Turkey-based Ghana midfielder Priscilla Okyere is living in fear following the earthquake that has killed over 20,000 people.
The 27-year-old, who plays for Hatayaspor’s women’s team in Turkey, is one of the survivors of the Monday earthquake, but she is terrified of going to bed at night for fear of another earthquake occurring during her sleep.
“I have not been sleeping for four days – I’m so scared to go to sleep.
“Even today, we had a safe place to sleep. I haven’t closed my eyes from 5am till now.
“When someone bangs the door, I wake up because I’m scared. I don’t want to close my eyes and realise this thing is happening again,” Okyere said on BBC Sport Africa.
Coincidentally, her compatriot Christian Atsu, who also plays for the Hatayspor men’s team remains missing following the earthquake and Priscilla Okyere is worried about the situation.
“We don’t know anything about the men’s team because they live far from us, even though we live in the same city,”
“But our brother [Christian] Atsu, we always talk to him on phone. He texts us all the time.
“Since the incident happened, nobody knows his whereabouts. We don’t even know what is happening,” she lamented.
The Black Queens midfielder further narrated how fortunate she was to have escaped the tragedy together with her teammates.
“We were coming from a game in Istanbul and we weren’t home until around 2am,” she said.
“We had to shower and then get some sleep. At first, I thought I was dreaming because since we came to Hatay, I experienced (tremors) it two times. Sometimes the building would just shake within 30 seconds and it stops.
“When it happened, I thought it was a normal thing but I realised this was much more intense than the previous ones.”
“I can’t imagine how lucky we were to get out from that situation because most people couldn’t get out. But we were able to.”
The Back Queens midfielder went on to say that the earthquake destroyed most of the buildings in her neighbourhood.