For the required 21 day quarantine, we are staying at the Pacific Casino Hotel. We had a limited number of places to stay and this hotel is quite close to our offices. Our colleagues can drop off things for us at the National Disaster Office for delivery to the hotel.
Unfortunately, we are finding that some things are not allowed – like mugs, plates, silverware. All our food comes in styrofoam boxes with plastic cutlery which is all going to be burned to diminish any risk of spreading Covid, if any of us test positive.
We weren’t sure what to expect in regard to our room. Now that we are here, we thought others might be interested in seeing our quarantine quarters. The photos below provide you with a bit of a tour.
The photo is a little blurry, but then we were pretty blurry-eyed by that time as well!
Honiara
Except for the residue of sunset on the western horizon, it was dark when we arrived in Honiara. It had been raining earlier in the day, so it felt extra muggy as we exited the plane. The high humidity feels like you are walking into a greenhouse.
Honiara does not have jetways. Instead, passengers exit the plane, walk down stairs that have been rolled up to the airplane, and walk across the open tarmac to the terminal. We were glad that the rain had stopped.
Once off the plane, medical personnel stationed outside were waiting for us. There was yet another form to fill out and then we had to wait a good 20 minutes while passengers were ushered into the building a few at a time.
Medical personnel asked us questions, checked our Covid test results and collected the forms we had filled out. A box on a table read, ‘place passports here‘. I was unprepared for that! It felt funny to ‘toss’ our precious passports into a box with a pile of other passports, but it was part of the protocol. They promised we will be reunited with our passports at the end of the 3 week quarantine.
Baggage claim was the next step and it didn’t take us too long to find our bags. We were thankful to see all 3 bags had made it through to Honiara safe and sound and without any additional charges! Customs officials were collecting the regular form that passengers fill out and we made our way to the exit.
At the curb, a flat bed truck was waiting to receive luggage. Tim loaded our luggage on the truck and we were directed to board a small bus for transport to the hotel. It was the 2nd bus in the queue and there were a couple more behind.
We sat on the bus while the rest of the passengers were processed, which took a while. Finally, when all the passengers were on board the buses, the caravan of the truck with the luggage and the buses slowly pulled out and on to the highway. We made quite the procession from the outskirts of town to the hotel with the yellow emergency lights flashing.
Because it was humid, the bus windows were steamed up. I peered through the windows trying to recognize landmarks, but through the blurry windows, it was challenging.
The caravan arrived at the hotel and snaked through the parking lot and around behind the hotel to a parking area. The truck with the luggage drove up to the building and the first bus backed into an narrow alley between hotel buildings. The rest of the buses waited. We had no idea what was going on.
The radio on the bus was playing and at the airport we had heard the 8:00 pm news. When the 9:00 news came on, we realized that we had been on the bus for more than an hour.
Eventually, bus#1 came out and our bus drove into the same area between buildings. One at a time, we were asked to get off the bus to be interviewed by another set of medical personnel. They filled out more forms and then we were given the first of four required Covid tests.
After we had done that, we were walked to our hotel room. We had reserved an upstairs room with a balcony and a sea view, but apparently the Covid committee had decided the day before to rearrange the rooms and put all the arrivals from ‘high risk’ countries on the first floor.
We were disappointed to not be in the room we expected, but at that point, we were thankful to be in our room and at the end of a long journey. From DFW Airport (Dallas) to our room in Honiara was about 68 hours.
The flight to Dubai was uneventful. It was nice to be able stretch out across 3 seats and get some sleep.
When we arrived in Dubai, we found the Emirates desk, where they provided vouchers for a nearby hotel, which included a free meal. After a short wait, a van took us to the very nice hotel. It was wonderful to take a shower and crawl into the luxurious bed.
In the morning, we used our meal vouchers to get breakfast at one of the hotel restaurants. We got a kick out of the name of another restaurant in the hotel, Cactus Jack’s. When we lived in Uvalde, Texas there was a Cactus Jack’s restaurant there. The combination of a Tex-Mex restaurant and the middle eastern architecture was interesting.
