I read a story in the news some weeks ago about two brothers in China who had survived a coalmine disaster. They had been buried for nearly six days and dug their way out using a pick and their hands. Rescuers had called off efforts to save the brothers after more than a day, and grieving family members burned ceremonial “ghost money” for the men’s souls to use in the afterlife. They left food offerings of steamed buns, cakes and canned goods at the mine entrance. Yet the brothers managed to work their way to the surface and survived by eating coal and drinking their own urine.
While we traveled along the Yangtze River in China this last June we saw many places where huge piles of coal had been brought out from the mines and stored along the shore waiting to be carried away on barges.
What I’ve learned since returning back to the USA is that there are state-owned mines and illegal mines. The brothers said that they had worked for state-owned mines in the past but turned to the illegal mine because they got paid about every two weeks, as opposed to once a month. Still, they said they made only about $265 a month for working 12 hours a day.
