Today I worked at the USAR headquarters, in the food tent

You can see a few navy boys in the foreground and then teams of people from around the world working to find the people trapped in the buildings. You can also see a few of my lovely students manning the catering tent...

Here are my Japanese boys heading out for another shift in the rubble... Take care guys and I'll bring you bananas when you get back xxx

Changeover at the Civil Defense unit

These wonderful Fire Fighters from Auckland know Dad... They have been here since Tuesday when the earthquake struck and they are just working around the clock. Thanks guys xxx

This is the Aussie's sleeping quarters. As you can see they come back from their shift, eat, shower (not in that order actually) then strip down and get into their tents and sleep on the hard ground. It broke my heart to see them give up so much for us, and they were thanking us for bringing them food from the catering tent...

We have men coming from all over the world. There are many many crates like this on the ground - not only did they send rescue workers but they also brought their own rations, tents, gear etc. Amazing.

These boys from Japan were just so nice. I came past several times with hot food, snacks, drinks and fruit. They were *so polite* and as you can see they are tired. They never came down to the catering tent but were content to just eat their rations. They started taking pictures of me so I got my camera out and said I wanted pictures of them for my friends back in Japan. Oh and did I mention they were totally organized and clean? They even take their shoes off outside their tents :)

Oh yer, the Aussies made themselves at home! And every time I came around with chocolate fish I got a hard time about it... "Feeeeesh? What's feeeeesh?" and the bananas - they LOVED them! Turns out they are a bit scarce in Australia right now because of the floods in QLD. And Shane, I made sure they got some premium quality Verkerks beef jerky. They were a bit unsure about what it was but when I told them I didn't know an Aussie male that would turn it down... they took another look, got excited, translated it into Australian (I forget what they called it) and then took the two full boxes off my hands. They also pounced on me every time I did a coffee round.... I was thinking of you every time I headed over to their HQ.

These are the Aussie tents from a distance. You can't really get how big this operation is from the pictures I have posted but let me just say it is a tent village.

This is the entrance to the Japanese camp. You can see the canine section - we didn't see any dogs until the change of shift at 6pm then they were everywhere. Perfectly behaved and silent. (Gotta love dogs...)

Chuck this picture is for you. Before I got to the tent village I saw all these little caravans in a lot that was once a building - but it is now cleared away.

This picture speaks for itself really...

I'd love to write a bit about my experience working down at the USAR headquarters, but I've spent 7 hours on my feet and I'm FILTHY (lucky lucky me, I can now have a sponge bath with a facecloth and some cold water) and really need some sleep. I will say however that I was moved by the cheerfulness of all the rescue workers, and their willingness to help. I was also touched by the love and generosity of the Brethren community in setting up the catering tent and organizing shifts of people to work around the clock feeding and caring for the men. It was a priviledge and a blessing to (invite myself) to work there today.

xx