UCCJ Tohoku Disaster Relief Center

The tsunami brought with it salty mud causing the trees to turn brown or die out.
Looking around, everything looked the same brown color.

Everything was covered with mud and there were piles of debris everywhere.


A scene form our bike commute in April



A few months passed.

Probably what has changed the most is the color of the areas.
Grass, or weeds, have started to grow on the mud covered ground.
Now, there is green spread before our eyes. But this is not the green of the usual rice fields, but grassland that has gone to seed. What has not changed are the piles of debris.



A scene from the bike commute in July



Now we must first pick weeds before we begin our work of mud removal.

I hear that that television no longer cover areas damaged by the tsunami. Some people may be thinking that things are back to normal.
For sure, compared to the time right after the disaster, some things have changed, and some things have improved.

But, our volunteer activities to remove mud still continues.

There are still houses and land that are covered with mud. Lots of debris has been left untouched.

We still need the strength of volunteers. This has not changed.

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Though there have been some changes in what we do, our volunteer activities continue in the same spirit. Even though each of us alone have little strength, we have faith that when we come together we are strong.
Our work now involves removal of mud from the fields as well as cleaning up indoors. We still are in need of volunteer workers and can use any help at all.

　

Take a look at some photos of our work in progress.


Removing weeds from a field


Relief Center Staff　
Toru Horita

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Members of Izumi Aisen Church went




45 houses , 170 people（10 grade school ,10 Jr. High students, and 150 senior citizens）are living collectively in houses on higher land that survived the disaster.



On June 23, water, electricity and gas were restored.
However, it is still a struggle to buy daily supplies. People have lost their cars making it hard to go shopping.




We plan to go again in mid July to deliver supplies.
Food supplies seem to be most needed.

Mamoru Kikuchi　

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Emmaus T-shirts designed by one of our volunteer workers and are on sale for 2000 yen. The proceeds will go to our relief funds.

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During rainy season, there are some days that volunteers are not able to go out to the usual work sites due to rain.
But on those days, we do other work - that is cleaning up the Emmaus Center. The Emmaus Center gets dirty quickly with the many volunteers coming back from working in the mud every day. We use rainy days to do a more thorough cleaning of the Center than we can do each day.

Relief Center Staff, Kuwa

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It is common now for volunteers to take group photos after the daily meetings. These photo taking sessions bring smiles to people’s faces - to those who have just arrived and are still nervous, and to those who are going back home and hate to say goodbye. The photos are evidence that the encounters by volunteers are a valuable part of the volunteer experience.






Relief Center Staff, Tasuku Kawakami

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Up until now we have been using the Conference office phone, but now we have are own phone for our relief center, listed below:
　TEL 022-265-0173

　FAX 022-265-0174

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It was at the end of June, on my third stay at Emmaus Center when I first sensed hope for sure reconstruction. It was when I was working at S san’s house.
Emmaus Center’s work values communication with the family more than anything. S san always has interesting stories to tell and we would forget the time and spend 2 hours talking! We always take a short break from work at 11 and 2, but those breaks were never enough, and we would also use our lunch break to listen to S san’s stories – stories about this land, about experiencing the tsunami – and while we listened, we deepened our friendship with S san.
As days passed, volunteers would come and go, each doing their own part in the work, and the house became clean again, almost beyond recognition from when we started.
Now that the house was clean, S san’s ambition kicked in and started to talk about plans for beautifying the kitchen, or new plans and visions he had for his house. We continued to listen to his stories, and responded to his requests to clean this or carry that. S san charmed us with his personality and his fascinating stories.
There was nothing that made me more happy than seeing the excitement and to be a part of this.
Emmaus Center values relationships over efficient or fast work. This episode is a good example of the heart of Emmaus Center’s presence.
I will never forget S san’s smiles.
They say that those who return to Emmaus Center 2 or 3 times have “Emmaus Sickness”. I think I have a serious case of this. I will take back with me the memories and the “heart to heart” relationships and joy that I experienced here and plan to come back again when I find the chance!

Volunteer, Mio Maekita (Fujisawa Church)

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At present our work focus is in Arahama in Wakabayashi Sendai, but we have recently started to send volunteers to Ishinomaki, Tagajo and Fukuda-cho in Miyagino.

In Tagajo, we had a request through a church connection to work on a house there. Since mid April we have gone to that house to help out about once a week on our days off.


When we started, the first floor was in terrible shape. However, this family had decided early on to move back home, and so we wanted to support their decision. We removed furniture, cleaned out the mud from the floor and under the floor, cleaned up the furniture… It was slow work only once a week, but developing a relationship with the family, we worked with care and worked hard.
Now the work inside of the house is almost complete and we are working on the yard. Seeing the amazing change, the family thanked us and said that they were greatly helped by having Emmaus Center help. But at the same time we are grateful for their trust in us and that we were able to share with them. We hope to continue to work with them until the end.

Right now there are still many people living in the evacuation shelters who have not been able to even start cleaning up their homes. In addition, the Tagajo has suffered from oil spillage so the mud left behind has a strong odor. I felt that the mud must be removed without delay before the hot summer months. I hope that we can help more people in Tagajo through this connection.

We also went to Fukuda-cho in Miyagino to do two days of work. The main work involved removing furniture and wood from the house before it would be torn down. In Arahama, our work is to help clean up houses to be lived in again. So it was with complicated feelings that we worked on a house that would have to be torn down. I felt that these families also are in need of relief without delay.

Our Center activities are born out of connections and relationships between people. Right after the disaster many people became aware of the value of connections. Even after the passage of time, these connections are important and I hope to deepen these ties.

Relief Center Staff
Yukina Ueno

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　The work that was focused on cleaning up the inside of the houses has recently shifted to cleaning up the fields and greenhouses outside.
We work hard but also take time to rest. This is one of the things that goes along with the philosophy of our Center. We spend time together, getting to know each other. That is one feature of our Center that I feel good about. Thanks to this, people who come to Emmaus Center, including myself, have many valuable experiences that they take back with them and can apply to their various lives.

　Thinking ahead to the future work of our Center: There are many who are living away from their home towns even though they would like to return. Part of what we may be of help in doing is to help in restoring the environment so that people feel that they can return to their hometowns.
Some continue to live in their hometowns, albeit in adverse conditions. We hope we can help make the environment better for them.

Looking ahead, we will probably be going to work in homes that have not yet been worked on. For some of these houses, the decision is made to tear down the house even after it is cleaned up. This has happened before.
In this case, the work of the volunteers will take a different shape. We need to think about what our activities will be in these cases. It will be important for staff and volunteers to come together to think about our role. This is another kind of “sharing” .　
We want to continue our relationship with the people in Wakabayashi. Even if the environment is cleaned up, we want to keep up our close relationship with the community.



Staff, Toru Horita

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