Thursday April 7 Distribution Run to Ishinomaki

Note: Wed and Thurs blogs posted without pictures because of slow download times here. Check back later for addition of pictures.

At 6:30am. Random Japanese noodles and rice snacks and American snack food on a help-yourself table. Briefing and prayer.

7:30 am. Unloaded, sorted food and other supplies. Cut, rebagged fresh fruit and vegetables into family-size bags. Reloaded into 3 vans and small truck. One hour drive to Ishinomaki. Began to see the mud and the high watermarks on the walls. Then drove through the rice fields to see dozens of cars scattered through the fields like toys in a child’s sandbox. Drove on bridge over the river to see debris and boats littering the levees like driftwood. Began to see mounds of furniture, tatami mats, and bags of trash piled along sides of roads. These were the belongings of the people; and for those who lived on a bottom floor, this was all of their belongings.

Finally drove through a tunnel into a more isolated part of the town. Here the mud, debris and belongings were bulldozed to the sides of the road into a solid wall 6 ft. high. Cars turned every which way were scrunched in with other mud and rubbish as if they were refrigerators or chairs. A local resident-guide finally led us to the parking lot of a crematorium. (Everyone in Japan that has died must be cremated.) People old and young were already lining up as we opened the tarp and unloaded food, clothes and toiletries from half the vans. Everything was laid out into sections on the perimeter of the tarp as people waited patiently with their bags, boxes and bicycles with baskets. It became personal for me when I saw another volunteer explaining to a mother what was contained in a Flintstone vitamin bottle that I had brought from the states. It was organized without a lot of instructions. People moved around the square finding what they needed among the diapers, tuna and cookstoves.

Soon it was over, the last “arigato’s” were said, and the last bicycle rode away. At this point we split into two teams. Our team returned to Sendai to the Samaritan’s Purse/Food for the Hungry warehouse to pick up more supplies including shovels, buckets, boots and wheelbarrows to pass out tomorrow. Beth’s group which included a bunch of New Zealanders (who had just had their own quake) continued on into harder-hit areas, eventually finding a rest home that had lost most of their clothes, blankets, and adult diapers. The other team called us at the warehouse to add the last two items to our restocking list. One poor woman had no clean clothes left, so someone on the other team volunteered to take her clothes to a laundromat and bring them back the next day.