Accomplishments and Frustrations...

Sean in Kesennuma

Earthquake, tsunami
Sight and smell I can't forget
I am not the same

I sit with my family, in my home and sip a local beer.  They are distractions for now to keep me from thinking, from remembering…

We were warned.  One of the dangers of going is to know what it feels like to help and to want to stay, to want to do more than the opportunity allows.  Knowing creates an emotional battlefield that, while may have been expected, most of us were unprepared to deal with.  I was unprepared. 

But in the end, what personal and emotional struggles the alumni of the Flight of Friendship to Sendai, Japan might have, it pales in comparison to the struggle in every aspect of life and living that the people of northeastern Japan must cope with now and for the foreseeable future.  We had a unique opportunity to enter a world that few outside of the area will ever experience first-hand. 

Teamwork!

For a few moments we realized a bit of accomplishment that would then settle into a melancholy we came to expect as we hauled a tree stump down to an impromptu dump that was once a playground, as we cleared signs identifying evacuation points out of streams, as we pulled a child’s toy from piles of debris, as neighbors watched us clean up a house and then asked when we could start on theirs.

When people ask about the scope of devastation resulting from the double-whammy Mother Nature provided, my general response has been to ask people to think about the entire 300+ mile coastline of Oregon and all the towns and small communities.  Think about every one of those locations having significant loss and damage and then the logistical challenge of accessing every one of those communities because honestly, right now, every one of those communities is in desperate need.

But it’s just not possible.  This is the reality in northeastern Japan. 

There are supplies sitting in warehouses… but they can’t get the supplies north.  There are people around the world wanting to lend a hand… but they can’t get to Ground Zero.  Not to say that absolutely nothing is happening, a lot is, but a lot more is needed.  This disaster happened to one of the most patient and proud civilizations ever to exist, but even their patience has its limits when no progress is perceived and sometimes pride needs to be swallowed to avoid an even further fall.

For the Children

However, in spite of any defeatist sentiment I may have conveyed, there are smiles and hope in the heart of it all.  There are children attending school in the only building left standing in a community, there are families being reunited, there is new housing being built, there is an ingrained mentality in the people that life moves on and so they must look forward, not back. 

While there, I was asked how we would carry the message of what we did, what we saw, back to the United States, back to the world.  It was tough to respond because their fear is that they might already be forgotten, and for most, that is close to the truth.  But they have us now, to help share the struggles that they continue to face in the hopes that we will remember.  We will.

Japanese and Americans working together!

We were warned, but it was a warning we all embraced.  It was hard to be there, but harder yet to come home when so many still have nothing to come home to.