"I beg heaven to show pity"

By Kaweewit Kaewjinda, Tassannee Vejpongsa, ASSOCIATE PRESS

This is a simple melody sung to the picking of acoustic guitars by schoolchildren sitting around candles: "I ask the heaven to show compassion and empathy / My brothers are at Tham Luang Khun Nang No / Let them pass this danger, I beg him. "

The song is dedicated to the events taking place in a cave flooded mountain in northern Thailand, where 12 boys aged 11-16 years coach disappeared a week ago. It was written and performed by students of the Lek Nai Tung Kwang School across the kingdom in Buriram Province.

The clip was broadcast 24 hours a day in national newscasts. cave in the northern part of Chiang Rai province. This is part of a wave of hope, empathy and concern across the South East Asian nation for boys, their families and the military of the United States. people who work to bring them home

"We are worried. said Keeta Wariburee, a school teacher who produced the video. "We want to help them, but if we go up there, we'll probably get in the way and we'll do what we can by sending Encouragement. "

Rescuers including elite navy divers, US military team and British cave experts were frustrated by the constant rains that flooded the cave and made it more difficult for boys to locate. Efforts to drain the water, muddy floodwaters reached near the entrance of the cave while rescuers continued to try to find hidden wells in the green side of the mountain to access the In a desperate move, the officials fell into the care packages of the blushes filled with food, drinks, a phone, a flashlight, candles, a b riquet and a map of the cave

The political struggles and military regimes that followed a coup four years ago, the sight of soldiers and volunteers subject to the mud has filled Thais with pride and common sense.

Lamduan Mayula traveled to the Payao Province cave, where she owns a gift shop and volunteers as a rescuer. She and her friends set up a kitchen and distribute food to starving workers

"I just feel like I have to do something, I can not sit at home and watch the news," she said. -she says. "And I will stay here until we and the boys and their coach can all go home together."

In solidarity with the missing, students organized mass prayers and other events. They showed solidarity by sitting in rows to form number 13 – the number of missing. Folded origami paper cranes marked with support messages.

Muangthong United, one of the most important and most popular teams of the Thai Football League, made a similar move by posting a video in which stadium, holding hands in a circle around the balloons of Soccer forming number 13.

In a post on his Facebook page this month of April, Eakapol Chantawong, the missing coach of the Wild Boars football team, is recorded at the stadium and wrote: "One day, I have to bring my young players here."

A number of hashtags have taken off on social media, including those that translate "13 lives must survive," "Sending encouragement to Tham Luang" and "The aliens whose faces we most want to see."

Emotional drawings and images also circulate: one watch rescuers in a dark cavern with "13 Hope Do not Give Up" written on their oxygen tanks. the silhouettes of 12 boys and a man against the stalactites of a cave with the words: "Stay strong.We are coming." Another character of the team rides on a big boar and says, "wild boars continue to fight. "

Keeta, the teacher, said that the popularity of his students' song was a sign of the common purpose of the nation.

" This reveals one thing, which is the Thai society, in difficult times, we never give up, "he said," but it would be even better if the children were found. "

the song ends:" Let the heavens show us the path and clear / Let this group of friends pass this danger / To return home quickly for the safety of all. "