33 Alive!

I was born and raised in Copiapo, Chile. A small mining town in the northern desert of Chile. I grew up around miners, generally speaking miners are hard working lower class men. I had uncles that were miners; 1 of them died a couple of years ago in a tragic mining accident and my dear uncle Pedro (Perico) died from stomach cancer last year, they think it was the result of being exposed to fumes for so many years. My dad also mined a few summers while he was a college student to make ends meet.

Just a few weeks ago on my birthday August 5th, 33 miners were trapped in the San Jose mine in Copiapo. The rescuers knew that there was a refuge where there might be food and water for them and it could last for about 2 days. Nobody knew if they had survived when the mine collapsed, 3 had escaped the accident and 33 were buried in the mine.

The President of Chile was involved and heading the rescue efforts from the beginning, he had the best of the best working to save these workers. Unfortunately days passed and the rescuers were unsuccessful in all their attempts to reach the miners. I would talk with my folks via Skype everyday and ask them for updates on the miners, I was constantly checking online and I saw no good news. The families were camping outside of the mine, they named the campground "Esperanza" Hope. It was so sad, depressing, tragic and I have to say after day 10 people started to lose hope (including me). It just did not seem possible that 33 men could survive for that long underground with no food, no water, no medical help.

But on day 17, a miracle.

I was home when my sister called, she said "Estan vivos!" THEY ARE ALIVE! I started to cry, It was unbelievable, what a joy! I ran upstairs and told Matt, then I asked my sister to give me the details: one of the drills had reached the shelter, the miners had attached messages to the end of the drill. One of the messages said "We are OK. In the shelter. All 33". What a miracle! My thoughts were with the families, their relief, their happiness. Husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, all safe. After I got off the phone we had to kneel as a family and thank God for such a blessing, it was such a wonderful overwhelming feeling of gratitude, I get chills just thinking back on it. I don't personally know any of the miners, my father knows some of them, he is a principal at an elementary school and 2 of them have children at his school. All the same, I feel a connection to them, to the families, to the pain/joy of the people in my town, my country.

I love the US, is my new home, but I of course love Chile and I feel so proud of my people. Sometimes I feel like living in Chile is a constant test, the devastating earthquakes just happened a few months ago and now this! How much can the people take?! They endure so well, they do it as a family, they support each other, pray for one another, they suffer and rejoice together.

My mom told me that after the good news broke, people went to the streets with flags, horns, music and celebrated. It was a party, the whole country was thankful and happy.

There is still a long hard road ahead for the 33 miners. They now have food, water, medical help, even some entertainment. But it's going to take months to get them out, the whole country is still praying for them.

I want to share a little video I was able to find (in English) with images from when the rescuers first found out the miners were alive, enjoy!

P.S. This video will take you to youtube, there are more videos about this topic if you want to learn more.