Don’t worry. I’m safe. Love you...
...scribbled in the dark on damp scraps of paper, messages of hope from trapped boys
ON DAMP scraps of paper torn from an exercise book, brief but heartbreaking messages from the boys trapped in a Thai cave offer a slender ray of hope for their desperate parents on the surface.
The chirpy messages of love for their families and longing for their favourite foods are in stark contrast to the darkening mood and skies outside.
The past few days have been relatively dry but with today’s forecast of monsoon rain that could flush through the Tham Luang Nang Non cave ‘like a tsunami’ comes the terrifying realisation that time is running out.
Perhaps oblivious to the desperate race against the elements and that the world is holding its collective breath, the boys in the Moo Pa (Wild Boars) football team urged their families not to worry as they signed off the short letters with their team nicknames.
The youngest member of the party, ‘Titan’ (Chanin Wiboonroongrueng, 11), wrote: ‘Mum and Dad, don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Tell my brother to get ready to take me out for fried chicken.’ Another, ‘Pong’ (Somphong Jaiwong, 13), wrote: ‘Dear Mum and Dad, don’t worry, I’m safe. Love you.’
Team coach Ekkapol Chantawong, 25, apologised to the parents, saying: ‘To the parents of all the kids, right now the kids are all fine, the crew are taking good care. I promise I will care for the kids as best as possible. I want to say thanks for all the support and I want to apologise to the parents.’
The letters were brought out by divers along the tortuously narrow tunnel system – much of it underwater – which separates the boys from safety.
With great dignity, their mothers and fathers have tried to contain their emotions while being housed in a brick-built rangers’ station.
They are close to a small army of rescue workers that includes British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who found the boys huddled on a ledge last Monday.
The soldiers, police and divers share the muddy encampment with the world’s media. Experts say there are four options available to the rescuers:
To take the boys out through the flooded cave system wearing scuba gear. This is by far the riskiest solution – especially after the tragic death of former Royal Thai Navy Seal Saman Funan in the caves on Friday – but if the rescuers think a deluge will completely flood the caves, there is no alternative.
To continue the mammoth pumping operation that is removing 13,000 litres an hour in the hope of lowering the water level enough to allow the boys to escape on foot before the monsoon rains begin.
To simply wait until the end of the monsoon season in October when the caves will drain but that would depend on establishing a reliable oxygen supply to the cave and there being enough of an air pocket left for the boys to survive.
To drill from above to create an escape route. This is a long-term solution and also carries the risk of collapsing the roof of the cave.
Mr Funan, 37, died as he returned from delivering air tanks to the flooded cave where the team has been stranded for two weeks.
The death of such an experienced diver along with news that oxygen levels in the cave are down to 15% and decreasing, means time is running out. Divers are working furiously to lay more oxygen pipes to the chamber where the boys are sheltering.
Governor of Chiang Rai province Narongsak Osatanakorn, in overall charge of the rescue, said: ‘We’re trying to pump water out but more and more is coming in from above and below. Our biggest concern is now the weather.
‘A heavy downpour comes down into the caves like a tsunami.’
The Wild Boars team, aged 11 to 16, and their coach have been trapped inside the flooded cave since June 23. Cave divers, led by
finance broker Vernon Unsworth, 63, who lives locally, discovered the group on Monday evening – nine days after they went missing after football practice.
The boys and their coach entered the caves during fine weather but got stuck when a sudden downpour flooded the tunnels. It is believed the team survived by eating huge freshwater snails and drinking dirty water.
The boys are said to be calm, largely due to the steady leadership of their coach. While some of them get diving lessons from Thai Navy experts, the others rest and chatter quietly.
When they were first found, the boys were fed the high-energy glucose gel used by elite sportsmen to rapidly boost their energy levels after so long without food.
Although they have been reintroduced to solid food, it is by necessity all cold and, in their letters to their parents, the boys dreamed of fried chicken. It takes about 11 hours for new pieces of information to reach parents. Experienced divers have to walk on rocky terrain against strong currents and swim and dive in zero visibility through a labyrinth of passages in murky water for six hours to reach the survivors. It then takes them five hours to come back out.
Tham Luang Nang Non means ‘the great cave of the sleeping lady’. It is named after a princess who fell in love with a stable boy and became pregnant.
Her father killed the boy and the distraught princess took her own life by stabbing herself in the heart with a hairpin. The water that flows through Tham Luang is said to be her blood.
Since the boys were found, the peace and quiet of the national park around the sacred forest caves has turned into something resembling a battle zone, with engineers, soldiers, police and navy rescue divers jostling for space in a makeshift camp.
Last night, a joint letter from the boys’ parents was posted on social media, forgiving the coach for taking the boys into the cave. The parents wrote: ‘Please don’t blame yourself. We want you to know that no parents are angry with you at all so don’t you worry about that.
‘Everyone understands and you have all of our support.’
One of the most moving letters from the boys was from ‘Tun’ (Nattawoot Thakamsai, 14), who put on a brave face to allay his parents’ darkest fears: ‘I miss you, Mum and Dad, and miss my family. Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself.’