This is a story about the Chilean Miners......
I shouldn’t have been there.
I should have been playing with my daughter. Watching movies. Be running in the sun, frolicking in the rain, camping in the moon. Meeting friends, joking at restaurants, laughing with my parents. Running, jumping, swimming. Laughing, loving, lying.
I should have been doing all of these.
But I couldn’t.
Because of the cave-in of the mine.
We had been good-naturedly ambling towards the entrance, joking with a light heart and a skip in our step when a sudden roar blasted through the air. Confused, we immediately surveyed the situation. It was not clear that we were in trouble until one of the miners went scouting ahead to analyze our condition and location. Although he returned unhurt, he proved to be the transporter of ill news.
Our shock and despair upon hearing of the cave-in three miles from our position was tremendous. Many hardy miners fell to their knees crying for their parents and children, and then praying that they should remain alive and unhurt. Around these men, I stood unaffected. It seemed like I was stoic; however, the turmoil inside me was raging far more fiercely than that of many men around me.
My mind had raced through any possibilities of escape. The mine entrance had been blocked by enormous boulders that would require a hundred men to shift, but our strength lay at only 33. I willed myself to think as I had never done before, scanning each idea and selecting the most practical of them all. The hot and humid air sent my sweat pouring on my skin, and my mind grew fuzzy and sleepy. When I was nearly struck down by fatigue, my mind had a brainwave.
We started the work soon. Little did we know that nearby us, the government had already prepared itself for drilling the 2,300 meters into the mine. Men began picking at the ventilator, taking slow but steady work to crack it open. The inside would be claustrophobic, but it didn’t matter as long as we could escape….it was our only hope to survive this disaster. If it were to fail, we would likely die of starvation.
And fail it did. Our work at the shaft had triggered another cave in. Fearing that the entire mine would collapse, we immediately halted any activity in the area. So did the government. Our first contact with the government was through the drilling noises. We had noted it for several days, and when the drills came nearby our “refuge” we stuck several notes on it, assuring our friends and families that we were in good health. The response from the public was tremendous, as I came to know. The rescue was being broadcast on one million televisions across the country. The news of the Mina San Jose’s collapse had spread across the world and our survival the headlines.
Many hours later, the Government was able to bring a camera down the hole they had already made. We were conscious of our dirty state; but we had to present ourselves to assure everyone that we were alive and that was all that mattered. When they brought the video camera, our vice-headman began videotaping us joking and our regular lifestyle. It featured about 28 of the miners. Using this, the specialized doctors on the surface were able to tell that most of us were not seriously affected by any illness. They were also able to transport food to our refuge, and this was what we lived on for many days. Sometimes we each only received food the size of a teaspoon, but it was survival and in order to survive, one must sacrifice.
Our rations began to deplete. In spite of the miniscule amounts of food we each took, we found ourselves fast running out of supplies. If we were to stay as refugees in that mine, we would die of either depression of hunger. We prayed to God that the Government should have a breakthrough, and waited impatiently for some sort of transport.
The government was able to create some sort of transportation to bring us up on a fifteen minute ride. It was taking a large amount of time and, even though they began the process at about midnight, it was still continuing at eight PM.
On the seventeenth day, I found myself in the beautiful, open world again.
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