Princes Town mother of three Bissoondaye Geeta Seenath, who spent seven days wandering in the Matura Forest last month, is back home with her family. Seenath, 47, was released from the Sangre Grande Hospital on Friday, after spending nearly two weeks recovering from injuries she sustained during her seven-day ordeal. Yesterday, a beaming Seenath chatted and joked with relatives when journalists visited her at her Manahambre, Princes Town, home.
She said she was happy to be home, but she was still in pain. As she spoke with reporters, Seenath was seen rubbing her right leg, which was bandaged and appeared swollen. Her left leg had scratches and bruises. The skin on her heel and under her feet also appeared blistered and red. On June 8, Seenath went missing in the Matura forest during a hike to the Rio Seco waterfall. Sea and land searches were carried out by police, army, relatives and volunteers for seven days, but there was no sign of Seenath.
On June 15, a weary, haggard-looking Seenath wandered on to the property of Toco resident Jerod “Wire” Nelson. She was subsequently taken to the Sangre Grande Hospital where she was treated. She again said yesterday that the only thing that helped her survive for seven days in the forest was prayer. “For seven days I did not sleep. I sit down under the rocks until morning clear. It had mosquitoes, it had crabs,” she said.
“Nothing was going through my mind. I was just praying and that is all. I pray every day and every night until I reach out and I thank God for that.” Seenath admitted her experience had changed her life. “Whatever experience, I am going to continue my devotion. I am not going to stop. It made me much stronger. It has changed me a lot. I just get stronger and I am going to continue doing what I have been doing—praying. Yes, it has given me a new lease on life,” she said.
Her daughter Roshnie, 19, said she was relieved to finally have her mother home. She said when she got the call that her mother was found she felt like a “great weight” was lifted off her shoulders. However, she expressed disappointment that no government official had visited the family during the period when her mother was missing to offer support.
“They should have come. Even words of encouragement would have been nice. That is all, because we asked for nothing in return. Words of encouragement that is all that we asked for,” Roshnie said.
Seenath’s experience
Seenath said she did not want to talk too much about what happened to her in the forest. However, she explained that on the afternoon of June 8, she went with her friends to the waterfall. When she was finished bathing she told her friends she was leaving. She said while walking out from the waterfall she lost her way.
“I do not know if they (my friends) hear me (when I say I leaving) and I continue walking and I was walking in the back of these people and I stand up to rest, and when I stand up to rest for five minutes I just lost the track and I went down the hill and I went down to the camp,” she said. She said she could not hear anything where she was and she began walking along the river. Seenath said when the light faded she bent her head on her knees and “I continue praying whole night until the morning clear.”
She said around 6.30 am the next day she continued to walk along the river bank. “I keep walking, walking every day, day by day,” she said. She said at no point did she feel like giving up or that she was not going to survive. “I never felt that. I tell myself I coming out of here,” she said. She said two days after she got lost she found her survival stick, a piece of Mora tree, which she used to walk.
During her walk to find her way out of the forest, Seenath said she fell from a cliff into the river. “I climbed the mountain and climbed the rock and I fall. When I fall, I fall in shallow water and I hit my knee, I hit the shoulder, my head and from there I continue walking until I find my way out,” she said. She thanked everyone who came out to search for her in the forest. Seenath expressed sorrow for the injury volunteer Jonathon Constantine received while helping in the search for her.
Constantine was shot in the arm when he encountered a trap gun in the forest. He is still warded at the Sangre Grande hospital.