24 Hour Relief Trip

If you recall, I mentioned in a previous post that Kan was heading up north on a 24 hour relief trip. Here are some pictures of what he saw. He said it was a very sobering trip and did not quite have the words to describe what he saw. They loaded trucks late Friday night and drove through the night up north. When they got there early in the morning, they went to a shrine on top of a mountain (I assume it was a mountain or large hill based on the pictures) and looked out onto what used to be the city. As you can see, there is not much left. Although Kan said he was surprised by how much had been cleaned up in just a four months. After taking pictures they went down to serve people, who were already there waiting for whatever the group had to give them. Kan helped put a grill together and they cooked 500 hamburgers donated by a local Japanese fast food chain. He said it was incredibly hot and there was no shade simply due to trees being destroyed. They helped clean a house and Kan said he just observed to see what needed done, and then would go and do it. He did talk to one lady as she ate her hamburger. She was an elderly lady whose daughter drove and got her after the earthquake to escape the tsunami. She said as they were driving up the mountain, they could see the water coming. The daughter who was driving had a two week old baby with her. Can you imagine? I think back to what I was complaining about when Kei was two weeks old, and here this lady was driving a car to outrun a tsunami with a two week old. It puts things in perspective huh? Kan said he tried not to look around a whole lot or take a ton of pictures. Instead he just wanted to focus on helping and doing what he went there for, and then come home. I think overall it is just too sad and too much to take in when you try to look at the amount of destruction. They left around 4PM and arrived back in Tokyo a little after eleven. Needless to say he was exhausted. The next day at church you could tell who went on the trip because they all had some sun burn. Hopefully these pictures give you a glimpse of what life is like there now.