2011-08-30

Ofunato Summer 2011 Volunteering - The SPPCF

After a good warm up on Sunday afternoon I was ready to go on Monday morning. I had chosen to go down to the marine factory site (A demolished refrigeration warehouse) to help The SPPCF – The Society for the Prevention of Prevention of Cruelty to Foam.
_1180788


Compared to the day before there was no heavy lifting. Actually. It was quite simple. Sift through the piles of debris, put as much of the insulation foam as you can into bags, and put the big pieces in another pile. For some reason it was the Job nobody wanted to do…

IMG_2023

On the site, I learned why.
The task itself was not particularly difficult but direct sun, heat and high humidity made it a taxing work environment. Add the fact that you are breathing through a mask and your clothes all get soaked through and heavy with sweat, and you have a recipe for a pretty hard day.

SPPCF-pano-web

We needed to take in water at a phenomenal rate and hardly needed to pee because we sweated it all out. That said we killed a lot of foam and reduced the burden on whoever chose to continue the fight.

P1180780P1180779_1180805

In the afternoon as we were were preparing to go, we noticed the road had transformed.
P1180799
Basically, high tide creeps up the street. Good work aside, Wherever you go, no matter how positive you feel, you can never escape the sheer devastation brought on by the tsunami.

It is not a bad thing. It’s a nice sense of perspective that we tend to lose in the daily grind. If only more people could actually experience it first hand.

No comments: