14 HOURS OF HELL AND HEROES—A TRUE LIFE SEARCH AND RESCUE INCIDENT ON ST. EUSTATIUS ISLAND INVOLVING EAGLE CLAN LOKONO-ARAWAKS FROM BARBADOS AND GUYANA—AND WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CULTIVATE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE IN YOUR LIFE, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU.
Dear Editor
A lot of exciting things have happened to me since Wednesday 18 October actually, I was hiking in a jungle covered dormant volcano on St Eustatius island, that I had day AND night hiked 10 times before (I even slept in the crater once before many years ago), but I got lost in there this time after sunset- after making a video laughing at ‘how could anyone get lost in here when there is only one track in and out ‘ (take that humble pie bro and shove it where the sun don’t shine lol) , then I thought I was making my own track on all fours up the inside of the crater from 7-8 pm to near where I entered (but in reality I was on the side farthest from it) , I prayed for an animal to guide me to safety (usually birds do this for me by day) as that always worked for me before, but NOT this time children, a white goat appeared and looked back at me (and the mountain is known to have feral goats on it so not an unexpected sight)- as if leading me to safety, and indeed the going got a lil easier, but then it rounded a bend and disappeared, and the only way up was with the rock to hold on to – to pull myself out , lay before me, as going back down was NOT an option – when the prize of the trail at the top of the crater rim was so close .
I was sure the white goat had led me safety at last, not knowing the creature was leading me to my potential death (note to self – never trust goats with your life) but ended up climbing up the steepest highest side where no one hikes, then upon reaching the last boulder to pull myself up and out – it came loose (“Really?”- was the only word I said as I fell back into the blackness like a rag doll) and I fell off the crater rim of a volcano – 30 feet on to a pile of loose rocks, then cartwheeled backwards into a tree, and was knocked unconscious, then when I regained consciousness I held on to that tree for 14 hours till rescuers found me, ass got sore after one hour but nothing I could do to change position, I got my phone out, luckily undamaged, had signal as pretty high up, called my wife Shirl first to tell her her I fell and I might not make it but try calling for help as I was bleeding and thought if the gash on my forehead does not stop I’ll eventually bleed out like an ass holding on to a tree, so she was able to alert our kids back in Barbados first and wake up our eldest son Hatuey who was asleep , then I called him to google the St Eustatius authorities to ask for a rescue mission to be sent, credit on my phone died, no calls possible, Hatuey figured it out, topped me up another 3 times till the battery was dead but in that time I heard help was in the way, and I saw the first police rescue team reach the crater at 11pm, I had lost my headlight and shoes in the fall so I could not use anything more than cell phone light to try to show them where I was , I was shouting back as they were shouting to me to respond so they could fix on my location, but learned later this was in vain as my voice was echoing all around inside the crater, and no one saw my phone light it seems, might have looked like a firefly from the other side of the crater where the first rescuers were, then my phone battery died, I could not sleep in that uncomfortable position holding a tree and seated on a stone , so watched the sun rise eventually after what seemed a long painful eternity, and I heard a new search party hollering for me, this time it was the STENAPA park rangers so they knew the trails better than anyone, two young ladies found me first but from the crater ridge line above , and I looked back up at where I had dropped from and told myself it’s a miracle I did not break my neck in the fall alone and just die instantly, other people have fallen less heights and died instantly, but at that time the pain every time I had to shout had me convinced I must have broken ribs if nothing else, got found and in person second by Jethro and his team of STENAPA park rangers and international volunteers, but then a small set of maybe 50 bees attacked all of us – me and all his rescuers, as we would have been pulled up where I fell down and been on the literal ‘road to recovery’ since 9 am – as two young ladies actually located me by location first and it was they who radioed the other team of Jethro who hacked their way to reach me from below , so we had to head deeper down into the crater as bees were blocking our easiest shortest root out, so I did my best to walk and scoot on my pants seat down to at least half way – when a French rescue team who were coming up reached us, I was never so happy to be able to lie down and be strapped to a board in my life , 8 men carried me halfway down the crater inside in this manner, then an Indian doctor from the hospital was there, and a lot of new other recue volunteers , and a 16 Person relay team carried me up the other side of the crater again, rotated in 8 person shifts , but then when we finally reached the top and I thought my ordeal was over, we ALL got attacked by a whole huge swarm of bees – after the first 30 stings on me personally they had not stopped swarming me and I told mysejf ‘have I not suffered enough torture already? You will let a whole hive of bees kill me now? Because if I just ‘stay calm’ as the rescuers are shouting from afar, which is not stopping them from swarming and stinging me, if I let this whole hive sting me, I’d die from the venom overload as I’m already weak, so I shouted for someone to brave the bee swarm stinging, and Jethro (who is himself allergic to bee stings) dashed forth to undo the 3 straps holding me from escaping. THEN my children – I did like any Guyanese would do in my situation and with the fear of a painful death by a literal thousand stings – adrenaline kicked in I sprang to my feet whist still simultaneously slapping the bees on my head and face to kill them – and I RAN LIKE A SKUNT for 200 feet down the mountain until I reached rescuers again and they helped me walk again as for those 200 feet I had forgot all about swollen knee bruises and ankle pain and anything except ‘getting away from the bees’ but the bee venom overload make me go unconscious again, as I next remember hearing voices at the mountain bottom as people lifted me up like a sack of rice and loaded me into a pickup truck tray – with the Governor saying ‘Your wife is here’ so i motioned my hand with eyes closed and held my wife’s hand with all my strength (she had stayed up on the Volcano all night with the first Police rescue search party – not able to sleep until they found me) then we had to drive off to a waiting ambulance on a paved road, next then to the hospital in St. Eustatius where they x-rayed and found no broken or even fractured bones anywhere in my body- to everyone’s amazement (including myself), so they were sure I must have internal injuries so then the helicopter medevac me out of that island to Sint Maarten, where CT scanning was done of my whole body – and nothing was found to be amiss internally either, all the medical professionals can’t believe how I have no internal injuries and no Broken bones not even a fracture, just surface flesh cuts and bruises over 50% of my body, they said “you are either very lucky or very strong – or both” .
