トーマス・C・カンサ
The trip was the usual twelve hour trip from Osaka city to Sendai City. I waited for an hour to catch the bus into Ishinomaki City. It is a ninety minute trip by bus. What a reception I received when I got to the base! I felt like I had never lef! t the place. The volunteer center where I had to sign in had been relocated. Some of the staff remembered me from my last trips and welcomed me as though I was a like a long lost celebrated friend and I was introduced to the new staff members. I did my rounds, saw the people that I met on my previous trips and got my work schedule set. We talked about the human misery in disasters but, behind the scenes lay man's best friends - the pets and farm animals. Like the people I had come to know, they resembled shadows that I occasionally bumped into.