(Day 4: my “beauty and brokenness” perspective to illustrate the state of things in Ishinomaki five years after the disaster. One photo of something beautiful around me, and another of something that represents what is still broken or resulting from the earthquake and tsunami that hit here. I feel thankful to have the privilege of living here and bring able to share the state of life here.)

My beautiful entry for today… there are inlets and rivers and canals surrounding us.  This is what made the tsunami so incredibly damaging in our city — the water just travelled inland through a myriad of channels.  But these bodies of water are so beautiful, especially with the bridges and the boats and the buoys and all that makes this a fishing city.

My brokenness entry:

This was my iPhone app yesterday when a 4.7 quake jostled us – a frequent occurrence.  We all pause whatever we are doing, look around, and wait.  When it seems clear that it isn’t going to be a really “big” one, we continue with what we are doing.  But each rumble is a reminder of the loss of five years ago.  PTSD runs rampant here.  One quake a few weeks ago brought instant tears of fear to one of the friends I was with.  One of the women i work with said last week, “It is hard that there are so many earthquakes recently.  They just remind us even more of how terrible things were five years ago, and everyone wonders if it is going to happen again.”