Rikuzentakata
Will post more detailed stuff when I have time.. Pictures may speak a thousand words, but seeing it with your own eyes is on a different level altogether.
Went to Rikuzentakata today. I was actually looking forward to doing some volunteer work for this trip, because I believe nothing beats going to the place yourself to experience what it’s like, especially coming from a place like Singapore where there are no natural disasters. Sadly we only had 2 hours to help clean up debris today, but it took us 4 hours each way to get to the place.
On the way, we drove through the disaster areas, and it was just saddening to see the immense amount of damage. Bare land, some parts with marks on the ground and you can tell a house used to stand there. How much the water came in, because in the distance you can still see the debris. Everywhere is just land, debris, and sometimes water. A few buildings still stand, but with the glass windows shattered, and the inside of the building is a pile of mess. Like a storm swept through it. Then you see school children, playing in the court right outside their school. But are they still attending school in that building? I doubt it, since the windows are broken and the inside looks like a mess. Everyone is trying to go on living their lives, but being surrounded by all the remains makes it a difficult uphill task.
We helped to clean up the debris from a house swept upside down. The wooden structure remains, but that was about all that was left. Separated metal, cloth, plastic, etc. 2 hours later, as we walked back to our bus nearby, we looked back and saw how little we did. Yet when we returned to the volunteer centre to return the equipment, they were so grateful and thankful that we came to help. More volunteers were arriving to help as we left the place.
We did so little. It was almost insignificant compared the scale of the entire operation. Almost 5 months have passed since the disaster struck, but there is still a lot more work to do. The land and buildings can be rebuilt in a few years, but the thousands of families affected by the disaster have to rebuild their lives, and that is not something that can be easily done over time.
がんばろう、東北！
