Wednesday May 16, 2012 Posts into Toothpicks and a Drowned Town

Today the guys return to the fishing and oyster farming village past Okawa. Another 30 minutes of gravel, potholes and detours. Passing through what was Okawa, we take time to look at its somber remains.

Here the ragged shells of houses still await demolition. The lots and foundations sit below sea level; yet amazingly we see two houses being cleaned in a show of unwarranted? optimism.

Our task today for the fence project is cutting cedar rails and posts to length and sharpening the posts.

Cody and I attack a sheared-off 8 inch signpost in a concrete footing, trying to hack enough out that they can reset their sign.

They offer us their lodge hall as a place to eat our bento (box lunches).

Before we leave, Jonathan and Sakashita-san debate the best way to lap the rails for strength and appearance. Rusty's sunburn brings new meaning to the term "redneck." On the way back

Jonathan pointed out the spray-painted shorthand on the front wall of a house--the date, 4/6 and the symbol for the fire department that searched the house for bodies that day.

The ladies continue cleaning apartments--they finish another upstairs unit that will be used by the LA team arriving tonight. As we pull up, Chad, Lora (from Memphis), and Eric put the plywood back over the missing windows.

The Huddlestons met the apartment owners because they both had children at the same preschool. The wife is open and interested in Christianity and in the meantime Beth and Lora (Lora with BeOne is back at Osaka for now) rent one and another is available for volunteer housing. Several of the upstairs apartments are now ready to rent, but the downstairs ones are being stripped out.