THIS IS GONNA BE LONG.

Just saying.

So, I have been promising Amandeep time and time again that I will post in this amazing blog of ours about the adventures and misadventures that I have had in the past six months. However, time did not permit me to sit down and just write what I have doing with my life because life itself was making me go crazy.

I have just started my spring break that will last until the end of March so I am hoping that I won't be as busy as I was in the last couple of months and I guess I am right. I have been sitting in front of the TV watching Twilight... until Breaking Dawn, which is the third movie (fyi). So much for a lazy start!

OH YEAH! BEFORE I START ON MY MONTH TO MONTH UPDATE!
LEMME GREET MISS AMANDEEP A HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SORRY TO CALL YOU SO EARLY IN THE MORNING LOVE >.<
I WISH YOU AN AWESOME BIRTHDAY AND AN EVEN GREATER YEAR (than the last) AHEAD!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Ok, so here we go.

Kadonowaki Elementary School, Ishinomaki City Miyagi Prefecture, Japan; taken by my yours truly via iphone

So I went to do some volunteer work up north where the earthquake and tsunami was hit last December. The picture above was one of the places we passed by on the way to where I stayed and as unbelievable as it may seem, this elementary school was the burning school that I was watching on the news. I remember that night as if it happened yesterday and I can still feel the pain, the remnants that I saw brought it all back and the first night I was there, I ended up crying. Enough of the emotional part! The volunteer work that I did was for a canned good maker factory called KINOYA. Their canned goods were washed away by the tsunami but they were able to recover some it and while there were people who cleaned the goods so they can sell it again, I was part of the team where we had to clean the factory palettes (its like movable floorboards where you place the fishes before processing it). There were hundreds of them and they were smelly and dirty, covered in sand, in mud and in fish oil. We had to scrape the fish oil off it before brushing everything else so they can use it again. It was hard work but it paid off during lunch and during break times when we were given the chance to talk to the local people and hear their stories and all of it are heartbreaking, almost impossible to listen through all of it without tearing up.

There was this man, about maybe 50 of age, he told us how he was able to escape the tsunami and how he saved two people's lives. He also told us how he had to listen to all the screaming made by those people who were trapped in their cars while cold water filled it up. He had to listen to them die and it still hunt him every night. And I realized how there are still many victims with untold stories. The man's colleagues were there when he was telling the stories and they did not know about it. I guess they weren't able to share the stories to people who experienced that disaster because the sadness and the pain and the grief would pile up if they do. And I guess that is why they need people who would listen to them, people who have some space within themselves who can take part in carrying the pain. Helping them heal bit by bit, even at a slow pace is very important.

My days at Ishinomaki were one of the best experiences in my life and it helped me realize many things. Life, death, the importance of living everyday as if it's the last and keeping all the people you love close to you, not by distance but by the heart.

Here are a few more pictures.

More to follow :)

-J. from Japan