From Pennies To Yennies

I really wanted to blog about my whole experience volunteering in Ishinomaki this summer, and late is better than never, right?!

I woke up Monday still a little tired from my day off, which I used to bike with my friend Aska all over town. After making myself a quick breakfast in front of our tent, we did our morning rituals and team meetings and we were off! I was beginning to enjoy being an extension volunteer- I thought I’d hate not being part of any one team, but I enjoyed being thrown into any extra team that needed me, and meeting new people.

I spent the whole week back at Sudachi. We spent the morning collecting shells in the forest and neighboring yards.

Crabs in the forest!

For lunch we were taken back to the little hut we string the shells in. My friend Sarah and I riding back along the beach

During our lunch break we found a jellyfish! I’d never seen a jellyfish with that kind of coloring back in the States

After lunch it was back to work in our battered little hut. We had a gorgeous view of the water.

On to shell stringing!

It was a hot day, and my feet were covered in welts and bug bites. To cool them off I waded in the water a bit!

We bused back to base camp where we had our usual dinner, our usual chit chat, and our usual lights out at 10. Tuesday was basically a repeat of Monday, but Wednesday was the hottest day yet. The fishermen also have Wednesdays off, so we were bused to a school where we weeded a giant field. I can’t remember being out in such hot weather. We needed to take a water and cool down break every 30 minutes. It was rough.
Some of my fellow volunteers weeding. Photo by covolunteer Katie Rolfes

The man we were working for set up a portable room with air conditioning! We literally collapsed into it every half hour. Photo by Katie Rolfes

My friend Miki and I worked together. She taught me to say hot in Japanese (atsui!!!!) and I taught her to say “extremely hot!” haha!

We bused home at 3 and got to have a trip to the onsen to clean up. I spent most my time in the cold bath, still hot from the work in the sun. After I shared some takoyaki (fried octopus!) with Aska, and we went back to camp. I had dinner with the week-long volunteers, then feeling tired I read in my tent til bedtime. It didn’t take long!

Thursday I was happy to be back at work at Sudachi. Some of the Leader Leaders were a bit annoyed with the attitude of the international volunteers- none of them wanted to sit inside and string shells, they all wanted to be outside scooping out the gutters. I stayed in since they were short on people, planning to do gutters my last day, Friday. The time was flying by! I filled up the water tanks for the day and got them loaded on the bus.

At lunch time, Aska and I went out to the oceanfront walls and sat on them and stared out at sea. It made me really sad that my work was coming to an end.

I found this photo in a Facebook album, but I’m not sure who took it!

Thursday afternoon we gathered at the water’s edge and had a moment of silence. It was the 5 month anniversary of the tsunami, and what a moving moment. As we were silent, we head the waves crashing into the shoreline, a reminder of March 11th’s events. I wanted to cry for everyone. Mostly for the fishermen who lost their families and homes, their businesses, their profits. Family photos, mementos, clothes. All gone. I felt so helpless in that moment. I could only hope and pray that the breeding columns I spent weeks building would catch up some good oysters.

That night we had our usual dinner, and usual chatting before bed.

Friday was my last work day. I was really sad my friend Aska was working on a different project that day, because we’d been through everything together. I went to work and once again, no one volunteered to make breeding columns, so I stayed in with the fishermen’s wives and strung shells.

During lunch I made sure to get a picture with Katie Rolfes, believe it or not we went to the same elementary school in southern California nearly 20 years ago!

At the end of the day everyone working at Sudachi that week came together for a group photo. I am in the second row fifth from the left in a pink shirt. The head fisherman is in the front row in a black shirt. It was an honor to work with someone who had such an amazing, great attitude, despite losing literally all his possessions, spare the clothes on his back.

As the last day finished up and everyone loaded the bus, I found my friend Yoko, our Leader Leader for the day. I asked her to tell the fishermen’s wives how much I appreciated working here the past few weeks, how much I’d miss being a part of their work, and how I want to come back some day. I watched them cry and she told them my message, and they invited me back in a year to feast on all the oysters they plan to catch with my columns. Now I wanted to cry! I thanked them for everything, they thanked me back, and I boarded the bus home one last time. I was really going to miss going to work in Sudachi.

That night at camp everyone was celebrating finishing their week in Ishinomaki. I spent my last evening with the extension volunteers, since they weren’t leaving any time soon they were a bit calmer. we had dinner and talked, then I got a great surprise- my friend Joji showed up! He had come to volunteer for the weekend, and it was great to see him. I was exhausted from the work day and it was a good boost of energy. We hung out for a bit, then he went to go settle into his camp. Later hat night, him, Aska and I enjoyed a beer in the curb and caught up about our work progress over the last week.

Saturday morning came all too soon. Aska and I packed our gear up and cleaned out our tent. We had a final morning meeting where they told us all the work we had accomplished and how thankful they were. Then we waited around until it was time to go. A table was set up where people could purchase Peace Boat shirts and bandannas. Final goodbyes were said and then it was time to board the bus.

It was hardest to say goodbye to Aska. She was staying on, and as of now (Wednesday Oct 12th), she is still there, volunteering and making an epic difference. I’m so proud of her. I thanked her for being my friend and spending so much time with me. I told her we’ll meet up for dinner as soon as she’s back in Tokyo.

Finally I said bye to all the extension volunteers. These are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life. All of them have amazing hearts, energy and attitudes. I aspire to be like them. Most of them are STILL in Ishinomaki as well.

Finally, I boarded my bus and we were off to Tokyo. As an extension volunteer, I rode the extension bus instead of the international volunteer bus, which was almost empty. So I stretched out and tried to relax. I tried to comprehend that there was no work tomorrow. That I was going to go home and take a shower and sleep in an actual bed with a kitty at my feet. But I couldn’t. All I could think about was how much I was going to miss Ishinomaki, and my covolunteers, and spent about half the bus ride missing my tent and wishing I had stayed on an extra week.

Around the 2nd rest stop, I got excited to go home. I had been missing Dan terribly. Penny too! We were about 2 hours north of Tokyo, and suddenly we couldn’t get there soon enough. Finally our bus arrived in Shinjuku and Dan was there to greet me. We gathered up my bags and headed home. I was glad to be sleeping in my bed that night, but my thoughts and dreams were still- and always will be- with Ishinomaki.