Once again, I`m writing in this blog apologizing for not writing in this blog while I should be doing lesson planning work instead!
Q: Are you still volunteering?
A: Yep! HANDS is still going as an all-volunteer carpool between 1 and 3 weekends per month, depending on the month. I personally am going between 1 and 3 times a month still. We go to Kamaishi sometimes, but to Minamisoma once a month, and last time we went to Minamisanriku for the first time. The work depends on the volunteer center and day.
Recent jobs: digging mud out of ditches, taking rubble out of a house`s foundation, helping with an event (watching children), loading wood etcetera onto a truck to be dumped.
Q: Is it still possible to volunteer? Is volunteering still needed?
A: Yes, and yes, with a caveat. You can volunteer with us locally, or have a Japanese-speaking friend hook you up with another volunteer center still taking people out of prefecture. There`s also It`s Not Just Mud and a lot of animal shelters that need a lot of help (Japan Cat Network) and some other places I`m missing. Email me or ask Facebook group Foreign Volunteers Japan for details.
As for whether volunteering is still needed: I read a piece saying that volunteering in this area through a few larger groups was just makework, and maybe unnecessary, and I`ve tried writing a response but always end up getting so ticked off that I can`t finish it. The main thing I think is if you want to come up here as a short-term volunteer, understand that volunteer opportunities might be limited. You might not get the work you want, and you might get less work than you expected. Understand that what work is "worthwhile" or not is sometimes a matter of perspective. Understand that nonprofits and volunteer centers are working with limited resources to match work with whatever number of volunteers end up coming that day.
If you do not find your experience fulfilling and really want to help, choose a better organization next time, send money instead, or come back as a tourist and help the local economy. Or come for longer than two days. Please don`t tell everybody there`s nothing to do here anymore!
In other news, I`m moving to Morioka in April, but will hopefully be able to still volunteer through HANDS at least once a month. I`m also considering pursuing volunteering opportunities through Save Iwate or Kawai Camp.
For awhile I`ve been thinking about a way to help people on the coast while going to school at Iwate University to study Japanese. I would like to do something that directly helps with things like job development or improvement of quality of life in temporary housing, but between the language barrier, not having a lot of money, and not having an affordable method to get to the coast, my options are limited.
I plan to record a series of interviews from people who live(d) on the coast and people who are familiar with the coast. The interviews will center around descriptions of places, especially public places like schools and restaurants and parks, that are no longer there. This is not only to preserve the history of places that are gone now, but also to help people who want to remember a place now to remember it more clearly. I`ll listen to the recordings later and make a list for each recording of what places were described. Maybe I`ll separate each recording out into tracks for each place, not sure yet.
At first I was only going to take interviews about Rikuzentakada, but now I think that`s kind of a stupid idea. All areas that were lost are important, so I will take interviews about anywhere I can get, including those about Miyagi and Fukushima.
Of course I don`t intend to go knocking on people`s doors for this. I`m going to start with friends and acquaintances and then hopefully branch out to other people through a system of introduction. I think I will label recordings only with first name, age and hometown, though I will explicitly ask each interviewee what information is OK to use. I will protect private information and figure out how to make a Japanese consent form.
Sometimes I wonder if this would really be a valuable use of time, but I honestly think it`s important to preserve the memories of a place and help people remember. It`s a horrible thing for a city to disappear like some cities did.
If you have any ideas or concerns about a project like that, or know someone who might want to be interviewed, please let me know.
