DAMMIT COVID!
Recap: Two days before our scheduled departure from Kenya on January 19th, Paul, Sophia, Ava and I all tested positive for COVID.
We tested the next day in hopes maybe we had false positives and only Sophia’s test came back negative. Paul, Ava, and I were still positive. This meant, my parents and Sophia could continue on to Cairo and Ben stayed back with me, Paul, and Ava in Nairobi till we could test negative.
We moved from the Passionist Retreat Center into a Sheraton Four Points, desperate for some creature comforts and pampering that the Retreat Center couldn’t offer. We quarantined ourselves in the hotel, which had a rooftop restaurant without door seating where we could go for some of our meals, otherwise we ordered room service. Everyone felt pretty good, though Paul was really low energy and didn’t have much of an appetite.
Meanwhile, my parents and Sophia enjoyed all the excursions we had set up for Cairo, which included a Nile River Dinner Cruise, Tour of the Pyramids, Camel ride, trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and a visit to the Cairo Museum. All expertly handled by our Airbnb host Mahmoud (for a fee).
With Egypt off the table for half of us, our hope was we could all meet up in Jordan on Monday, January 24th. We have an amazing 12 days planned in Jordan visiting my cousin Denise, her husband Duke, and their adorable two year old daughter Clara. Denise and Duke are stationed there with the State Department. Unfortunately, only Ava and I tested negative. Ben was now positive and Paul still was as well.
Luckily, we had purchased trip and flight insurance and could easily reschedule Ben and Paul for later in the week (with a hope that they’ll test negative in a few days). Ava and I left for Jordan on a flight that left at 4:45am on January 24th, which meant we had to be at the airport at 1:30am. The flight was 7 hours to Istanbul with a 2hr layover and was supposed to get into Amman at about 3:40pm.
Alas, it was not meant to be. After we landed in Istanbul, the snow started and didn’t stop till about 4am. This shut the entire airport down and canceled all the flights. With the heavy snow, no shuttles or taxis were coming or going from the airport and the only airport hotel was fully booked. So, Ava and I found a spot on the floor near a heater. It is 11am on Jan 25th and our new flight is supposed to leave at 1:30pm today. However, the airport is still “shut down” as they clear the runways, so we are not sure if we’ll get out today or not.
Despite the lack of a bed for the past two nights, Ava and I have made the most of our time. We bought a deck of cards and backgammon board. Got our nails done at the spa, and are catching up on our blogs.
Fingers crossed we all make it to Amman by Thursday and can put this past week of travel setbacks behind us.
