The Road Less Traveled

OK – it’s been painfully long since I last posted.  But what a treat to return to.  I had the pleasure of exploring the NE corner of Oregon – the Wallowas – back in August and it was just beautiful.

A quiet morning outside of Joseph, Oregon

Another treat to see on an early morning walk.

The Wallowas are a beautiful mountain range overlooking high, dry farmland.  The mountains encompass a Forest Service wilderness area, with all the adventure that comes with such rugged and remote places.   There’s great food, music and less rugged activities than backcountry trekking, for those not interested in that.

For me, I enjoyed barn-spotting as a new sport.

This barn reminds me of Wimpy from Popeye.

I loved the shape of this barn.

Just another barn that invites one to drive the back roads.

Whatever your pleasure, this remote corner of Oregon is a treat to visit.  Put it on your list!

I stink.   Truly.  I stink of dead fish and squid and who knows what festering ick lived in the piles of debris in the driveway and drainage ditch in front of the house we worked at today. I pity whoever sits next to me on the plane home tomorrow.  I can only hope it’s one of my fellow Flight Friends who will understand, as I’ve washed my hands a half dozen times, I’ve showered, and still my hands stink of fish.  And I couldn’t care less.

Taking photos of our accomplishment during a rest break. That entire wet spot covering the ground was several feet deep in muck, consisting of everything from dead fish to soaked tatami mats, all stirred up in sea water and silt.

The details of our work project today, while incredibly relevant to those of us who did it, are probably not that exciting for others to hear.   (Though I was on such a high from the experience, I’m sure I seemed like a crazed babbling person sharing my stories with those I sat with when the half full bus from a different work project picked us up at the end of the day.)  More after the jump… Read more

We visited to the town of Ishinomaki today.   After a quick web-search as I drafted this post, I see that it was where one of the two Americans known to have died in the tsunami was found.  She’d been a teacher in several of the school’s in this town, perhaps the one we worked at today.  I’ve no idea.

We drove through the town, which was full of recovery activity, on our way to our work site for the day.  The roads had been cleared (mostly), new power lines were being strung up, a few new homes were under construction.  And yet, debris still littered the town.  Cars piled on top of one another, sat untouched.  Houses you could see clear through the ground floor to the other side, though piled high with debris.  As we drove home at the end of the day, we noticed the sea wall to the  east, blocking the view of the ocean itself.  Strangely, parts of the town seemed to have not been damaged at all.

A mural on the gym wall, at the school where we did our clean up project, shows the bay just across the road from the school. We had lunch in the gym.

Paintings by the kids of this school also lined the walls of the gym. I was struck by how every image related to the ocean.

Our work site was an elementary school, a distance out of town, over a set of hills not unlike driving from one Oregon coast town to the next, with views of oyster beds in the bay below.  Fixes to the earthquake damage of the roads was underway as we drove by.   At the bottom of one of the little hills, within easy view of the water, across from a beach littered with more debris, the trailer from a semi-truck, the roof of a home, a jumble of power poles and several boats, we pulled into the clear parking lot of a two story elementary school.

More after the jump… Read more

During yesterday’s bus ride from Tokyo to Sendai, we made several stops. We made bathroom stops along the way, where a few of us were asked where we were headed and why we were here. When they heard, they bowed and thanked those who told them (several folks among us speak Japanese). There were other groups going north to do volunteer work as well. We saw a prison crew in their caged vans, a bus load or two of Tokyo Police, and several delivery trucks with aid and produce on the road.

Once in Sendai, the local Sendai TV station hosted us, to share with us the progress and work they entire region has been doing to recover. We also visited a local temple to hear more about the volunteer efforts of others, their involvement, and their thanks. This had been arranged by a few in our group, through their local connections, and several within our group spoke. A local Portland couple (part of a larger band) who are along to provide healing through music (and helped us rehearse some songs on the bus ride north) shared an amazing rendition of Imagine.

So this morning, I head to Ishinomaki with a group of 14 others, as we all go off in little groups to work with four different NGOs doing work in the region, and offer our help. I didn’t sleep much last night. Go figure?! It’s hard to know how to prepare oneself for something like this. It makes me appreciate those whose life is spent supporting those in disasters and war torn areas, like those at Mercy Corps, Doctors without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, the Red Cross/Crescents of the world…

More later…