When we got to the airport there was a further complication. Because our flight from Aukland to Honiara was not a regular scheduled flight, it was not obvious that we were just transiting New Zealand, whose borders are closed to non-citizens. Although we were holding transit visas for New Zealand, the airline ended up having to call New Zealand immigration so we could talk to an officer there to get the proper permit code for the airline to allow us on the flight. We were very thankful that we had arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare!
When we finally arrived at our departure gate, we caught up with our friends, Katena and Altruicia. They have been earning their masters degrees in Dallas and were on their way back home to the Solomon Islands where they serve on staff at a Bible school. They had traveled to Dubai via New York while we flew via Los Angeles. From Dubai, we flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Upon arrival in Kuala Lumpur, we sat on the plane for about 90 minutes while it was refueled and a new flight crew came on board. A few more passengers bound for Auckland joined the flight and we traveled on to Auckland.
When we arrived in Auckland, the Honiara-bound passengers were asked to disembark first. Once off the airplane, we met by New Zealand airport officials. We were lead to an isolated gate area in the airport. Medical personnel checked our temperatures and Covid tests from the USA as well as asking us questions about our health. Solomon Airlines agents insured everyone had the proper ticketing.
In Auckland, we met up with a colleague from Europe who was also returning to the Solomons. The 3 of us are the ‘guinea pigs’ for our group, as there are others that are eager to return to the Solomons as well.
The flight into Honiara was significantly more full than our other flights. There was no ‘social distancing’ here, though everyone was required to wear a mask and the crew took what precautions they could. Finally, we were on the last leg of the journey ‘home’!
The gift of a hotel room near the airport for the last 2 nights in Dallas made it easier to store our bed and wash our bed linens, etc. We did our final repacking of our bags on Wednesday night, being sure that we both had clothes in all 3 bags in case anything was delayed or went missing. The bags were close to the baggage limit and the hand carry items were heavy! The way of missionary travel!
Thursday morning, Emily came to the hotel to say good-bye. She helped us take our bags to the entrance where Sarah was waiting to drive us to the airport.
Oh, it was hard to say good-bye to our girls! We hadn’t seen them all the time, but there was the comfort of knowing they were just a short drive away if they needed anything. Being on the opposite side of the globe from family is not easy. We are grateful to friends whom we know will provide support and help if it is needed.
We got to the airport and after checking in our bags for Los Angeles, we gave Sarah a last hug and started on our way. After finding our seats and settling in, there is always the feeling of relief of finally being on our way.
Once we arrived in Los Angeles, we collected our bags and headed to the International Terminal. We were early for the flight and received excellent service from the Emirates employees at the check-in desk. In addition to presenting our passports, we also needed to present the negative Covid test results, a requirement of the United Arab Emirates.
The Emirates agent also helped us find great seats on the plane. There were only 60 passengers on the Boeing 777-300, so she found us each a window seat in a row of 3 seats so we could stretch out. Nice!
Along with our boarding passes to Dubai, the airline provided vouchers for a hotel near the airport, since we were going to be in Dubai for 13 hours. They were unable to provide us with boarding passes beyond Dubai because there were complications with flying through New Zealand. We had applied for and received permits to transit through New Zealand as we would be in the country less than 24 hours. However, since the flight into the Solomons was a special flight, the airline system wasn’t sure how to handle our situation. In the end they told us we would need to get our boarding pass for the Auckland portion in Dubai.
We had been told by Solomon Airlines to try and get our checked baggage tagged all the way through to Honiara. The Emirates staff was able to take care of that, to our great relief!
It was time to head to the gate. By that time we were hungry and wanted a bite to eat. Tim said he had a hankering for Mexican food so we asked a terminal employee if there was a place he could recommend. He pointed us to a nearby restaurant and where we enjoyed a delicious meal of Yucatan-style food. It will be a while until we have good Mexican food again, so we thoroughly enjoyed this ‘last supper’.
The flight went well and we got some decent sleep in between and sometimes during movies!
F
