Coming up to the end of my second week here and I have become accustomed to the daily routine:
- Wake up about with about 40 other groggy volunteers (there are 40 at “FSC” base house and about 20 at the main house), have a breakfast of tea and toast with peanut butter and jelly, get on the bus to the main base at ,
- Find the team leader for my daily work project and help gather the necessary materials, get on the bus to the work site and start working about .
- A yummy bento box lunch is delivered to us at the work site which we all voraciously gobble down and then try to rest until our . I’m not quite sure what some of the food is, but it is all very good!
- Continue working until about 4:00pm when it is time to clean tools and pack up for the bus to pick us up to return to the main base.
- About , we sit down for dinner in the communal room. Dinner is followed by a team meeting at about . New volunteer arrivals are introduced, work teams report on their progress, the next day sign up options for jobs are announced and farewells are said to those who are departing.
- After the meeting, our bus brings us back to the “FSC” house where we read, hang-out, check emails, take showers, play cards and try to relax.
- At , lights are out, we tuck into our sleeping bags on the floor and try to sleep and rest for the next day of work.
Whenever I am working on these jobs, I make a point of trying to talk to the locals. Not all of the non-Japanese speaking volunteers do this, and that’s a shame. I think connecting with those who have witnessed and lived through the disaster is an important part of our task here. Each work team has a Japanese speaker who can help be a translator. As you talk to people, you learn about their stories. Psychologists say after a traumatic incident, it is very helpful for people to talk to others about their experience.
