2. Life in Shizugawa High School (Part I)
Shizugawa High School is located 20 meters above sea level in Minami-Sanriku town. When our team drove up for the first day, all the houses were totally devastated for about 5km on the way. I noticed a fishing boat turned upside down on top of a house more than 4km away from the seashore. There were a few military agents and other volunteers walking around the pile of mud and debris, but these people looked like feeble ants compared to the scale of the devastation itself. Trucks and shovel-cars were starting to enter and remove large portions of mud, but as I have written in the previous entry, this can only happen after the land is carefully searched and the precious items are retrieved.
Once arriving at Shizugawa High School on day one, the first thing I saw was a group of soldiers doing their daily morning exercise in the school grounds. This sight was followed immediately by a voice of a little girl. Five-years old Y came running towards us, and instantly grabed my feet and asked me to put her up on my shoulders. I obliged, but I was very surprised how open she was to strangers.
TDRN members are required to wear a red cap while on duty. Prior to our arrival, there were five generations of "red caps" who built a trusting relationship with the local people living in the high school. It was thanks to the positive development of the past TDRN team that I was able instantly to be accepted by the children and adults as a trustworthy volunteer. The reason why Y was so open towards us is definitely related to her good experience with the past generations of the red caps.
Day one was relatively quiet, since there were only 3 children in the high school. The rest were out watching a movie at some other location. 1 child (call her A) had a fever, and another child, M, (the first child's older sister) stayed just in case. I walked around the school with Y sitting on my shoulders, saying hello and introducing myself to the other workers. The workers greeted me kindly just like the way the children did. Many of them were intrigued by the fact that I am half-Irish and can speak English. People in Tokyo are gradually getting used to the presence of mixed-blood people, but apparently the people in the countryside are not yet familiar with people like me. I was at once a normal worker and an intriguing object for them. That's fine, since I have been treated like that for quite a while now, and thus am used to it. It merely amuses me.
For our first day, we helped carry some boxes up into the second floor of the gymnasium. I found some "ken-dama"s in the gymnasium, and decided to bring them to the children. The children loved it, and we played for a long time. If you don't know what a ken-dama is, see here.
Day two, we had many more kids running around the school. More than 10 kids, a majority of them boys, were constantly bothering us. The first thing I did in the morning of day two was to carry a 8-year-old boy on my back and run around the whole school 5 rounds (more than 1km!). Then we went into the second gymnasium, then we did some more ken-dama. We also helped supply water for the toilets and carry some more goods into the gymnasium.
On this day, I met one teenage boy and one teenage girl during lunch. Both of them were very good at music. They could play the Sanshin, the piano, and the guitar. Both were able to play by ear, meaning that they did not need sheet music in order to copy a song. Both of them were also very intelligent. In the cafeteria after lunch, I also met a local high school teacher who told me the story of the first three days after the tsunami. I need to write another long entry to do justice to the intensity of the story, but to cut a long story short, the disaster changed the perspectives of the students dramatically. Students who used to want to go to university are now considering another career, that of working for the local government. Instead of writing an entrance exam, they would need to write a special exam for becoming a civil servant. According to the teacher, this latter exam is much more difficult, yet the students are motivated to help the town.
After lunch, we played some more with the kids in another room. Ken-dama really became the coolest thing to do after this day. Twelve-year-old boy (call him T) was especially addicted to the game. It's good, since ken-dama trains our dynamic visual acuity and the balanced use of our body. T was very good at learning all the difficult moves. Just to note, the trick for becoming friends with little boys is to teach them a concrete skill like ken-dama or shogi. Once they discover that I am better at it and yet am willing to teach them how to do it, then they will show respect and follow what I say. I like this kind of friendship where we shrae something concrete (the skills).
Day three. The primary school and high school students went to another school by bus. The place was thus once more quiet. T, A, and another boy U were running around looking for fun. I played soccer with T, U, and another volunteer. It's been quite a while since I played last time, but I was glad to notice that I was the best player in the field. The fact that I beat the other volunteer into shreds enabled me to gain even more respect from the boys. Yay.
In the afternoon, the TDRN team visited the residential area of the gymnasium in order to talk with the local people. We all listened patiently to their stories. I showed them the letters from Los Angeles. They liked them, which was good. One of the people told me that when she was gazing at the tsunami, she was unable to accept that the sight before her reflected reality. Instead, she told me that the panorama appeared to her like a scene from a movie. I was very sympathetic to this experience. I also had times when the things happening around me lost all reality. Of course, the uniqueness of her experience is that this unreal devastation was happening before her eyes on a massive collective level. Not only did her house got torn down completely, but the entire town experienced the same horror. I was unable to relate to this dimension of her story. Nonetheless, I listened carefully.
Many of the victims had the option to move down to Tokyo and have a relatively normal life with good food, private shelter, lots of water, and good hygiene. Yet all of the victims I met were determined to stay. The revival of their local land meant more to them than the improvement of they personal lives. I was unable to understand the value of this culture until now. As I reflect on it once more from a safe distance, I see clearly their priorities. And how different they are compared to mine and many of my friends! It is easy to say that their culture "values the land over the people," but it is still a big challenge for me to accurately describe precisely why their priorities work that way. This is the biggest take-home question I gained from my visit. Only a good writer can capture something completely alien to himself.
We were able to go to a community bath on day two. The next bathing opportunity will be day five. For the rest, all I got to do was to wash my feet using small amounts of water. Water is really scarce. Taking a shower everyday is a luxury right now in Minami-Sanriku. Although technically people are able to visit the community baths everyday, they refrain from doing so in order to save water.
So far, I have only written less than 10% of what I experienced during the first three days at the high school. But life is short. My real aim is to reflect this experience into my next novel coming out in English. My main task is thus to edit my manuscript as much as possible. Meanwhile, I will continue with day four and onwards in my next entry.
