Sand mines

Last Saturday, I had to travel to a sand mining site for work. Though the travel was not that long but the road was certainly winding and undulating terrain. I kinda like the adventure but it wasn't that good for my old pal, the trusty Proton car! Anyway, I arrived at the site safely but what greeted me was a big and deep crater of land. The sand mining are is so wide, big and deep,man. It is really scarrier when I saw a huge pond next to it. Yup, you've guessed it - it was another sand mining site which had been mined and now used a water holding area.
Anyway, these are really soft grounds and I had to tread down carefully along the slopes and terrain. Luckily, my outdoor skills especially going down slopes and uneven terrain do come in handy in times like this. I was then brought right to the very belly of the sand mining work site. It was wet, soft and really sticky. It kinda reminded of of tin ore mining in those early years especially with the use of the water pump jet. while heavy machineries worked on the sand mining site.

As I was near one of the heavy machineries at that time, suddenly, there was a loud crash sound followed by an avalanche of red earth, sand, pebbles and stomes. Luckily, I reacted quickly and lurched to safety at the nearby wet grounds. Oops! Wife would have to do a lot of washing this time! Thank God, the crash happened to be quite a few feet away from me and the best part was that the right side slope was loosen but it didn't crash down. If it had, I would have been drowned by the sudden rush of red earth, sand, pebbles and stones. By the look of things, I would have been seriously injured by the sheer weight of the earth avalanche. As I looked up at the slope, I could only thank theLord for His protection upon my life. I am not being proud or arrogant to say that I really trust the Lord with my life. While the Supervisor and the operator looked stunned for a while and asked me if I was okay, I replied that I was okay and I was calm. I went on working as usual and having no after effects of the slope crash while the Supervisor looked shaken a bit. I then told the other workers at the site to be careful while working especially those working at the belly part of the sand pit. You can never know what would have happened, right?

Anyway, it was ardous climb up for me- panting, draining the air out of my lungs, huffing and puffing. Yeah! Did all the exercise I could but I guess, spare parts ain't that well-oiled and new as before! As I made it to the top, I sucked in the air like a patient almost out of breath! Wow! It was nice to have air in the lungs. As I looked down the sand mining pit, I have no doubt in my mind that a slope failure is bound to happen sometime later. At this time, I am just glad to be out from it. I said a prayer for the workers down there and I prayed that God would watch over them. Afterall, they have families too and when someone losses their family members, the shrill of agony and flowing tears are merciless. It would break hearts and souls but I believe God is merciful, indeed.