Continued: 3 Part: Date: Thursday, April 21: Drive to Higashi Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture. (About 20 km away from Sendai)

On Thursday morning 7:30 in we drove to the warehouse, where we took a lot of new relief supplies, which we wanted to deliver. What should we take? What would the people need most? We chose different items of which we thougght that people need at the moment most. Then we drove up to Matsushima. This city is located on the Matsushima Bay, the main attraction of the prefecture. This is a bay with about 260 pine-covered islands, 22 km northeast of Sendai. In addition to Amanohashidate and Miyajima, Matsushima is one of the three most beautiful landscapes of Japan - which has made its beaches and nearby historical sites to appropriate centers of tourism, this I read afterwards on the website. 

Matsushima - Bay with 260 pine-covered islands, before the earthquake.  

But what we saw today is a picture of horror. I have no words. I'll let the pictures speak. The place resembles a single pile of garbage, while many houses are still standing, but everything is totally muddy, dirty, a scene of horror. We drive right in front of a house whose owner (Mr. Takahashi), our team leader knows. Today we volunteers are going to help him cleaning his house. The first floor is completely in mud. The rooms are completely distroyed. We throw all things in his garden. Books, furniture, lamps, pictures, everything is muddy and totally unusable. Mr. Takahashi asks me to clean the pictures, porcelain vases and other things. I did obeyed and tried to give my best to treat these dirty things well .. but to be honest, in my mind I thought, I better would throw everything in the trash. But for him it might be hard, because he had probably many memories and it might be hard to throw everything away. An unpleasant smell was in the air. Today we are lucky, the weather is good and everything can be done outside. But his garden is like a muddy farm field ... He told us that he were able to buit this house 12 years ago. Unfortuanatelly  his wife  died five years ago. For lunch he offered us his garden but he went up to his 2.nd floor to have a brake. 

After lunch I walked around the neighbourhood and discovered that most houses are currently empty, only Mr. Takahashi and a few others have chosen to endure in the rubble. I wonder now, what would be better for me: a crowded gymnasium hall, but warm and dry, or this durty and desolatet area. I probably would have preferred the gym. In the 2nd floor of his house, where I could use the restroom, I realize that he is a great gentleman who has a good sense of beauty in the style of interia. No wonder he wants to live here again. But for me it would feel uncomfortable and dangerous to stay in the mud-covered garden because of the associated hygienic and bacterial pollution. Mr. Takahashi brought us everyone later a cup of coffee, which he served in valuable porcelain cups, a collection, he says. 

Mr. Takahashi´s house and his brandnew car he bought after the earthquake. His livingroom. lunch time.

2. Part: As a volunteer to Tohoku in the disaster area, five weeks after the earthquake.

After all the first day experienced I needed a little distance inside myself and made a small path around the block, where we had parked our car. I wondered about all the sandbags in front of the entrance doors and at a corner I suddenly discovered houses that where standing in the flood. What has happened now? People had been so far through a lot of worse, is it not enough, I thought by myself? Where is this water now came from? As I stood there the owner a man with a red raincoat and a backpack came up to me and explained that he and other residents had to fight another problem: the flood which overflow the first floor of all the houses in this district. The reason why this happended I did not completely understood what he explained me, anyway his first floor of the house now up to his knees is under water. He currently live in the 2nd floor. When we got to talk, he pointed to his backpack and joked, "Now I wear my wife with me always." At first I did not quite understood what he meant. Than he told me that his wife died five years ago. The most important things for him, is not the bank account or ID card, which people usually carry with them when they suddenly have to escape ... instead of this for him the most important thing is the urn of his wife. Because he did not know what will come next, he decided to carry the box with her bones with him always. It would help him to overcome his loneliness, he said. I realized this day that the Japanese do have their own views on salvation and the relationship to the deceased. They believe that their souls are around them even after death. For me as a christian this is not acceptable. That day it was not easy for me to see all these people with their grief and sorrow. It was one of the hardest day to say goodbye to them and leave them alone in their helpless situation. 

overflooded houses                   a man with backpack                        one of our distribute place

My first trip to Sendai

On Tuesday 19 April I took a night bus to Sendai and arrived next morning at 7:10 clock  their. Than I went to the center of the Organisation „Food for the Hungry“, to start with other helpers for our first destination: Ishinomaki. On the way we stopped by a large material storage and packed our bus brimming with boxes of materials like water, some food: such as vegetables, instant cup noodles, rice, soups, then we chose several pieces of clothe of all kinds for men, women, kids, baby, children's books and everyday things like toilet paper, tissues, etc. .. then the ride was over bumpy roads badly damaged by the quake on to Ishinomaki to share the things with lovely Japanese, who are despirately in need, because of the damage of the earthqake. 

This time we are not planing to go first to some of the camps, because people are there at the moment supplied regularly with food and the necessary daily needs, but there are many other people right now who have survived in their homes, but have no chance to go out to buy something. Because the daily stores were destroyed in their city. On the way to the first destination their I saw a picture of horror. I have no words, it is just like a big disaster. All about garbage, mud, the tsunami has washed out everything. A picture of horror, as after the war. 

What a devastation? Unthinkable? Arriving at the first destination, we went to the houses near by and rang the bell to announce to the owners that we have brought for them some good food and goodies. First the people were a little shy but as soon as the first people come to our vans to discover what we brought for them, other joined us too. Everyone took with lot of thanks in their hearts things we brought for them. Their faces where sad and frightened faces. But when we distribute some balloons and sweets to children, there came a big smile on their faces. When I carried the goods to their homes, I saw how dilapidated and poor their homes were. Although they were spared by the tsunami, but many things from the strong earthquake and some aftershocks had been destroyed and broken things were spread around the yard. 

  Child's smile, "Everyone who makes others happy will recieve a lot of joy!" 

I was at the end of this first day very happy to watch how these needy people went home with full bags. It was a big present for me to make others happy. Then we went to two other places, and experienced similar situations: first, some kind of hesitation and uncertainty, but then a special joy over the recieved things. I am reminded on the Biblevers: "To give is more blessed than to receive!"