Remind Me to Slow Down

Decks- a double and a single in Ofunato's Yamaguchi housing project.

Kyousuke goes solo on a deck.

Orders just keep coming in. But, not in huge lumps. This time around, I've been reminding myself to slow down on the things and give some time to people. I drank a lot of tea today.
I wasn't going to be here (Ofunato again) until next week, but when I checked with Kessen Junior High School about going to finish the chair project there (60 kids! See my post,"A New Twist on Chairs", July 5-8)), we decided this week would work out better. Tomorrow is chair day; yesterday and today I was making decks.
Among others, I had 3 orders for decks that join 2 units, and requests for 2 more. Some people have family next door, and being able to scoot around on the deck (rather than put your shoes on and go next door) is attractive to them.
As a bonus, I had a young man, Kyousuke Hirano, to help me today, for the second time. He is a long time volunteer with a group from the town of Touno, in the mountains (where we stayed in the early days before we fixed the church). The group is an NPO run by Touno; they set up a tent for tea and coffee at housing projects, and talk to the residents. Kyousuke has been to all the places I go to, saw the decks, and wanted to learn how to make them. Today he made one all by himself. It will be nice to get someone else involved, but he will be going back to Kyushu in a month. All the volunteer organizations have the problem of high turnover. Our mission would like to get involved in the furniture building, too, but- where to get the people.?
Perhaps you wonder if the need is still so great. Today I was able to spend time with residents of housing projects, and hear what they had to say.
At noon the NPO Kyousuke works with held one of their "tea parties" at the project where we were working. I was sat down with some of the residents, and remarked that there was a nice view of the harbor from the project. They informed me it was a much view better since the tsunami washed so many houses out of the road (probably including their own). The backround for this converastion was the racket being made by numerous backhoes, jack hammering concrete and crushing buildings to continue in the massive cleanup. Many places have been scraped down to the ground. What comes next?
Later in the day I discussed this with some other people over tea (I think it was my fifth tea-time for the day). What to do? Build on higher ground? Where? There is precious little flat ground to be had around here, in these mountain-bound cities. Move to - where? Is there anyplace you would want to go if your community was destroyed? Re-build on the land you own? A lot of people are fixing houses that were flooded, but not crushed. However, there is a persistant rumor that the coast is in for another bad shake in a year or two, as happened after the big Christmas tsunami in South East Asia. Some figure they had better sit tight and see what happens. The second one may not be as big, but now there is no seawall left in most places- they are wide open. And, the entire coast has dropped at least a meter. High tides threaten to wash over roads and docks; some people's lots are now under water- no rebuilding there.
And, of course- who will pay for all this? It's daunting enough to think of taking out a loan when your workplace is gone (probably for good), but on top of that, many, many people are left with car loans for wreaked cars and mortgages for houses that are not there.
Meanwhile, they have a roof over their heads (no insulation in the floor), food, water and electricity. Some have jobs. Many have cars. It will all work out eventually. But, how many will not make it?
One woman had been talking to her friends in next-door Takata (70% destroyed as I remember it, compared to Ofunato's 10%) . They remarked that the official reports given to the TV news and newspapers are more upbeat than the reality. It is hard to get a feel for the real situation; hard to know what to do to help.
In the meanwhile, my drop in the bucket is making life a bit easier for a few. For the rest, I pray.