My volunteer experience at Ishinomaki, where the tsunami hit strongly at,
was a very touching and hopeful volunteer. Knowing how much has passed
since the actual happening saddens me, because the recovering of the city
is taking much slower than I had thought. There were still many houses
left there in its original state, yet to be broken down for other houses
to be built. The volunteer work I did was pulling out weeds to clean the
area for new houses. This may sound like an easy job, but it is quite complicating.
While volunteering, there are many bugs to be careful about, adding with
the weeds that are hard to pull out. Though many times I felt like quitting,
the thought of the support for Japan and how many people were killed in
the tsunami kept me going. I promise this experience isn't something you'll
regret doing because I sure didn't. This will be a once in a lifetime (or
maybe two because I will most likely return) chance to help out with the
recovering of Japan. Just visiting, you can feel the spirit of Japan still
going on... And it still goes on.
Ai Grace Kusayanagi (13), the resident in California, USA
My volunteer experience was very fun, especially eating the ice cream. I know that has nothing to do with helping, but still it was very delicious. I feel very sad that the people got flown away, but I have to accept reality.
I loved helping the earth and people. We picked up tons of trash, and tons
of things that we don't need any more in earth.
Kokoro Margret Kusayanagi (8), the resident in California, USA
