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  1. #21
    Senior Member Danalex's Avatar
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    Good for you man!

    A friend and I have been wondering how we could put our construction skills to use over there.

    Logistically it's probably way to complicated but I'll live vicariously through yours.

  2. #22
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Danalex View Post
    Good for you man!

    A friend and I have been wondering how we could put our construction skills to use over there.

    Logistically it's probably way to complicated but I'll live vicariously through yours.
    I'd try to hook up with an aid organization like All Hands and register your skills.

    However, my snapshot take so far is that the work now is more cleaning and removal to allow a clean slate for professionals (predominantly Japanese) to do the final reform.

    I've only been here half a day, so I might be off.

  3. #23
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    I'm here!
    I've been here almost half a day meeting my team mates and orienting myself to the mission, facilities, guidelines and specific jobs I might be involved in.

    My first thought is how amazed I am that life appears as usually remarkably close to the disaster zone. Not sure why I'm surprised by that.

    The devastation is epic, but the efforts of the last month are impressive.

    I've not taken one photo as I don't know how I feel about the concept of being a disaster tourist...

  4. #24
    Senior Member bugman0914's Avatar
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    Prayers sent for your safe travels and work! Wish I could do more! I understand your predicament with trying to volunteer. I too have traveled that same road in the past!
    T
    Tony a.k.a. bugman0914

  5. #25
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    +10 to you. This is what humanity is about!! Now if the rest of the knuckle heads around the planet would take notice. I'm frustrated with all the fighting and disregard for one and another. Your efforts keep the dream alive!

  6. #26
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    Here's a shot near the house I am currently working on. One of my team dug a piano out of the rubble...
    Attached Images Attached Images

  7. #27
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    2nd day of satisfying work in the field today after a shocking and disappointing event last night.

    Sorry, here comes a bit of a rant I need to let go of...

    Most of the volunteers are being boarded in a nice government center that is currently used to house folks who have lost their homes. It consists of rooms of varying sizes, and shared bathrooms and social areas. Very new facilities.

    In our single room, there were about 40 people last night. Each person has space on the floor for their sleeping bag and a small backpack. It's very tight, and quite warm from all the folks in a smallish space. I should have slept out in my car from the first night (which I had originally planned to do), but I had already set up my camping cot (which caused some neighborly jealousy and even resentment among other nearby volunteers) and was too lazy to take it down and repack in the car.

    By the second night I had made some friends. Aside from 6 chairs in a small living area, the only place for us to be is outside the room (and much cooler) where there are 10 seats and a small table. It's in the hallway shared with other residents.

    Last night, we were out there talking about whatever, and eating snacks when the International Project manager approached us (although I didn't know who he was at the time, it was the first time I met him).

    He said that they just had a complaint from one of the center's residents who said they were afraid and intimidated to walk past such a large and loud group of foreigners (10 of us). He told us we should congregate in a more isolated area "over there". I asked him to clarify where, and he pointed to an area in the corner of the hall with only two seats.

    I had a quiet meltdown. First, because a resident would be so ignorant to say such a thing at all, and especially of a the group giving time to help their own community, and second that our director would react by trying to stuff the scary foreigners into an even smaller box than we were in already.

    I went to pack up my stuff immediately and moved out to my car, which is where I will happily exist until Friday.

    I've experienced mostly amazing kindnesses in this country, and occasionally some ugly prejudice. After 16 years you get somewhat used to that...however, this one really hit me in the guts.

    I only hope that when my knees are burning after a day of flooring work, or when I'm smelling of the fish and mud we clean out of people's sub-floor spaces, my motivation and stamina won't be diminished by those small-minded comments and reactions.

    On a positive note, the people who have been receiving volunteer work have been very appreciative.

  8. #28
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    I'm back...
    ...returned midday yesterday and very happy to see my family and eat a heavy dinner

    I have a lot to reflect on...

  9. #29
    Senior Member Bradley's Avatar
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    I for one can't wait to read about your relections of it all . . .

    . . . I am TOTALY amazed at the scope of it . . .
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    Bradley SaintJohn
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    "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show you great and mighty things . . ." Jeremiah 33:3
    ΙΧΘΥΣ

  10. #30
    Senior Member DiscoveryDiver's Avatar
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    Ofunato April/May 2011 (Part 1)

    Getting caught up in work after this trip, I've let this sit too long. I'll jot down some notes in the case anyone is interested....

