A Kamloops lawyer is back home after a trip overseas that went sideways because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Danielle Oliver was in Morocco when the country planned to close its border for a couple weeks because of the virus outbreak.
She and her sister got an Airbnb in Mirleft, about two-and-a-half hours away from the closest international airport in Agadir, and planned to lay low for that time.
But within hours of arriving in Mirleft, Oliver says police showed up at their door to say the government was planning to close the border for four-to-six months.
“At that point, I was extremely determined to get home,” Oliver says.
“Up until that point, the vibe had been really chill with the locals and everything was fine. And we started to notice a drastic shift. You could tell people were getting more tense. You could tell that us, as tourists, were not necessarily as welcome as we were. Because to a lot of people we were kind of a symbol of COVID. Because if it’s coming from somewhere, it’s coming from outside of the country,” she says.
“Since I’ve left Morrocco, my friends have sent me videos, like they started bringing military tanks to start enforcing that people stay home.”
Oliver says there was chaos and confusion last week at the airport in Agedir, saying their original Ryan Air flight to Manchester had been cancelled and they couldn’t speak to anyone for support.
“It was really confusing because they let some people through security to check in on the Manchester flight but then they told me that it was totally cancelled. You almost didn’t trust what was being said to you, it honestly felt like a conspiracy,” Oliver says.
“We ended up flying to Basel, Switzerland. Just by literally stationing myself at the check-in all day I kind of just stumbled upon this option. Because there wasn’t a lot of people online for the Switzerland flights, and I asked them if we were allowed to go there, and they said ‘definitely, as long as you can show them that you’re connecting to the U.K.’
“We got on that plane and I would say there was maybe 30 people on that flight, that would probably fit between 200 or 300 people. We were so fortunate, just to get out.”
Oliver says she and her sister flew from Basel to London, before she flew back to Canada and her sister went home to Valencia, Spain; the country has been one of the hardest hit by the virus so far, with more than 56,000 cases reported as of Thursday morning.
“My brother and I and her all had it out, because we weren’t really sure if she was making the right decision. It was tough for us, because we had such a lack of information in Morocco, in Switzerland. It wasn’t really until we got to the UK that I started seeing what they were showing on the news, with what was going on in Italy and what was projected for Spain,” she says.
“I think in a time like this… your biggest desire is to be home, and for her, Spain is her home, and that’s where she wanted to go. But it was difficult for me, as an older sister, for sure.”
Oliver says she and her sister are both in quarantine at their respective homes, and says both are feeling fine despite what they could’ve been exposed to at airports, on planes and in other public places.
“When I landed on March 23rd in Kamloops, I just had this overwhelming feeling and I immediately started sobbing on the plane,” Oliver says. “I feel so fortunate to be home.”
(Photo: getyourguide.com)
