The slender woman in a puffy black ski hat and camouflage pants hurried among the crowd at the opening ceremony for a new vegetable market here, carrying a rolled-up events schedule like an architect with a set of building plans.
Her cellphone never stopped ringing. Between smoking breaks, never finishing an entire cigarette, she dragged tables and ran to consult village elders, playing coordinator.
Chizuru Nakagawa isn't a resident of Ogatsu. Rather, she's the volunteer stranger who came and stayed.
"She's more involved than most real residents," merchant Yorio Takahashi said at the opening ceremony, marking the first commerce in Ogatsu since a tsunami wrecked buildings and swept 300 people to their deaths. "She knows what needs to be done."
(Los Angeles Times)
The slender woman in a puffy black ski hat and camouflage pants hurried among the crowd at the opening ceremony for a new vegetable market here, carrying a rolled-up events schedule like an architect with a set of building plans.
Her cellphone never stopped ringing. Between smoking breaks, never finishing an entire cigarette, she dragged tables and ran to consult village elders, playing coordinator.
Chizuru Nakagawa isn't a resident of Ogatsu. Rather, she's the volunteer stranger who came and stayed.
"She's more involved than most real residents," merchant Yorio Takahashi said at the opening ceremony, marking the first commerce in Ogatsu since a tsunami wrecked buildings and swept 300 people to their deaths. "She knows what needs to be done."
(Los Angeles Times)