Chilean Miners, Mostly

Aw, man, time's slipping through my hands. Like I suspected, my time perception since leaving Katima-life is out of whack. I feel like I post daily, but I really don't.

It's times like this that I fight over whether or not to have a good sleep schedule, or update the blog. If I sleep through my alarm tomorrow, I'm blaming you guys!!!

Today, on the street, I saw two guys speaking in French, and one of them had a pin in his hat that I also have and put in my hat, which I got at the Franco-festival.

I finally lost the pain in my ankle, apparently. I just noticed today. For awhile, it didn't hurt with use, but it would hurt if I wrenched it at an improbable ankle. That sounds logical, but my other ankle wouldn't hurt if I put it at the same ankle, and my right ankle is the measuring stick I use against my left. Maybe the forgetting to wrench my ankle around, and it's healing, is not just a coincidence? Hmmm....

I met the god of my dojo, and this time, I'm sure it's the guy. All those other guys I thought was the guy, weren't. He shared with us the source of his power: "In this room there are people who are faster then me, stronger then me, even smarter then me... There is no one sneakier." He asked me to perform a combo we'd learned that day in front of the class. That's really high praise, and my sensei was excited. Because he knows what I was like at the beginning, and now I've come far enough that I'm acknowledged by this guy, who doesn't know what I used to be like, so he's not saying that I'm good in comparison to my former self, but just that I'm good for my belt rank.

Unfortunately, I got nervous and wound up eating his roundhouse in front of the class... We tried again, and I got it...

Otherwise... Oh, hey, what about those Chilean miners? Hardcore, am I right? I was analyzing their personalities based on their profile images, and it was surprising how often they matched.

Watching them come up was watching 33 people, all of whom knew they were getting their 15 minutes of fame, and each one having enough time to prepare what they would do, in a row.

What about that Chilean pres? Not bad for a politician, eh? He was a bit of a ham, what with his, "Let the world watch!" attitude toward the rescue, and his little segment where he spoke in English to address, not just Chile, but to the whole world, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. He talked the talk, but he also walked the walk, staying up all day and all night, to welcome each and every miner.

And freakin' thorough with his speech! He said that changes had to be made, not just in the mining industry, but also in *names a bunch of other industries*, and he called out, not just the names of neighbouring countries, but also the names of their presidents, as for places that need to change!

He told the last guy that came out that, that if the country turned in a better direction, that he was the inspiration.

That rescue broke a lot of records. It would have broken them if they'd saved only one miner, but instead, they saved every single person! A complete success for random climactic moments like that, in real life, are really rare.

The second last guy to come out started a ton of traditions. After him, everyone would shout up the shaft once they neared the surface, and they would always shout "CHI-CHI-CHI-LE-LE-LE!" once they got up.

He brought up rocks and gave them to the rescuers, he told the president things in the mining industry needed to change, to his face, in front of the whole world... He was a real showman. Could not be contained.

So many of the loved ones waiting on the miners were so filled with joy to see them back... You don't see that in movies... You don't even really see it in real life, around here. I don't think anyone would spazz that hard for me if I came out of the centre of the Earth, after 70 days.

It's probably why they all lived. The last guy spoke of their unbreakable faith coming from their confidence in their president, in the Chile government, and in the ambition they had for seeing their families again.

If I was stuck in a mine, I'd probably be like, "Canada's probably forgotten about us... And everyone's probably already gotten over me..."

But seriously, they stretched two days of food rations over 14 days without knowing how long they'd have to conserve it... They were down their seventy days... Moses had fourty days. Not saying Moses couldn't have done seventy. Just saying he was supposed to be almost superhero-level, and that was supposed to be a real show of his awesome. So if a bunch of random miners who barely know each other can all pull through like that for seventy.... That's a huge show of strength.

Yeesh, they find them, not only having all of them survive with like, no resources, but they're playing FREAKING DOMINOES! And they fight over who's going to have the privilege of being the LAST to leave!

They looked like a cast of superheroes, too. Their donated sunglasses only helped. And the guy working the camera... I felt like I was watching a movie. Couldn't believe it was live. That cameraman should get an award.

I think, if there were strong-willed people around me, I could probably survive the 14 possibly hopeless days, or even if there were panicking people and they needed my strength, but if I was alone... If they found me, I'd probably be a writhing lump who'd ran down all his supplies, and had taken more than a few mental breakdowns.

So... I gotta give it to those miners, and to the rescue team, the cameraman, the president, and the miner's families. Everyone pulled through perfectly.