Volunteer work at Soma city on July 3rd'11

Volunteer work at Soma City on July 3rd'11

With regard to volunteer work at Soma city, we,Nikko Seifu Juku menbers, were able to carry out our plan as scheduled on July 3rd. We recruited 18 people out of which three were women including me. We gathered at one of the Nikko city facilities at 4.30am and we got on a bus prepared by one of the members. He also offered one of his staff working for his company, a professional driver, so that the others would be able to be just relaxed in the bus. One lady who is one of my English class and who couldn't join us because of her health, brought us some food to cheer us up. We volunteer members are supposed to bring our own food and drinks enough quantity for one day. We were very much grateful to this lady for her kindness. It took 4 hours to arrive at Soma city. First, we met a director of the city hall on behalf of the mayor to hand our second time donation from the fund raising lecture series conducted by Masao, the head of Nikko Seifu Juku. The amount was small different from the first time, but our supporting spirit was accepted with a gratitude. Then we went to the general welfare support enter to register for one day volunteer work. The men were all assigned to go to one of the biggest farmers' barn hit by the Tsunami. The barn was stuffed with enormous quantity of muddy debris including big machines such as a huge cultivator. It was a big labor work but Masao's group(14 people) and one more group from a different place worked together very hard. According to Masao, this cooperation went well and by 3:30pm when they were asked to stop working, this big job was finished. He said everybody got tired but enjoyed their feeling, feeling of achievement. This satisfaction gave them a positive feeling and it made them feel happy about their activity. We, women were sent to a pet shelter roughly made out in a mountain side! Now people, sufferers from the disaster, were all moved from several shelters to temporary houses but pets are off-limits. The pet shelter we were sent to is protecting about 20 dogs and puppies. They are all different just like humans. We took some of them for a walk one by one. We cleaned their rooms and weed. We brushed them. It's true that dogs are more direct and straight than cats. When I was taking care of a dog out on a small road, I met a lady walking with her dog which is also protected in that shelter. She is the owner of the dog and every Sunday, she comes here to give him a walk. She is working for a company dormitory as a cook and Sunday is her day off. She told me that this dog was left behind all alone in her house for 40 days after the nuclear reactors accident in Fukushima. Her house is located within 16km from the site in question. Finally she was able to find her dog alive at home and took him out to this shelter. All these animals are also victims.

On the way back to Nikko, we made an extra ride to see the center area of the awful site hit by the Tsunami. (As a matter of fact, the destruction caused by the earthquake is small and most of the areas were hit by the Tsunami.) Some huge mountains of debris are still there. Lots of ghost houses without doors, windows, only with leaning and broken pillars are remained. No people was visible. Soma city was completely divided into two, a heaven side and a hell side. The divider is a big through way. According to Masao who already visited this city in April, 3months ago, the city has been put in order, much better than the last time. He admires people's power and people's positive attitude toward life. Complaints and negative thought don't produce anything. They know they just keep going ahead. In the return bus, most of our members enjoyed talking and exchanging their feelings. They sounded they had a precious and meaningful experience, which we appreciated very much. It was 9:30pm when we arrived back safely in Nikko.