There is a reason each and every one of us has to be taught how to swim. It is because we have to be coached on how to get over our natural fear of drowning. When suddenly we find ourselves confronted with the idea of getting into a pool there is a ritual we must engage in first, and that is to stick a little toe in tentatively to check that the temperature isn’t cold and when we confirm it’s not, to gingerly climb in and stick to the shallow end. This is not because we hate water. If we hated water swimming would never sound like a fun activity. It’s because we are scared of the possibility of drowning in the depths of cold blue water, struggling for breath and slowly dying.
Harrison Okene was very scared too. Only this time he had a real reason to be. Originally a 29 year old cook who had joined the Jacson crew as a sailor, he never expected that he would be caught in a storm that would kill all of his crew members and leave him as the sole survivor. “It was around 5am and I was on the toilet when the vessel just started going down – the speed was so, so fast,” Okene said by phone from his hometown of Warri. Scrambling out, he was unable to reach an emergency exit hatch and watched in horror as three crew members were sucked into the churning sea. It was like a living nightmare.
He was swept into another toilet as the cabin sank 30 feet under the sea, and watched with building trepidation as water continuously seeped into the 4-inch space. “All around me was just black, and noisy. I was crying and calling on Jesus to rescue me, I prayed so hard. I was so hungry and thirsty and cold and I was just praying to see some kind of light.” Trapped in that spot for nearly three days, he was surprised when eventually a team of South African divers scouring the waters on a presumed body recovery operation hammered on his deck, and were shocked to hear faint hammering in reply.
Even after fishing him out, it was still a miracle that he could survive the recovery process. In the advent of being trapped for so long under what-could-have-been-fatal depths, Okene had inhaled so much nitrogen that there were worries he would panic under rescue. “His heart wouldn’t have been able to pump [back on land] because it was just so full of gas,” said Christine Cridge, medical director of the Plymouth-based Diving Diseases Research Centre , who advised the rescue team. “To survive that long at that depth is phenomenal. Normally you would dive recreationally for no more than 20 minutes at those depths. All the Australians have been on diving forums going, wow! But he could be absolutely fine from now on,” Cridge added.
Nigerians are predominantly religious; even despite our worries and trials, sufferings and tribulations, our fears and misgivings, we know that there is one thing that surpasses them all- faith. Hence, we’re willing to risk being called “backward” and “fanatics” because of stories like this, stories that prove that miracles still exist.
