Facey THE PLIGHT of the stranded fishermen in Nicaragua was brought to the attention of The Gleaner during a mission trip to that country by the Montego Bay-based church Fresh Bread Ministries International (FBMI) from July 6-17. A number of fishermen reportedly asked members of the church group to "See what you can do for us, we are suffering and want to go home to our families."
No sooner had the team arrived in Bluefields that word got to the men that Jamaicans were in the town and they started arriving one after the other. The situation was the same on Pearl Lagoon, a remote fishing village near the Caribbean Sea coast. To them, the FBMI team signified hope and a link to the home they had not seen in at least five years and longed to return to.
Two of the stranded Jamaican fishermen and a third member of the group, an African have managed to leave Nicaragua Keith 'Zeekes' Henry, a former policeman who now lives in New York, Donneth McIntosh who Simeon Vernal thinks is back in Jamaica working in the coffee industry and Jeffrey Bondh, the African.
At least two of the men have died, 'Maribo' who was buried in Managua but no one is certain where and there is an assumption he could have been buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. Another who died is also buried on Pearl Lagoon.
HEART-RENDING STORIES
Both groups gave heart-rending stories of being abandoned by their employers who took them there to fish but left without and never came back for them. The first group, which landed on Corn Island, just off the coast, in 1971, was hired by a man named Byron Hills, an expatriate, The Gleaner was told.
The men have a number of things in their favour, however; they are located on the English-speaking section of Nicaragua, Regiona Autonoma Atlantico Sur (RAAS), a former British Colony. There is also the northern section called Regiona Autonoma Atlantico Norte (RAAN).
Bluefields, an hour by plane from the capital Managua, is the largest town in the area and has 16 sub-divisions and a population of about 45-50,000 mostly mixed residents. The mix between at least four native Indian groups, the Europeans and the Africans have created beautiful offsprings that speak a curious mix of Spanish and Jamaican patois. They are also bi-lingual as both languages are taught from an early age.
The easy-going Lorenzo Charles Gayle told The Gleaner he fought on the side of the Government army- the Contras, during the civil war against the Sandinistas and said he had to kill to survive. "I had to drop some men, when dem attack us, I had to shoot back to survive" he said.
He is also partially blinded in one eye by gunpowder and flares from bombs he said and is deaf in one ear as well.
Alwyn Facey also served in the war but said he "helped" both sides before fleeing to Costa Rica where he was a refugee for 10 years before returning. Facey, who is fluent in Spanish that he picked up while living in Costa Rica, said he has nothing to show for the time he spent away from Jamaica and would rather be poor and destitute at home than in a foreign country.
AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
The man who said he had even "lost my language" as he speaks the dialect of the Nicaraguans said he never actually saw any combat duty but was trained in the use of several different automatic weapons and had to live in the bush for months at a time.
Clarence 'Cutty' Samuels, who lives at Tasbaponie, near to Pearl Lagoon, an hour from Bluefields by a large canoe with a 200 horse power engine, called a 'panga', and who made the trip to meet The Gleaner by hitch-hiking said simply, "We got a raw deal."
Lennox McMahon who was weighing over 190lbs when he left Jamaica but is a mere shadow of that now after being hospitalised because of his problems with diabetic condition and who lived on the old rotting boat for nearly a year, said they started fishing with the Nicaraguans who they had befriended by then.
The father of four, ages 23 to 10 and who appears to be fiercely independent but says he misses his children and wife who he has not been able to get in touch with for over a year.
COMPROMISE
The former Ruseas High School student and former insurance salesman said he "made a compromise" with Reid's brother in law, a prominent Montego Bay hotel manager who had invested in the project, and took about US$1200 that he used to purchase fishing supplies.
He said he was hopeful things would take off as he did not want to go home broke and disgraced.
McMahon admits that things have been very difficult for him especially with his health problems adding that the doctors have warned him he shouldn't get too stressed as this could worsen his already bad state.
McMahon who told The Gleaner he "can't recall" the last time he heard from Reid who used to send them information and newspapers at one time but has since stopped.
While he "desperately wants to return to Jamaica" Cutty says he has managed to use some of the money that he got from Reid to fix a 28-foot fibreglass boat he managed to tow to Nicaragua that he had borrowed from another Montego Bay businessman.
He is married to a Nicaraguan and while he was quick to point out that "It is not that I don't love the woman as she has been good to me," he said the married was strongly urged on him by Reid who said it would help him in getting his status legalised quickly.
AFRAID
Sangster, a bearded man in his 60s who owns a bar along the fishing beach at Whitehouse, situated right behind the Sangster International Airport, said candidly he is afraid of facing the Nicaraguan authorities but pointed out frankly, "They would have to catch me running," pointing out he would use any means necessary to get home.
He mentioned they knew of a route home through Honduras, a full day's bus ride away, a plane ride to the Bahamas and one home to Jamaica. The lack of funds, however, and the absence of papers for some of them, would make this tricky at the least and dangerous at best.
Such was their zeal to come home, however, that three of the men who had gathered outside the Revival Tabernacle Church on Pearle Lagoon where the FBMI team was located, openly discussed this option. At least two promised each other if they made the run, they would travel together as they feared travelling alone through a foreign country without the full understanding of its language.
No fewer than three of the men, including the always-smiling Sangster, accompanied the FBMI team to the wharf when it was time to leave Pearle Lagoon at the end of the trip, pleading with the team not to forget them as they were waiting to hear positive words soon.
