“I’m hungry” and “My mother is dead” were the first words to their rescuers of the four indigenous children who were found after 40 days of trekking in the Colombian jungle. Two days after this miraculous rescue, Colombian public television broadcast a video on Sunday that captured the moment of this incredible encounter.
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In these moving images, filmed with a mobile phone, we see the four emaciated children, all terribly thinner, the smallest in the arms of one of their rescuers.
“We met the kids. Thank God!” commented one of them, members of the Native Guard. One sings, another smokes tobacco (a sacred plant among the locals) and gives thanks with joy.
Lesly (13), Soleiny (9), Tien Noriel (5) and Cristin (1) were found alive by these rescuers Friday afternoon by these rescuers wandering alone in the jungle where they had been since the crash of the small Cessna 206 plane on May 1st were traveling with their mother, the pilot and a relative. All three adults died in the crash.
A moving story
Invited to the set of RTVC (public television), the team of local people who found the children in the jungle told about this extraordinary moment.
“The eldest daughter, Lesly, ran towards me, holding the little one’s hand. I hugged her, she said to me: “I’m hungry,” said Nicolas Ordoñez Gomes, one of the team members.
“I asked where the boy is. He was wrong. After an initial hug and some food, he got up and said to me, fully aware of what he was saying: “My mother is dead.”
“We immediately softened the words and said we were friends, we came from the family, from the father, from the uncle. That we were family! He replied: “I want flour and chorizo” (bread and sausage, editor’s note)”, explained Mr. Ordoñez Gomes.
“Half an hour earlier we had found a turtle on the way,” said another team member. “According to the belief of our elders, if you find a turtle, you can ask it for a wish and that wish will be granted. I told her “Find me the children”, even if we wanted to eat them up afterwards. When we found the kids we threw it away and only thought of the little ones.”
The on-set story of these first responders was particularly moving: the children’s rescuers had copper-colored skin, wore hats, colored scarves, and walking sticks (classic attributes of native guards).
Also present was the commander of the search, General Pedro Sanchez, in uniform and wearing a burgundy beret. “They are the heroes,” he commented on the attention of the fifteen or so natives present.
A long remission
Three days after the rescue, the children continued to rest out of sight and media fuss in a room at the military hospital in Bogota, where they were flown the same evening they were rescued.
They “talk little,” according to family members, but revealed that their mother survived the plane crash for four days before succumbing to her injuries, her father, Manuel Miller Ranoque Morales, said.
“It’s a miracle from God. We thank God for keeping the children alive,” continued Mr. Ranoque. “As indigenous people, we have shown the world what we are capable of. We found the plane, we found the kids,” he said.
“I’m waiting for the kids to recover (…) It’s not so easy to ask them questions,” he said again after what they had been through, harassed by a crowd of journalists.
“After going through such a tragedy, they need to regain their strength (…). We couldn’t really talk,” commented grandfather Fidencio Valencia. “They play with the gifts (…) they are good, they are in good hands.” “We can’t give them too much food at the moment. This is all a process that will take time.
The father also protested the dissemination of photos of his children in their hospital room, which were “circulated on social networks,” “it’s unfair,” he said.
At the request of the authorities, the children’s faces were covered in most of the photos released so far until this Sunday, when new snapshots and the RTVC video show them extremely emaciated.
Tedious research
The Colombian press began publishing details of her ordeal. The children were able to use a mosquito net, a towel, a minimum of camping equipment, two mobile phones (with batteries that died quickly), a flashlight and a small music box on their trip.
After more than a month of unsuccessful searches, the army was on the verge of reducing its deployed assets. Despite their rations, the special forces each lost between 3 and 10 kilos, with daily hunts starting at 5:00 am. “Every day that began, we said to ourselves: today we will find them!” said one of these elite soldiers, quoted by a weekly newspaper.
The Army announces today that it is continuing its search for Wilson, a tracker dog lost in the jungle. This six-year-old Malinois’ name and photos now hang on windows in Bogota.