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.