Volunteer activity in Tohoku part 2

At first we went to a volunteer center, Shichigahama City, which is located in the costal area. In that area, we've heard that more than 100 people died from the destructive tsunami and more than 50 people are still missing. The volunteer center was so well-prepared that we could get almost all necessities that we used  such as gloves, rainboots, masks, and goggles. I was surprised to see the signature of Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, a famous Japanese musician, at the center's bulletin board. I remebered that he visited here.
According to other Shichigamaha-related blogs, Tsuyoshi's wife, Nagabuchi Estuko, previously known as Shihomi Etsuko, also volunteered at this center.

At around 1pm, we reached the center . After registering, we immediately received our tasks. We were given menial tasks because the center always closes at 4pm. One of our tasks was to remove debris from a house floor. The other one was to talk with the residents who lived in temporary shelters. A few of the staff went to a chat room, most of the staff including me went to the affected houses.

When we arrived at the front line, all we could see were just damages.  All we could see were the skeleton of the houses. Some houses must have been cleaned by volunteers, but the others weren't. Grasses have grown tall in the uncleaned houses because noone cared about their ruins. After the disruptive tsunami swept away this costal village, it was covered with huge amount of stinky sea muds. To my surprise, there's no sea mud around the houses. Volunteers have continuously removed dirty mud from the ground. We were not greeted by the stinky mud. We appreciated that very much. After we set our belongings aside, we started our mission.

At first, we imagined we would be carrying heavy loads from the remnants of damaged houses, but we didn't. We raked some debris of nails and broken glasses from the ground. With the rake and shovel, we simultaneously dug to completely remove all of the debris in the ground.We took a rest for every 30 minutes. It was hard for us because it was a routine task. We engaged for only 2 hours but it felt forever already.
At night in the hotel, we shared our experiences that we had at each site. One of my colleagues shared, before arriving at the commnunity center, he had confidence to communicate with the victims. He thought that he could ease their anxiety out and cheer them up by sympathizing with their miserable situation. Unexpectedly, he was asked not to bring up any disaster-related issue. However, the victims effortlessly connected  any topic at hand to the March-11 curse. Listening to their morose recollections gradually affected him. So he had difficulty in keeping his emotion normal during the chat. I thought that physical volunteer activity was easier than the mental ones.