On Sa
turday, we received a wonderful gift from a local company. They paid for a 4 ton truck and 2 professional drivers to take supplies for us to hard hit areas. At 6 a.m., neighbors from our community of Tsukishima once again gathered at the base of our building to fill a truck with food, water, clothes, and other supplies they had gathered. These were then unloaded 6 hours north in Higashi Matsushima (pictured below), where people could freely take whatever was needed. All stores of any kind are still closed in tsunami affected areas, so people living in their houses depend on donations like this to provide for their families. The location of this "open air store" was announced by radio all day Friday by the Nippon Foundation, our first collaboration with this non-profit organization. I made contact with them in an emergency shelter on my previous trip up north.
