Siempre Bendosioda Or Always Blessed

20th June 2023

Dear Diary,

I am happy to write again. We faced the worst ordeal of our lives recently after our plane crashed on the first of May 2023. My siblings, Blake, Paula, and baby Sandro, had to stay in the Amazon forest for around forty days before the uncles arrived with the rescue helicopters.

Today, as I write this diary entry, I feel blessed by the Almighty and grateful for our mother's prayers. Her words still haunt my ears. Even during her last moments, she wanted us to have faith. She kept motivating us. I can still feel her soft, bruised hands hugging us while she uttered her last words.

"My dear children, I will not live, but you all should learn to move on. Life is all about moving ahead. My blessings will always be there for you. It will always guide you during the worst hour. Only promise me never to move alone. Always stay together."

After the plane crashed on the first of May, she was alive for almost four days. We buried her with broken hearts. For a moment, we felt that our shelter and support were gone too soon. But the very next moment, I had to get up and start taking action. As the eldest of four siblings, I had to take charge of the situation immediately. So I wiped away my tears before jumping into action.

Blake and I first rushed to the site of the crashed plane and collected all the necessary items needed for our survival, including camping gear, water cans, a torch, and Fourina (a substitute for Cassava flour).

Our ordeal began from then onwards. We started walking in the deep, dense forest. We had to be cautious about every step we took. This forest is home to the Jaguar, the Puma, and many poisonous insects, snakes, and plants.

We set up the camping gear in places where we felt it was more secure based on our tribal instincts. After our water cans turned empty, we began drinking water from the streams. We even caught some small fish and cooked them in the sunlight. Whenever we sensed danger, we hid inside tree trunks.

Thanks to our Grandma Liana, who taught us to identify some edible fruits and seeds that grow abundantly during this season in the Amazon forest. We were able to find the fruit of the milk tree. Its seeds are chewable and gummy. We even found some local palm fruits and Euposems (a fruit that tastes like avocados).

Each child belonging to our 'Todo' indigenous tribe is trained in survival skills from a very young age. It's because of these reasons that we were able to survive through this challenging time.

One day, we heard the sound of helicopters approaching us. We could hear a familiar voice, like that of our Grandma. All we could understand was that she said,

"Children, please stay in one place. Don't travel too far. Please stay together."

Blake followed the sound and waved for help, but soon the helicopters vanished somewhere.

Later, they started searching for us with rescue dogs somewhere around the second week of June. They found traces of half-eaten fruits, baby Sandro's footprints, and his empty feeding bottle. Soon, they found us under a huge tree. We had walked while wrapping our feet with rags to avoid being bitten by deadly mosquitoes.

Soon, a plane arrived and brought us to the mainland where our dad and grandparents were eagerly waiting for us.

We were shifted to a hospital, but not before I declared to my dad and the rescuers,

"I am feeling extremely hungry. Can you please give us something to eat?"

At the end of the ordeal, we were emaciated and exhausted, but we never forgot to stay together or give

 each other moral support.

Now, as I sit in the hospital bed writing this, I can still recall the heavy storms that lashed around our makeshift tent one day during our walk through the Amazon forest. Finally, we had to gather branches of trees and take shelter under them to save ourselves.

Today is a special day. We will be released from the hospital. So we draw and color cards while sitting on the hospital beds to thank all the rescuers and doctors who took care of us.

"Siempre Bendosioda," Paula writes on her card, which means "Always Blessed" in our language.

Yours thankfully,

Linda (13 years)