Wednesday the 13th

When I got home this evening I had a visit from my neighbor down the
hill, Teddy.  She had come to let me know the water was going to be
turned off at 10 pm for three days so the sewer system in Shichigahama
could be fixed.  Evidently it is damaged to the point that it cannot
handle the drainage.  They had asked people not to wash their rice or
drain their tubs when the water came back on in order to prevent
backup issues.  We are not on the sewer system but will still be
losing our water.  So, now that I have washed the dishes, eaten, made
rice balls for lunch, washed the rice and started it soaking for
tomorrow, taken a shower/bath, washed the tub and put a load of towels
and stuff in the  laundry, I can settle down to reflect on the day.
A new group of KGK volunteers came late yesterday afternoon.  So there
were 19 guys spending the night in the downstairs of the church. There
were snorers on either side of me.   As I was laying there trying to
sleep on a hard tatami pad in my sleeping bag without having taken the
few meds I usually take or brushed my teeth, I got to thinking this
was just a small taste of what evacuees are dealing with.  I had
plenty of food, a knowledge that it would most likely be for only one
night and no overwhelming loss with which to deal.  What’s a few hours
lost sleep compared to what they have been dealing with on a daily
basis for over a month now.
There is still a fair amount of fear that another big one is going to
hit.   Adam, a former short term worker in Sendai who has been working
with us for about a week was helping a friend from the Sendai area
cleanout her house when an earthquake that I didn’t even notice
happened.  There was a nine year old girl who was so frightened she
closed her eyes, covered both her ears and started turning around and
around in a little circle when that earthquake, a 4.2 by Japanese
measurement, happened.  The TV which was turned on as soon as
yesterday’s earthquake happened was showing pictures of crying
children in the evacuee centers.  Several people were sure the three
fairly strong earthquakes we had within an hour or so were a
foreboding of another big one just around the corner.   “We’re gonna
get another big one tonight”.
Since we had a fairly big group we split up into three teams today.
One moved out tatami from an apt. then cleaned up mud.  My group and
another group ended up looking for work.  My group found work at the
first store we stopped at.  There were two rooms in the back that were
still a mess.  We sorted through stuff to keep and stuff to throw then
cleaned up the dirt and muck all over the floors.  Then from about
11:00 I got to play with a pressure washer  cleaning two public
bathrooms and a storage area with mudlines up to about my neck.  Other
team members were scrubbing the walls but I got to do the fun stuff.
The other tool I like to use is an 18 or so inch wide,  thick rubber
squeegee on a handle that we use to cleanup runny mud and water.   I
have no idea what the other team did today except that we cleaned a
lot of shovels at the end of the day and our crew used maybe 3 of
them.  Another good day.