From Pennies To Yennies

When I woke up Saturday, I knew it would be a day full of goodbyes. Most people volunteer for a week, and at this point I had been there a week. Since my friend Aska and I volunteered in June and enjoyed it so much, we decided to stay longer.

We got ourselves up Saturday and began cleaning out and packing up our belongings. Despite Aska and I staying in Ishinomaki another week (and her even longer!), we still had to vacate our tent and be reassigned.

We had our last morning meeting, and were given a gift of a charm for helping out with the revival festival. We listened to some statistics on work we got accomplished and words from locals about their appreciation, and then there was about an hour and a half of down time before everyone left and the new people were introduced to camp.

Sylvie, Laura and Naomi taking a break from cleaning out their tent

One last Team 10 picture!

Me with the guys from my team, Bryan and Joji. They were awesome and it was sad to see them go!

Aska found Joji before he got on the bus and hugged him goodbye!

Aska and I saluted our team as they were driving away.

They pulled away from the curb and like that, they were gone.

Out with the old and in with the new! No longer with a team, Aska and I were officially “extension volunteers”. We turned away from the now distant buses and looked back at our camp. There were about 100 new people standing around with their duffels wondering what tent they’d be assigned to.

Aska and I were moved into another tent with 3 other women, but those women were weekend volunteers, so for most of the time we had a tent to ourselves. It was nice! The new campers settled in and got changed and before we knew it we were off to work.

A big changed happened from week 1 to week 2- my friend Aska was promoted to Leader Leader! A lot of responsibility comes with being an LL so I was excited for her. Since she had so many things to keep track of, I tried to play the part of second banana and help her out when she needed it- stocking the bus with gear, filling water coolers, head counts etc.

We returned to Sudachi where we strung shells on rods, but this time we’d be collecting the shells. We were driven in the back of a pickup truck to a forest that was literally littered with shells everywhere. The tsunami brought massive amounts of sea life to the forests. It was an odd sight.

We grabbed plastic hampers/ crates and set to work. We filled them up, grabbed a new basket, and went back to collecting. Once we filled all the baskets we brought, we’d stack them on a forklift, they’d get emptied at the hut, and returned so we could keep working.

Collected shells

We worked through the day and returned to camp to clean up and have dinner. Before dinner though, Aska and I learned the 3 day volunteers were leaving that afternoon. They were nice, fun girls so that was very sad!
Aska and I with the 3 day volunteers

I found myself a bit bored that first night. now that Aska was a LL, she attended meetings throughout the night offsite with other LLs and the directors of Peace Boat. And with my team and other friends leaving that morning, I didn’t know who to hang out with! There was a big circle of newcomers sitting and chatting that evening, so I put on my “hi let’s be friends!” face and introduced myself.

Everyone was really nice, but I couldn’t believe the age difference between the 2 weeks! The week prior, everyone was in their late 20’s, early 30’s. These were all college kids, one even 17 and in high school! It was sch a change but everyone was really nice. We all chatted and got to know each other til lights out.

When you volunteer longer than a week, you’re allowed to have a day off. Aska and I decided Sunday would be a good day off, because it’s in the middle of my trip, and she really wanted to do laundry (her plan was to wear and wash, I just packed 2 weeks of clothing). Aska and I planned an epic day of going to the laundromat, getting sushi, some shopping and walking around the mall. Perhaps an onse or movie if we had the time!

Oh, but there was a catch.

Everything was really far away, and I really only just learned to ride a bike the last time I was volunteering in June. Eep! Spending a whole day on a bike?! Just the thought made my rear end hurt. But it was a challenge I was up for, and I didn’t want to miss out on the experience because of a little lack of confidence, so off we went!
Ready for whatever the day may bring!

We got off campus and hit the road. Through a tunnel and down a giant hill (I rode the brakes like crazy). Along a busy street and then our first stop- anti-itch medicine for our bug bites. Then we went down the street to the laundromat for Aska’s laundry. We then rode down the street to a home store (think Fred Meyer/ Target) and got some cheap work clothes at Uniqlo.
We also stopped by a pet sotre!

At this point we were starving, so we ducked into a sushi restaurant. It was SO good. Mind you, as I’m struggling to keep up while biking it was about 95 degrees out. We set in the air conditioning and enjoyed sushi, then headed back out. It was getting harder and harder to bike, and I figured I was just getting tired, but my back tire was out of air! We took it to a department store and got it filed good as new.

We pedaled down the main road to an Aeon mall. It’s so strange to go to a mall and not recognize any stores. At this point, I was really sleepy. We had been biking in the heat all day. We went back to the laundromat to get her clothes, and biked home.

Remember the giant hill I had to ride on my brakes down? Well, it was time to pedal up! I was SO tired you wouldn’t believe it. But I made it to the top and was rewarded with an amazing view!

We returned to camp and saw that the workers from the onsen brought herbal water to camp so volunteers could wash their hair.

Not long after we returned Aska went to her meetings and I hung out with the new campers. It might have been my day off, but biking wore me out so much I went to bed before lights out!