Hope {Nozomi}

3 years ago exactly (at the time of this post) my world changed forever.  I was home alone in our house in Japan when the ground started shaking.  I assumed it would be like all the rest, causing brief pause, then I would go about my day.  I had just returned from an outing with some of my Japanese friends and was working on a blog post.  I remember like it was just yesterday.  You can read some of my posts here and here and here and here.  The days immediately following were chaotic, confusing, alarming, stressful, the list goes on. My emotions pale in comparison to those who lived near the epicenter and in the path of the tsunami.  After months spent in that area after the event with All Hands and on mission trips, I still cannot begin to grasp the fear and despair that ripped through the area.

While it is important to remember to remember the past, it is also crucial to have hope in the future.  On one of my many trips to Tohoku I had the great pleasure of working with a group of women on the Nozomi Project.  Today, while remembering the past, I'm also finding hope in the future.  Hope I see in those who sacrifice(d) their time, money and talents to help the people of Japan heal.

10 on 10 {March}

I love the 10 on 10 challenge every month and I love it even more when I remember to participate!

0800

We babysat overnight last night so we were up early (for us, on a Sunday).

0900

It was 70 degrees here all weekend so it was time for my 1st at home pedi of the year.

1000

Much better!  All ready for spring!

1100

We ALMOST made it to church on time...almost!

1200

Drinks on the patio at the golf course for lunch.

1300

Two bags of treats later and Buster finally figured out he can just push his way through our new screen door that has a magnetic opening.

1400

Folding origami.

1500

Play time at the laundromat (they wanted to go, we didn't drag them, I promise!)

 1600

A nasty "sand" storm rolled through town today...on a normal day you would see mountains in the background of this image.  Today it was just an ugly brown sky.

1700

Picking up some veggies to go with dinner tonight.

I hope everyone had a great 10th of March.  Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the great Tohoku earthquake/tsunami.  Please take a moment out of your day to say a prayer for the people of Tohoku and Japan.

All Hands Project Tohoku

I leave tomorrow morning for a 3rd week in Ofunato with All Hands.  For those of you that have asked or are interested in what kind of work we do up there, please watch this video.  In fact, even if you don't care about the work that is being done there, you should watch this video anyways!

Six Months of Project Tohoku from All Hands Volunteers on Vimeo.

Ofunato & All Hands

Until recently I assumed that unless I tell someone {outside our little milspouse community} about my blog, they don't know it exists.  I found out I am mistaken.  Apparently when you mention a NGO on your blog, they notice.  Last week I returned to Ofunato to do some more work and my first day back my favorite volunteer coordinator {love you Toby!} mentioned my blog.  My jaw dropped and I believe my response was "how the %&*$ do you know about that?!?!?"  Sometimes I forget that people can find my blog by a simple Google search.  I promised my friend a write up, with words this time, so here it goes.

Here I talked about my trip up last time and I posted a bunch of photos here but I didn't really talk about my experience with All Hands.  I will admit, I was a bit nervous on my way up the first time.  Going into unknown situations does that to me {and the all the complications on the way up didn't help} but all those feelings were wiped away once I arrived.  The staff were wonderful.  I had a quick "orientation" then dumped my stuff and was put to work {I arrived in the middle of the day and they gave me the option to hang out or work the rest of the day}.  The normal arrangement is to work all day then come back to base for dinner {which is always homemade my some awesome Japanese ladies} and after/during dinner, they have a meeting to introduce new volunteers, discuss the work that was done that day and the work to be done the next day and leaving volunteers have an opportunity to say goodbye.   At the end of the meeting, they ask for 4 volunteers to do dinner dishes.  Those 4 people have 1st choice of work for the next day.  After they sign up, it's a free for all to sign up for the next days work on the board.  Somehow, over 11 nights, I have managed to only be a part of the mad rush once!

This was the board last week

This was the board around the last time I was there

Our numbers dwindled and they've gotten even smaller since I left last week!

{the project is coming to an end}

So on a typical day buses leave base no later than 0815.  Depending on how far way the work site is, you work from 0900ish-1200 then break for an hour lunch.  We eat bentos everyday, which is a very typical Japanese lunch.  Then we work from 1300-1600ish before heading back to base.  The work week goes from Wednesday-Monday with Tuesdays off, that way if people want to come volunteer on the weekends when they are off from their regular job, they can.

So, that's basically how it all works.  Obviously my experience didn't suck or I wouldn't have gone up for a second time and I wouldn't be going up for the third time next week.

And here are some photos from last weeks trip

building a fence at a park

 weeding

one of the best lunches ever

bugs

harvesting rice to be made into sake

some kids came to help

 which turned into a friendly mud fight

 froggy kisses =}

 the field after the rice was harvested

the house we gutted

I'm responsible for about 90% of this mess =}

I leave one week from today to go back up for a third week and I cannot wait!