Khobindi Sanichara spends every agonizing day waiting, hoping and praying for her only child to return home. She has spent hours on the phone calling relatives in Suriname, Venezuela and Trinidad, following up every lead, trying to locate him.
She is not the only mother looking for her son. The sons of Latchmin Jagmohan and Denise Marshall are missing too and every day that passes dims the women’s hopes that their three sons may still be alive.
When the men left on the red snapper fishing vessel, the Palpos III on January 23, they had been expected to return, by the latest, 21 days after. They didn’t.
Missing are Sanichara’s son, 24-year-old Mahadeo Ramdeo, of 190 Coldingen Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara (ECD), who was the captain of the boat, Jagmohan’s son, 46-year-old Ramnarine Jagmohan, of 356 Craig Public Road, East Bank Demerara and Marshall’s son, 24-year-old Jason Marshall of Albouystown. The trio had known each other and had worked together before but it was the tragedy of their disappearance that drew the three families together.
It has been over a month now since the Palpos III and its crew disappeared. But searches have revealed nothing – no boat, no floating debris, nothing.
“I don’t know…if the boat sink some things suppose to be floating…what about the life jacket, the plastic barrel,” Khobindi said.
Looking for
answers
And knowing nothing has the families worried and looking for answers. So far they have found none. Relatives had said earlier that they would accept whatever happened but they needed evidence.
After the boat failed to return within the normal timeframe, a deeply worried Sanichara had sent her nephew to the company that operates the boat, Pritipaul Singh Invest-ments (PSI) to enquire about the men. She said that after the young man was repeatedly told that nothing had been heard, she decided to make the trip herself.
The men did not return and since then thorough searches including aerial checks, were carried out but nothing was found. And so every little bit of information regarding a boat, Khobindi has followed up. She heard about a boat apparently abandoned in Tobago and contacted her sister-in-law who in turn contacted the Trinidad and Tobago police, who checked but it was not the Palpos 111. Sanichara informed the company which apparently had not known about the boat and she even gave them the phone number for the Trinidad detective who checked on the vessel.
On Wednesday, she heard about a boat that was left for three weeks in the Surinamese capital, Paramaribo. She said that she again called PSI, which checked but then told her that it was a “shrimp boat”.
She said that the company did not have the bits of information she had received until she contacted them, even though they had said that they had alerted the authorities in the neighbouring countries. “I am not taking their word for granted,” she said, adding that she feels that the company is not doing enough.
And so she has a cousin in Paramaribo looking around, her sister-in-law in Trinidad checking about and another relative in Venezuela searching. And the waiting goes on. If the boat is ever found, “if I hear the boat is anywhere, I am going myself,” she asserted.
Khobindi said that she is in contact with the company but “is the same old story…they ain’t hear nothing.” The woman stated that she is trying to cope. “I have to be active and I have to be strong. My husband is kind of sick and I have to be strong,” the woman stated. Her husband, Ramdeo Persaud, had never fully recovered after being in an accident some years back.
But the waiting is taking its toll. “My pressure was right up this morning,” she said.
For the other families, the event is exacting its toll too. Latchmin said that every hour she monitors the news bulletins on the radio and watches all the television news. She expressed frustration about not hearing anything new. The pensioner recalled hearing about three men who had been rescued off the coast of Norway and relayed this to her sister in England, who checked and confirmed that it was not the missing men. “Is like you gat to give up,” she stated.
For Denise Marshall, the days pass “and the time just keep going all the time…is like he dead, I can’t focus anymore.” She said that on Friday as she was washing, she picked up a piece of her son’s clothing that was included in the wash and unbidden tears came to her eyes. But she said that she is trying not to think negative thoughts and is trying to keep her hopes up.
$1M reward
PSI in an advertisement in the Kaieteur News on Friday offered a reward of $1M for information that would lead to the recovery of the boat and the three men. Calls made by this newspaper on Friday to the personnel manager’s office received a busy signal. When an employee was eventually reached, she said that the manager was not in and it was unlikely that he would be returning to the office. As to the reward offered, it is the feeling of Latchmin that “if anybody de know anything, you nah think that they woulda seh something already.” Denise feels the same way and Khobindi too. “In the heat of everything they should have done this,” Denise declared while Khobindi asked “why now?’
The matter has been reported to the police and the Ministry of Agriculture and Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud had earlier expressed disappointment over PSI’s failure to report the missing vessel immediately. Concerns have been raised too about the safety of local fishing vessels since a number of them had met with mishaps in the past.
