So our exchange students have been sent home and I am not sure what to write. We are all sad, angry, and disappointed. Ending their year like this is unfair. It isn’t anyone’s fault, this Covid-19 (coronavirus) shit took us all by storm and our organization made the hard choice to send all their students home. Hopefully the students will have missed the worst of it in their home countries and have left before the worst of it hits here in the United States. It is still unfair, but I hope that they take home the good memories and leave all this nastiness behind them.
I will say that I am not happy with how this was all done, I agree (now seeing how this going to play out on our soil and in our hospitals) with the decision but not the method. Honestly I believe they should have done it earlier, but we did not know how fast this would move, so I give them that. They sent out mass emails to both the students and the host families at the same time, not allowing the adults (most still physically at work at this time) to prepare for the onslaught of teenage emotion coming at them. Most schools had been out for about a week when the emails were sent so some host parents and IECs (who got a warning email about an hour ahead of time) were still sleeping. Luckily, I was up early (still on school-time) and was able to prepare myself and texted my husband. What I did not know was what to say to my girls as a host mom or as an IEC. I was lost, I was sort of in a state of shock, because the day before this happened our organization was all “it is up to the natural parents and the students to choose to go home or stay”.
So not only was I knocked off my center of gravity (so to speak) but they were going to start flying students 2 days after this email arrived. Two days! It usually takes us 2 weeks to get ready for departure. We had to wrap everything up (schools, bills, clubs, a puzzle) and pack in 2 days. Be ready in 2 days. My head practically exploded. This did allow me to push my grief to the side and focus on what had to be done. Some families didn’t even want to leave their homes (some are in states that were already in a state of lockdown) to go and buy another suitcase nevertheless go to the airport. One of my students spent $300 in luggage fees because she flew 3 days after the announcement and we didn’t have time to sort anything or get a better luggage system (we did go out to get additional suitcases but after packing we realized she needed a different set up). Luckily my second student didn’t fly out until 8 days after the announcement, so we were able to focus on one student at a time. But it also meant exposing ourselves and having sad goodbyes (see-you-laters) at the airport twice.
All of the IECs and host parents are worried that they just sent these young people into the fire. We are particularly worried about our Italian and Spanish students. I am very worried about my Italian daughter, she is from Veneto, one of the harder hit areas. We put them on planes with baby bottles of whatever hand sanitizer we could find, luckily my Italian girl stocked up at Bath and Body Works before this happened and I had a small bottle to give to my Swiss student. We sent them with little zip lock bags of sanitizing wipes, again whatever we could find, depleting our personal stock (if you haven’t noticed the cleaning aisle at the stores are all empty) and again luckily I had a small tub of them and that shoved into the back of the closet as soon as the chaos started just in case I needed them for travel. So they left with hand sanitizer, a few lysol wipes, some masks (which our Swiss student brought with her on her flight here—her bio mom is a nurse), and some gloves for our Italian student (did not have them for our Swiss student that left earlier). We told them to wipe everything down, yes the airlines are taking extra care to clean but do it anything, wipe your luggage down when you pick it up, let us know when you get home, call if you need anything. Be safe. Try not to be afraid. Stay inside, at least for two weeks.
As of yesterday (Friday, March 27) all my students have left: my own exchange students and my IEC students. I am allowed to break down now. I don’t need to be strong for them right now. But it hasn’t come. I am sad, and I tear up a lot (I did cry at the airport both times), but not the bawling crying I would expect of myself. Maybe later, after the house has been quiet for a few days. I am sad because I miss them. I am sad because they will miss so much (as all our seniors around the country are): no prom, no spring break vacation, and no graduation ceremony. The spring is the icing on the cake of an exchange year. They are comfortable with their families, they have made friends, and all of the fun spring high school things. The weather is warming up and we would be skipping school in favor of beach days. We had a trip to Florida all planned for spring break, a trip to the North Carolina mountains for memorial day, and right now we should be exploring Washington DC. I am sad and grieve for all that.
But I am also afraid that the reason for all this sadness, the virus, will come and get us all. That our protected rural America idea will be shattered. That our “best in the world” hospitals are going to be overrun and not be able to take care of everyone. That we did not learn from what is happening in Italy. That the mightiest and wealthiest country did not bother to prepare when we saw it coming. I am afraid for us here in America, I am afraid for the students that we sent home and their families, I am afraid for my past students (and their families), and my future students. We have two girls set up for next year, two fantastic girls that we have been talking to for months that I am afraid I won’t get to meet in August all because of something that we can’t even see.
The anger of how these last two weeks went is ebbing away to make room for the sadness. But fear is quickly taking both their places. My husband says he doesn’t want to live in fear, just take the precautions the medical field is telling us too. I was never afraid of terrorism when traveling; but sitting still in my house and with pieces my heart all over the world, I am afraid of this invisible virus. And I don’t know how to turn it off.
We love you girls, we hope to see you soon. Be safe.