Month: March 2020

36 hours, five airports, and 4 airplanes later we are back in Vermont, self-isolating of course. The day after we flew Malaysia went basically into lockdown and every day China seems to change their strict quarantine rules for foreigners coming in. With Gabe’s colleagues scattered all over the world, and some in lock down, it seems increasingly unlikely his school’s campus will reopen this year.

Ironically with very few new cases trickling into China, Xiamen would have been the safest choice. Yet, our fear throughout this whole ordeal hasn’t really been contracting COVID-19. (Although admittedly now that we are in the States, it is becoming more of a concern.) Part of what kept us away from Xiamen for so long was the uncertainty of daily life and the fact that, as foreigners, we’d have to navigate rapidly shifting pandemic policies with little control. As people used to a different kind of predictability, and aware of the privilege that comes with that , it pushed us outside our comfort zones. It didn’t feel quite right watching from afar as family and friends’ daily lives were beginning to shift rapidly and drastically to a “new normal” shrouded in uncertainty. While there’s nothing we can do or offer, there’s comfort in being in the same hemisphere and on the same soil.

The journey home was long and exhausting. Like everyone on our China Airlines flights from Malaysia to Taiwan and Taiwan to San Francisco, and virtually no one on our domestic U.S. flights, we wore masks. I realize given the scarcity of protective medical equipment this perhaps isn’t a good thing, but it attests to awareness and gravity of the situation. We wiped down our seats, screens and tray tables as soon as we sat down. On our flight from JFK to Boston everyone was seated in the middle of an otherwise empty plane so we moved to the back, an easy way to distance ourselves and a step that should have been taken by the flight attendants in my opinion. Before we landed in San Francisco we were asked to fill out a simple CDC form about our past travel and recent health history, no one collected those forms. One security agent asked if we’d been to China in the last 14 days, other than that you would have never guessed COVID-19 was a thing. The only reason we knew coming from Malaysia to call the Vermont Department of Health after we arrived was because we happened to see it on their website. It was all concerning to say the least, especially coming from a region where this has been top of mind for months. I don’t know what steps should have been taken, but the lack of much of anything feels like a disservice to Americans but especially to those who are working the frontlines and will be in the months ahead.

Take care of yourselves and each other, while maintaining the appropriate distance apart of course.

Hi again from Penang. Still here and with no concrete plans to leave and no reopening date for Gabe’s or Julia’s schools.   

Throughout this experience it has been our preference to return to our apartment and life in Xiamen. On the daily, we hem and haw about what to do when our Airbnb reservation runs out – which mind you we’ve already extended and are about to extend again. Stay in Penang. Return to the U.S. and risk the possibility that Gabe’s school campus will open and we’ll have to turn right back around, or Julia and I would stay and Gabe would just go back. Or go back to Xiamen, where it seems, from afar at least, like things are slowly reopening.

We were a few clicks away from buying airline tickets, until we learned through our building’s security guard that we’d be subject to a strict 14-day quarantine in our apartment upon our return. We’d be unable to leave except for elevator rides down to the lobby to collect food deliveries. Supposedly someone from the hospital would come by to take our temperature twice a day and we’d have to “check in” on a WeChat app as well.  Quarantine requirements at the time varied by district and building, which made it hard to know exactly what to expect. The uncertainty of what awaited us was a deterrent — as was the idea of two weeks inside. I know myself well enough to know that 14 days indoors with a toddler would be tough. But part of me thought: millions of people across China had already gone through this, and maybe we should be willing to as well. I have a lot of respect and sympathy for the millions of Chinese who have literally been stuck inside their homes for weeks on end. Our friends in Xiamen who were in their house for about a month (they also have a two-year-old), with the exception of taking out the trash every two days and getting their temperature checked as they did so.

The tug to return to Xiamen has felt a stronger because it seems as though things really are under control and that it may very well be the safest place to be right now in terms of catching the virus, which in general isn’t a big fear of ours. There have been 35 people diagnosed in our city, all of them cured and discharged, and no new cases in at least two weeks. The total number of daily new cases in all of China has dipped to around 100. China locked down virtually every city, closed schools and businesses, and implemented strict measures to contain the virus. It was an enormous undertaking, and I’m not sure many countries could have mobilized a response so quickly. The massive and far reaching economic and social toll of this approach aside, the number of new cases has dropped dramatically and it feels like a turning point with the next step being to open up and return to daily life. With that comes the risk of new cases, but what’s the alternative?

While things improved in China, we watched what was unfolding across the rest of the world — the scale of the virus, the ripple effects, and the vastly different government responses, some more effective than others. It’s touching everyone, in one way or another.

In many ways Penang feels like a safe haven, with no cases. We are free to go about what has become our daily routine, with Gabe working and Julia and I hitting the pool or playground or wandering a new park. We’ve met nice people and actually had a playdate with not only a fellow Vermonter, but a fellow CVUer (our high school for you non-VTers out there). This continues to feel like a good place to be, but the pull to go back to our home is very real.

Lastly, let’s all wash our hands a lot and maybe not buy up all the protective medical gear our hospitals need or a lifetime supply of toilet paper.