    The trip up...
    This was my first time to this northeast section of Japan. The drive up was about 8 or 9 hours, with a few leisurely rest stops. There's some amazing, beautiful scenery up there; mountains and river basins, lots of old houses, well cared-for.

    The highway on the way up becomes significantly buckled in many locations from the earthquake. No breaks (those have been hastily repaired) but lots of roller-coaster hills of maybe almost a meter in places.

    When the highway passed the exit for Fukushima (location of nuke problem) I felt heaviness, even though the scenery around me was still a peaceful spring. The highway is considered a "safe" distance from the leak (relatively speaking), I'm not sure how far it was in Km. In retrospect, I drove through some elevated Rad levels for sure, not harmful, but a new concept for me...

    The "disaster" area...
    This was a mind-bender. In 1995, I arrived in Japan shortly after the Kobe earthquake. As I've come to expect in significant earthquakes, the damage is somewhat widespread and indiscriminate, though old, inferior or vulnerable structures are naturally hit harder.

    What struck me was how defined the areas of destruction were. This is totally understandable from an intellectual view, but it was hard to grasp in person. In my location (Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture) from 400 to 600 meters from the bay, there is near total destruction...like an atomic bomb went off. Another 100 to 300 meters after that there is a transition zone where some structures survived (sometimes despite water levels of up to 3 or 4 meters in houses). After this zone is an abrupt transition to life "as usual"; no destruction at all. It makes sense with elevations, water paths, forces, etc, but to see totally destroyed houses so close to untouched ones was very surreal.

    At that point in time (about a month after the tsunami) the main network of roads had been cleared by moving or removing the largest wreckage from the paths. Driving those roads at night was like the worst Armageddon scene from Hollywood. The cleanup progress up to that point was amazing given the scale, but I can't even imagine how long the remaining removal will take, or where it will all be deposited.

    Just as seen on CNN, the scale of some of the ships that were now sitting in residential neighborhoods was staggering. By the time I had gotten there, some had already been removed with skyscraper cranes; others were being prepared with debris removal and weight-bearing pads in place for the cranes to move in.


    The volunteer group...
    I had the hardest time finding a group to work with...never have I found it so hard to give my time away...It's a shame that there were so many folks willing to help (thousands, or even tens of thousands) but no infrastructure/organizing force to enable that all to take place.

    I ended up with All Hands, which I had not heard of up to that point. The organization is still winding up activities in Haiti. I had almost given up on the idea as the Golden Week vacation was almost upon me and I had no replies from emails sent. I decided to get proactive and found a phone contact through Google search, and eventually made my way to a decision-maker. The fact that I had cordless power tools and demolition/construction experience weighed in my favor; I was in.

    My original plan was to be totally self-supported in my van (food, water and accommodation all in one). I even had an inverter in the car to recharge cordless batteries if AC were not available. I was encouraged by the base staff to stay in the group room, secured in the evacuation facilities…that fiasco is covered in one of the upper posts, so I’ll not recount here.

    For the week I was present (April 29 to May 5th) there were 50 to 70 volunteers on hand in our group (folks came and went during the week). There did not appear to be other large-scale volunteer programs active in Ofunato. The volunteers were mostly foreigners, many of them from overseas. Some had come directly from (or recently worked in) the All Hands relief efforts in Haiti.

    In hind-sight, relations with the other volunteers was the most significant challenge I faced. Folks were from all over with all kinds of personalities, living conditions were tight, personal spaces were small or non-existent, the work was hard, sadness was all around us and emotions often ran high for all of these reasons.

    Understandably, many of the volunteers were young (especially the folks staying for longer terms). I was surprised by the youth of the base management and on-site leadership. Most were half my age; the youngest work site team leader was 18 years old. Egos, working styles and a general lack of experience in demolition, construction, management and/or cultural factors all culminated in a daily fruit salad of varying “edibility” from my perspective. I sometimes struggled with high degrees of direction while working…and I’ve been micromanaged by the best. Nuff said on that…

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