With Habitat in the Trenches

Habitat for Humanity has an active chapter in Japan. They take trips to other countries in the region to help build homes. One of the reasons we work weekends and take Tuesdays as our day off is to allow them to partner with us on weekends.

Yesterday they sent 22 volunteers from the Tokyo area to work with us. They spent all night on a hired bus to get here. The generous administration at the Fukushinosato Center loaned us an extra room for the Habitat volunteers to sleep in.


Half the Habitat team headed to nearby Rikuzentakata to help clear debris fromrice fields. The other half came with us to the destroyed downtown area to help clear the canals and ditches. This is way different than their usual work, but they held up well in the trenches.


The kind folks at the neighborhood Community Center let us use their facility for lunch (and a nap) again. I presented them with some genuine maple sugar to taste and explained how it is made.

Near the block we were working on (totally wiped clear of buildings) there is a small promontory with a few houses on it. You can see in the picture that the tsunami reached halfway up the hill. It must have been quite frightening to see the waters raging up the hill and not know where they would stop. A local resident told me that 30 people were lost on the single block that we are working.

Railroad tracks bent by tsunami