APFS Project to Support the Disaster Area (vol. 4): Day 2 April 4th (Thu) - 2nd day of the project

Real activities started. We helped with cleaning windows of temporary housing (am) and petit relax time (foot bath at the common space, pm) at the Taki no Sato Temporary Housing Complex in Rikuzen Takata City, Iwate,

In the temporary housing complex, we cleaned the windows on 86 units. While working, foreign national APFS members talked with residents. Exchanges start with one good word. There was an elderly gentleman who took out his records (pictures, newspaper articles) from after the earthquake. This gentleman does not have anything to do until the evening when his family comes home, so he was very much looking forward to having these exchanges. Mirza, our member from Pakistan, listened to his stories. He was very happy with the exchanges, and promised to upload it to a blog.

Also, there were exchanges between local children and one of our Bangladeshi members, Joy. He was asked to come to the ‘Petit Relax Time’ in the afternoon. It seems that the children were fascinated by the fact the Joy spoke Japanese fluently. Since Joy communicated so enthusiastically, even some children who could not leave the house due to the shock after the earthquake came to the door. This way we could report on the circumstances of such children to local personnel.

In the afternoon, we taught craftwork to children and provided foot bath to adults while having tea together (ochakko as they call it Iwate).

6 APFS members were responsible for the foot bath. All 6 of them have been living in Japan for long years, so they had a good grasp of it. They carefully massaged the feet of elderly people, for which recipients were very grateful. An Iranian member, Majid played soccer and volleyball with the children. Majid plays volleyball with his own children on a regular basis, so his shots were really something. Since there is no playground in Rikuzen Takata, the have to use the narrow streets in the temporary housing complex, so we felt that they must a lot of frustration.

Through this project, we could see that current problems are different from those right after the earthquake. After the disaster, survivors were preoccupied with everyday food and living. However, there were some people after 2 years who said the ‘sadness and suffering have built up, so we were finally able to cry’. During the morning window cleaning in the temporary housing units, we could see from decoration that many people had lost their family members.

In our stay, this was a day when we had to think about what we can do.

* Extra

To spare accommodation costs, we are preparing our own food in this project. The kitchen is full of the smell of curry.

Today’s menu was Sri Lankan food (spicy coconut beef stew) and Pakistani food (keema curry). There are fierce discussions in the kitchen around who prepares what.

We shared our table with Daikon-kon Project staff, and they seemed to enjoy the unknown flavors.