I like to listen to Blue Hearts while doing do-it-yourself carpentry. In the morning, I prepare meals for my wife and son in the kitchen while checking the news on the radio. In the evening, we eat dinner, mainly fish dishes, with a moderate amount of cola. As the evening passes, I read picture story books for my children and fall asleep together with them. When I awake up in the middle of the night, I watch late-night programs while eating a whole cucumber. When things don’t go well, I eat custard pudding to cheer me up, and when they do, I eat it as a little reward for myself. You may think these are trivial, but for me, these little unimportant things added up make my every-day life happy.
What are your favorite day-to-day activities made up of?
We supporters in the volunteer centers, together with countless volunteers, have worked to help victims regain the normal life with the family at home, at work and leisure which was lost on that fateful day. We have worked to do this for as many people as possible and as quickly as possible. Of course, many volunteers are working hard even now. The area and content of work covers a wide spectrum. ‘Clearing mud’ is not the only kind of volunteer work being done by the disaster volunteer center and recovery volunteer center. We have been involved in activities aimed at helping victims regain their normal everyday life again.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get the victims lives to return to normality. However, I believe your, the victims, lives have the possibility to be better starting with the daily life which began that fateful day.
To create a new life with your neighbors, a little ingenuity is needed. What are your favorite day-to-day activities made up of? Let us and your neighbors get to know your everyday words, gestures and behavior, and this may be the first step in making your lives better. I use the phrase ‘opening yourself up’ to express this. If you have established a long relationship with your neighbors, you will probably get to know their preferences without even trying. However, you are at a point where you must reconstruct your livelihood as quickly as possible. In circumstances like these ‘opening yourself’ may help to increase the number of your friends in the neighborhood.
Osamu Hasebe,
Disaster Volunteer Activities Support Project Meeting,
Social Welfare Corporation Kobe Social Welfare Council
