This is the nice woman with the rice field we helped clear. HANDS had come to work at this site at least two times and it took a lot of work: chainsawing and throwing wood into the trucks our day, but it must have taken a lot of time to gather all that wood the other days.
She said that she still couldn't quite grasp the reality of the situation and even now felt like it might be a dream.
They had just spent money on repairing their new house and expected to live out the rest of their lives working on the rice field and living off retirement. Instead, the house was washed away and they're living in temporary housing.
Even though people say to "ganbaru" (do your best) no matter how much they worked to clean, it didn't make a dent in the rubble and they stopped even remembering what it felt like to be motivated or feel hopeful.
One of the other volunteers, Takami-san, later reported that she began crying for awhile while we were there and all he could do was cry along with her.
He did say she felt encouraged working alongside the other volunteers and seeing the rubble finally go away.
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