SURVIVING THE DEATH TRAP

SURVIVING THE DEATH TRAP demands extraordinary sacrifices by women who must
endure the loneliness and the uncertain future of their partners who must venture to unknown,
distant places in search of work to take care of their families.
Linda, one of several refugee Venezuelans hunkering in Barima/Waini (Region One) to escape
biting poverty in the homeland, knows all too well the feeling of abandonment and the agony of
contemplating probable widowhood.
“We are forced to make these sacrifices and more if we want to have any hope of surviving this
death trap that we have found ourselves in,” Linda said, making no effort to hide her forlorn
expression.
“Many of us are not pleased and happy that our husbands have to leave us behind to go very far
distances that he has never been before, and in some cases, places we do not know if he would
survive or not, to take care of us and our children,” she admitted.
The mental torment is shared among those in voluntary exile in the sole English-speaking
country in South America.
“It hurts me to know that my husband has to go far, far away to work. I don’t know where he is
and when he is going to return. They (the Village Council) said that he will be ok and that I
shouldn’t worry. But how can I be ok when he isn’t around, and I am in a strange country with
strange people and my closest friend isn’t around me to protect me as he has been doing all these
years?”, Jenny, a mother of six questioned.
Janes tale is gut wrenching.
“One day he told me that he is going to work and that he will be back in a few months, I was so
happy because he sounded so happy and I knew that with six children to take care of that it was
our only way of handling the deep financial challenges that we are facing. However it’s almost
two years and while a few persons have claimed that they have seen him, I have never heard
back from him. Some persons have said that he has moved on with a new family while others
have told me that he has not made it yet (earned enough) so I should remain strong because he

will return someday to me and his six children. To be honest I am confused and don’t know what
to think because some days I feel that he has deserted us while some days I feel that he is
working for us. It’s a really hard thing,” Jane said plaintively.
Linda, Jenny and Jane are just three of the many women whose husbands were forced to leave
their families at the camps to go in search of employment. Despite their age differences, they
have one thing in common.
They are heartbroken and lonely.
The trio also hopes that one day their spouses will show up and they can all resume the normal
lives they shared before.
“It’s never easy especially when you have children and are accustomed to waking up each day
next to your husband. Not every woman who can handle having her husband work (long
distances) away from their home and that is what many persons don’t understand,” Linda
explained.
She said her husband has ventured into mining, an unfamiliar industry to him, and she is
tormented whenever there is news of a fatality in that extractive sector.
“We are farmers, that is what we know so to have him working in a mining camp where he
doesn’t only know the people but have grave difficulty in understanding and speaking the
language it’s certainly disastrous for him and unfortunately, I cannot be around to take care of
him before and after work,” she lamented.
Other women in her camp are uneasy that, uncharacteristically, Linda stopped communicating.
Toshao Henry has promised to intervene.
“She is really lonely and hurting and whenever you speak to her all she can talk about is her
husband who she is really missing, and I can say that it is not doing good for her,” Henry had
said.
“All I want is to see my husband. He had promised me that he would have been back within a
few months and the time has long gone. To hear that he may not be back in time for Christmas is
really killing me,” she said with a blank expression, staring into the heavens.

Like Linda, Jenny’s husband too sought employment in mining. He too had no experience.

“They (other Venezuelans) told him not to take the job. While the many promises being made to
him sound very nice and appealing, the reality is that it cannot be this easy and simple. I tried to
convince him not to, but he was determined to go and all I could do was support him” Linda said
mournfully, speaking through an interpreter.
She suffers constant, excruciating grief.
“I miss my husband. I want my husband. I am dying because I am lonely and hurting,” Linda
said.
Jane is longing for reunion with her spouse and the prospects of settling down permanently in
Guyana.
“If I get the opportunity of being with my husband and we are allowed to work here (in Guyana)
we can take care of ourselves and children because we are hard-working people who know what
we really want,” she declared.
Jane tries to be stoic, especially in the presence of her children.
“They are already hurting and the more that I hurt the more they will hurt as well. So, what I do
is to cry by myself and endure the pain silently because it’s not easy and I can tell you that each
day seems to be more difficult. During the day you have persons to talk to who can take your
mind off what you are going through. At nights it’s very difficult because the only person that
you can talk to is yourself and it’s really, really hard,” she admitted.
The stunning turn of events has left Jane, Jenny and Linda in deeper anguish than the economic
torment they endured before heading to Guyana.
Fleeing Venezuela, they imagined the buoyant life of economic liberty in Guyana. But for
now, they must be content with wiggling their way out of the death trap.