has done for me to get me to Japan but let's just say I am incredibly touched by their generosity and support.  I got to a United Airlines representative through five friends.  That means, get this, a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of mine made this happen.  Today.  It's Sunday today, you know.  She got this done on her day off.  When she told me what she had done I cried on the phone, and I hate crying in front of strangers.

All this to say, for your next trip please consider flying United Airlines.  There are good people out there and many of them work at United.

Thank you again, United.  You rock.  I'm grateful in ways you can hardly imagine.  Shout out to United!!

Friends of friends

You'll all learn as you read my postings that I really think adding a bit of spice to stories is a great way to keep life interesting.  It also keeps the attention of those to whom I'm telling the story.  In other words, I have a tendency to exaggerate.  Sometimes.  Just a bit.

What I'm about to share with you contains no exaggeration, embellishing, modifying or spicing up.  This is the real deal.  I have a healthy imagination and use it often but this one would be difficult for me to make up.

Let me back up just a bit.  Before the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan earlier this month, I had two business trips planned.  One was to Dubai and another was to Tokyo.  Once I decided to make myself available to go to Japan and got put on multiple standby lists I called both clients and canceled these trips. 

Now, I knew when I bought the tickets these were non-refundable tickets.  I knew if I had to cancel the flights for any reason, I had to eat a $250 (per ticket) change fee.  The tickets were both on United Airlines.   I decided to call United and beg for mercy.  If I'm going to Japan for two months and giving up salary, family, friends and make up then United can eat several thousand dollars.  This was my argument.  I would say it nicely, of course. 

I put out a mass e-mail to anyone who might have contacts at United.  I knew after the first call to United they were sympathetic and supportive but "sorry, we can't change our policy" was what I would continue to hear.  I needed to talk to someone who would actually take on my situation personally.  I needed friends to hit up their friends for a contact at United.

This is where it gets interesting.  I get a call on my cell phone from a number I don't recognize and take it because, well, after I've told people I'm going to Japan I've been getting calls from all over the place.  I take the call and hear this "Hi!" and proceed to "meet" Amy from Washington who's best friend works at United.  Of course she does.  We end the call with "I'll put you in touch with her!"  We exchange e-mails and next thing you know Lili from United is on board.  I'm still a bit confused as to who Amy is and how she found me but I let it go.  These kinds of things have been happening the last several days and I'm just trying to be grateful for the support I'm getting and not necessarily ask delving questions as to who they are.

I'm sharing this story with Miki saying I'm so totally impressed and touched and truly humbled by the support people are showing me and she stops me and says,
"Amy is Jo's friend."  I pause for a minute and say
"Okay, sweetheart.  This means nothing to me." 
"Amy is my Frontierville neighbor.  From Facebook.  Jo's my friend.  Amy's Jo's friend. Lili, the one helping you, is Amy's friend. I don't know Lili and the only reason I know Amy is through Frontierville.  We both needed neighbors and so we connected.  Jo must have contacted Amy after she saw my Facebook posting about you needing a contact at United."

Okay.  I'm not a woman of few words.  I like to talk.  This means I'm very seldom at a loss for words.  When Miki tells me a friend of a friend from a Facebook game got in touch with me to put me in touch with yet another friend to help me--it takes awhile to sink in.  People are good.  (Not everyone, of course.  I'll have a posting on one such person later.)

This is the kind of thing that's been happening for the past 72 hours.  People from all over are calling, writing, and sending things.  I'll write more about the list of things I've gotten and am getting sent to me.  I swear.  I can't make this up. 

All Hands Volunteers

Let me make myself very clear:  I am NOT bad-mouthing large relief organizations.  Some are corrupt, I'm sure.  I'm not talking about those.  I'm talking about the big-name groups that have a presence.  My attempt in talking about All Hands Volunteers (http://hands.org/) is to say small is beautiful.   All Hands is not a huge organization with a large overhead.  This means more of the money goes straight to the actual relief work, and quicker.  I like this.  This makes sense to me.  Sometimes it's necessary to have organizations that can pull together a large-scale effort and mobilize people quickly.  Other times it's important to have small organizations that just pick up and go and get themselves on the ground right away without going through the politics and red tape.  All Hands is the latter.

I found out about All Hands through the Japan Society of Boston.   I told my friends there I was willing to volunteer and to pass my name along to anyone contacting them.  Within a few hours e-mails were flying back and forth between me and the Executive Director of All Hands.

May I just go on record and say I have the utmost respect for the people who work at and volunteer for All Hands.  I hope to able to share stories about them, with them and let you know what we're all doing in Japan.

The Executive Director is en route back from Japan as I write this.  I plan to meet with him early next week to get up to speed and to share whatever he has to say.  Stay tuned.

How this all began

When the earthquake struck off the coast of Sendai on March 11th, it brought down much of the towns up and down the eastern coast of Honshu.  Then the waves came, washing away people, buildings, cars, houses and more.  We've seen the video clips.  They're horrific.

Then came the news about the damaged Fukushima Nuclear Plant.  All hell broke loose with the world worrying about impending doom.  I'm not trying to make light of how serious a nuclear meltdown can be.  Not at all.  I'm simply trying to outline facts.  For now, at least. 

I started making and getting calls several days after the 11th asking if I could/would be willing to go to Japan to help with the relief efforts.  I'll write more about this particular process later.  Fast forward two weeks after the 11th and I have word I am leaving for Japan on the 31st for two months.  I'm going.  This is real.

I will be working with a Boston-based relief organization called All Hands Volunteers (www.hands.org).  I will be in Rikuzentakata and Ohfunato, two towns essentially wiped out by the tsunami.  I'm going with the realization I don't really know what I'm getting into but that I can contribute to at least some relief. 

This blog will be an ongoing journal of my time in Japan as well as the days leading up to my departure.  I already have a lot to say and assume I will have much to report once I'm there.  I promise to be honest.  I promise to not capitalize on the pain of those I see.  I promise I will not mince words.  I promise I will try to remain objective.  I promise to be grateful as often as I can.

Consider this your cordial invitation to spend the next two months with me as I go through something I cannot possibly prepare for and experience seeing devastation first hand.  My goal is to show you what's really going on in Japan.  In return, I ask for two things:  spread the word and help any way you can.  I have thoughts on both which I will share in subsequent postings.