We had heard at some point that a Nuclear reactor had blown up, and that there was some radiation. We knew nothing more. We didn’t know where it was so we didn’t know how to react to it really. I just remember Chayse telling us to stay inside if it starts to rain outside and it looked like it was going to rain soon. I’m quoting Chayse when I say this but the lack of knowledge about what was going on and where it was happening was scary.
Surprises weren’t over yet. Ayelet visited us again and this time with one of our foreign teacher named Jaquie, and of course with Shin with whom she had visited us the day before too. We were really happy to see her again so soon and we were happy to see. She came to us with some news from our families again and we were happy to hear that Ayelet had sent our messages to them. At least now they knew that we were just fine. Also Ayelet had brought us some fried chicken and a giant pudding.
She told us that the Mos Burger near her house had donated a lot of food to the community and the ramen shop had donated roast pork, since it was going to waste anyways. I thought that it was so awesome from them to do that. Ayelet told us about the people living in the same community with her. They were all sticking together during all those days. They had this huge barbecue where they all got food and company. Also the hotel near Ayelets house had opened it’s bathroom in the bridal section for the people.
We were talking about how the earthquake had brought people closer to one another. It was like this moment that everyone came together and shared what they had. There was no reason and no time to be selfish anymore. We had to think about everybody then.
We were talking about all our experiences there and Jaquie told us that she had booked a flight back to Jamaica immediately after the first earthquake that happened on the Wednesday before the day of the big earthquake. Ayelet said that she can’t go back to the US before she knew that her student’s were safe back in their countries. I was really touched by her words. We told Ayelet that we had gotten reception at the roof of the dormitory and at one point it came back. My phone was dead so I had to charge it and I didn’t have credit on it so I couldn’t have called my parents anyways. Ayelet asked me if my mother had skype and I told her that she had so she handed me her iPhone and told me to call her. She wasn’t answering on skype so I just typed her number on the phone and called. My mother didn’t answer to that either.
Tsitika and Chayse called their parents with their own phones. Their families were so happy to hear from them but I was really worried about mine. Why hadn’t my mother answered her phone? Just moments after one of our Japanese teachers came to the room with my phone in his hand and said that someone was calling me. It was my mother. She had figured out that I had tried to call her and she tried her luck to contact me on my phone. Ayelet started recording my voice as I spoke to my mother in Finnish. I was so glad to hear my mothers voice after all that we had been through. She told me that she had contacted the company that arranged my exchange year and they all had been in touch with the ministry of foreign affairs and with the minister himself. They had been even in contact with the German embassy since Max came through that company too. My mother told me that in few hours Max was going to take a bus from Sendai to Tokyo. She asked me if I wanted to go with him and I said that I wanted to go as soon as possible. We ended our call after she told me that she would contact the company. There we were just sitting all together in the same room. I started crying. People were asking me why was I crying and I said that it was too soon. I wasn’t prepared to leave Japan so soon, even though I really wanted to go home to my family. I was confused, but so was everybody else. I was thrilled about the idea of seeing Max again, but was I supposed to leave all my other friends behind? I didn’t know the answer to any of my questions and I kept crying. Jaquie said that I would ruin my makeup if If kept crying like that, but I told her that my mascara was waterproof. She said that my tears had washed away my makeup anyways. There we were just waiting to hear something from somewhere but nothing was happening. I was thinking about going home, and how things would be after that. The future looked like it was really far away.
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