I was discharged from the hospital on October 20 at 11:30 am because nothing serious was wrong, and I told them they were only wasting their time and mine (and my money) by keeping me in the hospital any longer.
So that’s the short version that omits no relevant points or humorous moments. Do you know what came to mind and mattered the most to me in those 14 hours of sleep deprivation torture? It was all the little things in life we take for granted every day: making jokes with my wife, mom, kids, siblings, and other relatives and friends; drinking a big glass of cold water; eating sweet natural fruit unsprayed by pesticides, as we have so abundantly still in the Caribbean; the pricelessness of peace; and the fact that there is no such thing as a ‘War crime’ – because war itself is a crime! So many more thoughts ran through my mind: will I see and hold my grandsons again and get to discuss dreams and visions with my loved ones? see some foolishness again that makes me laugh till my sides ache (well that one came true immediately – as I started to remember all the foolishness I did in my life just for laughs – then indeed my sides ached from the laughter – but because my rib cage was already in pain this time lol), when I realized I had fallen from perhaps the WORST location in the whole volcano to be found, I made peace with myself that I might not make it down physically alive because I didn’t know how much longer I could shout back for help (as it hurt my ribs to do so – and I was getting weaker and more dehydrated) and did not know how much longer I could last exposed to the elements as I was with my strength ebbing away.
I vowed to appear in spirit form to my wife and kids, my mother, and my siblings, and let them know I was back in a better place with dad again and all the other loved ones who have gone before me if it came to that.
Not once did money or material possessions enter my mind as being anything even worthy of a thought, yet how many of us dedicate our lives to this very same spiritually trivial pursuit?
I just want to thank ALL my rescuers. All of you are heroes and the perfect examples of how true human beings should be. People of all races, voluntarily coming together in a time of crisis to find and save a stranger from another race, faith, and country, because none of that superficial nonsense matters to God, only to silly mortals. I admired seeing them cooperate so seamlessly and selflessly with such passion and concern about saving the life of a stranger. This world would be the paradise it was intended to be if we ALL took a leaf out of my rescuers book.
Again, folks, if you have followed me long enough on social media, you will know that I am the eternal optimist (with some pessimistic seasoning at times, like with world events), and I never let anything external rob me of my personal happiness in my life. Even on my personal cross of pain for 14 hours, not knowing if I would be rescued, I said to myself, “I can’t wait to see the tidal wave of good luck that’s going to come my way after this,” because it always happens that when misfortune tries to bring me down, unexpected increased good fortune after lifts me up every time.
Even our favorite Airbnb on St Eustatius – Zevers Pundt Guest House – was kind enough to let my wife (who is still stuck over there alone) stay in the room for free until the hurricane passes (you need a place like this to stay that has your back if anything goes wrong folks) as I had to be airlifted out by helicopter (no room for wifey) with one of my rescuers who nearly died from the number of bee stings he got, and another brother of one of my rescuers who was on his way to help look for me when he got into a motorcycle accident that pelted him through the air and he slid several meters on the road on his bare face ( no helmet), so it’s not only me that suffered in this real lifetime drama version of ‘A Series of unfortunate events ‘.
Believe in the power of God and prayer, and always believe in yourself, I’ll say it again, I don’t regret that this happened to me at all (only that others got hurt too) because it was a GREAT learning experience for me personally, very few humans alive can say they fell 30 feet onto rocks and cartwheeled backward into a tree that knocked them unconscious, and yet walked away with nothing but one head wound that healed on its own without stitches, and only skin scrapes and bruises, once again I have another unbeatable real-life adventure to tell my children and grandchildren, I now have two new ‘records’ – most difficult rescue for St Eustatius island, and the first person to fall off the volcano rim, so in this manner I see the humor in my own tragedies, y’all must try not to be so ready and willing to play your own ‘woe is me’ tiny ‘sympathy attracting’ violin, when you have a problem – find a solution and just deal with it, like me. Nothing gets me down because I refuse to be defeated by anything.
I fell 30 feet off a mountain onto rocks on Wednesday, was found and rescued Thursday, and was discharged from the hospital Friday less than 60 hours after it all started because all the tests found nothing beyond surface abrasions. I got right back to work because I have things to do and I wasted enough time already. If that’s the kind of ‘everything bad that happens is a learning experience for me’ attitude you need to have in your life, then you will never need ‘therapy’ for anything.
There is always good out there in this wide world, my friends. If you are always looking for it, you will always find it. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the names of everyone who helped rescue me, but trust me when I say that it was an international effort of some of the greatest human beings—friends for life—you could ever meet—even Governor Her Excellency Dame Alida Francis was at base camp to organize the effort in person and hug my wife when she came down first before me; she was to have traveled, but she told my wife she couldn’t leave her island when a rescue operation was underway. God bless her and her moral integrity and sense of duty to her island.
