Fired, Evicted, and Deported
I wanted to write a post now that I have had a chance to breathe, to explain what has happened in the past week. 1 week ago a single email changed my entire life and all my immediate plans, but this crazy story actually started 2 days before hand on Saturday March 14th. I was in Kigali to celebrate my friend’s engagement, unknowing my world was about to crumble.
I want to be as honest as possible with all of you, that this has been one of the toughest, most stressful, crazy weeks of my life, that has felt like a month long experience. I have felt so many different emotions this past week, and I’m still trying to figure out how to feel about everything that has happened, none of it has been easy and none of it was a choice.
On Saturday March 14th all volunteers in Rwanda received an email discussing 2 things, we never really thought about before. 1- The first case of COVID-19 was reported in Rwanda. An Indian man who lives in Rwanda travelled back from India 5 days before and was currently hospitalized. 2- The Peace Corps was offering any volunteer an opportunity to take Interrupted Service. Meaning any volunteer from that point on could choose to leave, without an repercussions. Truthfully, I immediately wrote it all off and said I’m not leaving until they force me to. My friends and I continued our day and went wedding dress shopping with my friend. Meanwhile, in Rwanda the intense hand-washing campaign doubled down. You could not enter any building, restaurant or business without washing your hands or using hand sanitizer. Later that day the reality of our situation started setting in as all Rwandan schools were told to be closed for the time being and transportation started shutting down. Knowing that the Peace Corps must always be able to medically evacuate all volunteers in Rwanda to South Africa and the US, the travel restrictions started worrying me more than anything else. The reality that in the future, travel restrictions could cause me to be sent home, truly started becoming a worry, especially since I was seeing how proactive Rwanda was being about the pandemic. I decided to head home the next day and begin to pack my things so I could leave at a moments notice. In my head at this time, I truly thought it was a long shot, but I felt like I needed to prepare myself mentally for the thought of being sent home. Little did I know…
I woke up Sunday morning to hear that the Rwandan government was sending all boarding school students home that day, so I quickly got to the bus station, to find that barely any busses were running and I was told no busses would be leaving to my district that day. After having to pay for a taxi from my regional town to the Holy Land, Kibeho, and then take a moto all the way home, I quickly started packing all my things.
Monday morning I woke up to the email that changed my life. An email that said, all Peace Corps volunteers in the world would be evacuated from their respective countries. I was told to pack, put all of my things in order and wait for another email about what to do next. I quickly started cleaning, packing, and making piles of things to give to my community. Not knowing when I would be leaving my village, I decided I wanted to have the best last day with my neighbors and friends and get a chance to say goodbye while I could. I brought out all the crayons, kites, bubbles, balls, and nail polish and we went crazy. I sent a message letting all the teachers know I would be leaving, but didn’t know when. I sat down with my landlords and cried as I told them I would be leaving. We had photoshoots, bubble contests, and many presents. All the teachers showed up at my house to say goodbye and we ignored all social distancing guidelines to hug and laugh together one last time.
Late that night I discovered I would be staying in village for 2 more nights before meeting Peace Corps at an evacuation point to be taken to Kigali and would be leaving Rwanda on Saturday. I spent the next 2 days saying goodbye and cleaning my house. I spent Wednesday squished on my couch watching movie after movie with my neighbors. I truly felt like I should have been dying as I gave all my belongings away to friends, not knowing when someone would be in my house again.
On Thursday, I woke up to yet another change, Rwanda has announced that all commercial flights would be stopped Friday night at midnight. Our amazing Country Director, Keith quickly assured us he was figured out transportation for us and to continue with the initial plan. I continued with the plan, taking a taxi with me and a volunteer close to me to our evacuation point, only to be told that the mud was too bad to get to my house. Luckily, my neighbors once again came to my rescue and carried all of my bags down my mountain to the car and I was off, not knowing when I was ever going to see my Rwandan friends again, how or when I was leaving Rwanda and how serious our situation really was. I met the other volunteers in our area and boarded a Peace Corps chartered bus to take us to our hotel in Kigali.
On the way, we were told we would be leaving Rwanda the following day on a chartered plane, not knowing when or where that flight would be headed. We quickly began filling out paperwork, seeing doctors and closing our service as Peace Corps Volunteers. And don’t forget stopping everything to get tattoos together and ring the traditional bell signaling the close of our Peace Corps service!!
We were told we would be leaving Rwanda at 12:30 the next day, so we stayed up until about 5am to finish all of our paperwork and doctors appointments to ensure we had everything we needed before leaving (health insurance, parasite medication, vouchers for follow-up doctors appointments in the states, etc.) I slept for a couple hours before waking up to spend my last few hours in Rwanda. As the number of cases in Rwanda quickly increased, travel restrictions quickly got stricter, flights got delayed, and we discovered several volunteers had contact with someone infected with COVID-19, we were able to board our flight Friday night. We boarded a chartered plane full of Ugandan Peace Corps Volunteers, flew to Malawi to pick up more Peace Corps Volunteers, and then flew to Ethiopia to spend the day in a hotel, not knowing the next steps from there.
We landed in Ethiopia, were shuttled to a hotel where 700 other volunteers from all over Eastern and Southern Africa were staying to be sent home. As the day went on, we waited to be told our next steps in this crazy journey, not knowing what to tell our families, how we were feeling, and running on about 4 hours of sleep. In the afternoon we were told 3 charters planes would be leaving for Dulles International Airport late that night (between 11pm and 1am).
All 700 of us took many shuttles, busses and moved countless amounts of luggage to board our respective flights to the US. All of us wondering what our lives would look like in 24 hours when we are finally home. As all of us joked, drank and cried, none of us truly knew how to process what was happening to us. As family members and friends back home congratulated us for coming home, most of us became angry and upset at our situation, knowing that no one outside our Peace Corps family understand what it felt like to be ripped from your community so suddenly. Many volunteers were still trying to find hotels, friends or airbnbs to self-quarantine in for 2 week since they still cannot return home to at-risk family members. I am lucky to have family who could easily take me in, despite the obvious risk I cause to them in this moment.
We all boarded our flights in Ethiopia not knowing our flights home from there. When we landed all of us just wanted to finally be home. While we had only been traveling for about 24 hours, it felt more like 2 weeks. I landed and was luckily able to change my flight from the following morning to that very night and arrive home at 8pm Sunday night. I moved through the empty airport to find my parents waiting for me with gloves and Clorox wipes.
As of right now, I am a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. I had to leave the entire life that I called home quickly and without completing projects, seeing friends, and saying goodbye how I truly wanted. I had to cancel many travel plans and I am currently trying to figure out what’s next now that my Peace Corps journey is complete. I feel extremely luckily to have a family here to support me and take care of me for as long as I need, because I know many people don’t have that advantage right now. I’m still heart broken that my life has changed so quickly, and that I didn’t have any choice in the situation. I am so sorry to have to leave my community the way I did, and I feel guilt for abandoning my friends in this serious time. I am happy to be close to my family right now, but I am also unbelievably heart broken to be ending up my Peace Corps service in this way.
Thank you for everyone who has helped support me and I will continue to work with my community from a far as much as I can through this hard time.
More updates about my return to the US and final posts I never got to make will be coming in the following weeks as I am in self-quarantine in Denver, Colorado.