Home Again

The once uniform lineup is getting increasingly customized.

Everyone was discussing rooves; this couple got a carpenter to actually build one.

Usually I try to get away early on Saturday. Before I could leave this time I first had to organize the shed and the materials left from the week's work. I loaded one deck's worth to go to Rikuzen Takata to fill an order there, as I won't be back until mid-October.
On the way I dropped off the empty lunch box Mrs. Murakami gave me yesterday, filled with a delicious stir fry as a thank you for the work I did for her family. I was leaving it with our mutual friend Kazumi, who then invited me to lunch. I went to Takata, but the lady there wasn't home; I returned to Ofunato, off loaded the materials, and went to what turned out to be a long lunch and several fix-it jobs. Kazumi's friend Nana was there with her husband, who had also been drafted for repairs. It was 2:00 by the time I hit the road, and with a stop to see an NPO volunteer center in Touno, my return was rather late.
While at Kazumi's place in Hassendo, I took some pictures of the customizing being done by recipiants of my decks. Staining, joining multiple units, and adding a roof were the resident's accomplishments this week. It's nice to see everyone getting into doing for themselves again.
The lady across the street from the church told me that she got the courage to go ahead and start fixing her house when she saw us fixing the church. There was so much destruction that everyone was stunned at first; they didn't know where to start. What some of them needed most was a push in the right direction.
I also stopped to chat with some volunteers from an NPO called Helping Hands. They were repairing the fence around a park we helped to clean up in April. One of them has been in Ofunato for 5 months. He says they cleaned drains and sidewalks for 15 kilometers of road. It was a low priority for the overstrained city government, but what a difference it made to have it done! It was a great morale booster for everyone.
He was also involved in cleaning up the horrific mess of rotting fish at a processing plant near the harbour. Thigh deep and the size of several tennis courts, the pile sat and stank up the whole city for months while the company and the government tried to decide who got to stop the buck. Finally the job was handed to the volunteers. Thanks to them, "The Camelia City" stopped smelling like- a big pile of rotting fish.
One step at a time.
It's not over yet.