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It was a special day for Night
On June 23, his 16th birthday, members of his family came to cook while he was leaving for football with his best friends, Tle, Nick and Note. After being trained, they and the rest of their team, the Wild Boars, jumped on their bicycles and left for what was to be a half-day adventure
"It's a good boy, the only thing that interests football, "his grandfather, Sriward Sompiengjai, tells TIME at the village precinct of Vieng Hom, north of Thailand, where the four boys live. A birthday cake is still waiting in the refrigerator for the young athlete, whose first name is Pheeraphat Sompiengjai. Twelve days after the boys' team, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old badistant coach have been walking around the nearby cave in Tham Luang, the Thai authorities are pooling all available resources to try to take them out. They were already more than one kilometer into the complex when heavy rain swept through the tunnels and trapped them inside, triggering a search and rescue effort of more than a thousand of people helped by at least seven foreign governments, including the United States [19659002] A small tent town has since appeared in a muddy field near the mouth of the cave, where 13 ambulances are standing to drive them at the Chiang Rai Regional Hospital. Volunteers camp on the site, cook, keep the grounds clean, give haircuts and mbadages to the rescuers. "I'm very proud and I've been surprised," says Sriward about the sudden support. "It shows that Thais do not give up."
Photos of Pheeraphat & # 39; Night & # 39; Sompiengjai, one of the members of a Thai youth soccer team currently trapped in the Tham Luang cave, are seen on a wall at his home in Mae Sai. July 4, 2018.
Lillian Suwanrumpha-AFP / Getty Images
Dramatic research sometimes desperate; drones and helicopters scoured the mountain to find alternative entrances, while divers plunged day and night into the dark, dirty water for nine days with no sign of the group since their disappearance. But Monday night, Sriward and his family jumped out of their seats in disbelief as the news announced on television that the 12 boys and their coach had all been found alive. For a few hours the nation rejoiced that the search was over. But the rescue is just beginning.
It can take days, weeks or even months to extract the boys, who can not swim, and their trainer, Ekkapol Chantawong. The governor of Chiang Rai province, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told reporters on Wednesday that his preferred plan was to wait for the water level to drop enough for the group to simply get out of the way. But with the monsoon rains approaching and the tunnels still flooded, this day could be very far. "I think it's impossible," says Captain Wuttichai, who commands a Navy SEALs unit on the front line of the rescue operation. "They need to learn how to dive."
Read more: What was Thailand like when rescuers found the football team trapped in a cave [19659002] Following a medical evaluation, SEALs began giving boys basic lessons on Wednesday. They have already tried diving masks but have not yet plunged into the muddy water that stuck them on a dry rock 12 days ago. The videos published by the Royal Thai Navy show the boys in a good mood but in weak condition; they only had a few snacks to last nine days, it took rescuers to find them and are visibly fragile. Wuttichai says that it will probably take at least another day before they are ready to start training seriously, but once they start, they will learn quickly. They may have to – if the water levels do not recoil and they can not make their way, they could be trapped inside until the end of the monsoon season in September .
The sky was blue Thursday for the second day in a row. brief window to pump as much water as possible. Giant pipes overflowing from the mouth of the cave and sunk into holes drilled on a hillside continued to gush water into the farmland below. Levels dropped slightly, but a single storm could delay the rescue for weeks. Alternative exits are contemplated through the chimneys above, which could be widened to allow climbers to enter and exit. But whole new roads should probably be built to bring the equipment to the specific cracks in the jungle that fall into the complex. Suggesting a long wait, divers are trained to install a fiber optic cable from a Navy command post inside tunnels to allow boys to talk to their parents
Rescuers prepare a small diving mask to deliver inside Tham Luang Nang No cave to continue the rescue operation on July 4, 2018 in Chiang Rai Thailand.
Linh Pham-Getty Images
"All options are explored," says Captain Jessica Tait, spokesperson for the US Air Force, arrived June 28 with a survival specialist and a team Pararescuemen – a special elite unit of operations trained for search, rescue and medical response in almost any environment. The pararescuers, whose training is so rigorous that she calls "Superman School", will remain on the ground to advise and badist the Thai authorities in their unique and difficult task. "These kids have been in a cave for nine days, so you have to take into account the physiological and psychological issues kids face," says Captain Tait at TIME. "Nothing came out of the table."
The whirlwind of 12 days of blind hope and anxiety has gripped the nation and much of the world. Hundreds of journalists rushed to the scene to spread the latest news. The hill tribe shamans trekked from neighboring villages, sacrificing live animals to a mountain spirit in exchange for boys' safety. In their school, in Mae Sai district on the Myanmar border, clbadmates pray to see them again. When they were finally found by a pair of British divers installing ropes on Monday, the parents burst into tears.
Details began to emerge this week about how the team survived. Ekkapol, the coach, is considered the weakest after giving up the food for the kids. Citing a Thai SEAL who made contact with the team, local news site Khaosod reported that he was rationing their food, collecting clean water and advising them to stay still. A translator from a team of six Chinese divers on the mission told TIME that Ekkapol, who, like most Thais, is a pious Buddhist, would have led them into a long meditation.
Sriward, Night's grandfather, says that he will become a monk when the boy is safe at home. And wild boars
"I will never leave any of them near a cave," he says.
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