March 19th, 2020 – Cotignac, France

I’m home! After my last post, where I’d arrived in Port-Vila, things started to go wrong quite quickly. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, gave a second televised address whereby he chastised the French population for not listening to his first televised address a few days prior, and said as a result he was imposing new stricter measures to contain the virus. This wouldn’t have bothered me, it was all very French, but in the latter half of the speech, he declared that as of the following day, the French border would be closed to non-nationals. This bothered me greatly, being a non-national due to return to France a few days later. Even more bothersome, after giving his speech, Macron went to bed, as it was late in France, but early in the morning in Vanuatu. So when I showed up at the French Embassy asking for clarification on the rules for French non-nationals returning to their families, they looked at me as if I were a sad puppy (admittedly I had been caught in a tropical rainstorm en-route to the Embassy), and told me that as France was now sleeping, they only knew as much as I did based on Macron’s speech, and they figured I would likely be denied entry. They also considered my chosen route back to France problematic, as they figured my 2-day planned layover in Sydney may fall foul of Australian quarantine requirements which had just been announced the previous day. Furthermore, they said that with the closure of the French border, it was likely that my planned flight from Doha to Nice could well be cancelled, and to check with the airline (I’d been trying for a few days, but phone lines were jammed, and being placed on hold interminably while calling Qatar isn’t cheap). They said given I had dual UK/NZ citizenship, my best bet would be to go to NZ and sit tight there before NZ also closed its borders. I went upstairs to the Kiwi High Commission, handily in the same building as the French Embassy, and their advice was pretty much the same. The UK high commission (also in the same building) was closed, with a note on the door saying that given it was a new mission, it only served for diplomatic representation, and consular assistance could be sought by calling a 24-hour helpline, which would connect me to the High Commission in Canberra. I tried calling the 24-hour helpline only to be told that as it was out-of-hours it was currently closed and to try back later. The French Embassy gave me the email contact they had for the UK embassy, and I tried that. Given the lack of clarity on the treatment of my planned 2-day layover in Sydney, I went to the Air Vanuatu office to change my flight to Friday morning instead, meaning any layover wouldn’t be necessary, I would just hang around in Sydney airport for most of Friday instead. A few hours later I received a response from my email to the UK high commission, advising me to contact the 24-hour helpline in Canberra, which was still closed. I replied pretty crossly, and barely half an hour later received a call on my Vanuatu number from Canberra from the wonderful Elicia. I say wonderful, as while the French and Kiwis had been helpful, they had sort of shrugged and said let us know how you get on. Elicia, on the other hand, was just as understanding, but also very attentive to the practicalities of the situation (where was my hotel, what were the booking refs of my flights, etc…). She said she was going to try to both get clarification on the French border situation and to contact Qatar airways on my behalf. She also told me at the end of the call what time she would next call me, which is very good practice in situations like this. She gave me a call later in the day even though she hadn’t made much progress, and importantly checked on my mental health, financial security, and once again told me that she would call me back tomorrow in the morning. She advised me that the situation was changing rapidly across the world, but also in Vanuatu, which was looking likely to close its borders shortly. If I could, she said, I should look into booking an earlier flight, and so I found that there was still space departing the following afternoon (Wednesday) on a Virgin flight from Port-Vila to Brisbane. This worked out nicely, as I had given cousin Rick a call, and he had offered his spare room in Brisbane for as long as needed. So I booked the flight to Brisbane just in case. Then that evening, the acting PM of Vanuatu came on the telly, saying Vanuatu was going to start “restricting and reducing” international flights. He actually said it in Bislama, which I’m pleased to say I understood, although I was none the wiser as to what that actually meant for me. He then went to bed. I did a quick search for onward flights from Brisbane to Nice, and found that it is a route flown by Emirates, and they had some seats left on the plane. I figured that given it was now late, and Elicia and the French were both going to get back to me in the morning, I’d wait to get clarity as to whether the French border would let me in or not before booking.

Early Wednesday morning, I awoke and checked the latest travel advice for Brits traveling to/from France, and the general idea was that British residents in France would be allowed through the border. Based on that, I went back to the Emirates website, only to be told that all economy seats had now been fully booked, and only business class, costing some €4,600 had room left. I love Jen and Hunter very much, but spending that sort of money would significantly affect our future happiness, especially as there was still a possibility that my Friday flights would work out just fine anyway. Pretty upset, as I glumly chewed my hotel Weetbix and sipped a cup of hot coffee, not even taking joy in the fact that both Weetbix, milk, and fresh coffee would have all been unimaginable in Malekula, I had one of my smarter moments. Although I had searched with Skyscanner and directly with Emirates for the flight, I recalled that Qantas and Emirates were part of the same air alliance, and therefore often code-shared the same flights. Maybe if I searched on Qantas, I would find a seat in economy for later that day? It, somewhat surprisingly, was a fruitful idea. Qantas’ booking site said they had three seats left in economy. I paid for one straight up, and had only just done so when I received a call from Elicia telling me she had spoken with the French, and everyone now thought I would be unlikely to run into trouble at the border. The French even went so far as to prepare an official looking letter for me, requesting any French police to grant me safe passage.

So I packed my bag, checked out, went into town to change my remaining vatu into euros, donned a mask and disposable gloves, and headed to the airport. I checked in for my flight to Brisbane, and informed Air Vanuatu that I would no longer be on the Friday morning flight. There were already a few cancelled flights on the board at the airport, presumably due to the acting PM’s announcement the night before.

That’s it. I’m home now. I’ll keep this blog going, mainly to let you know what happens with my work in Malekula and the future of Vanuatu, but I shan’t be updating it as regularly as I have been to date.

Incidentally, the VSA announced on Wednesday, as I was scrambling to get to the airport, that they were going to be interrupting all their operations worldwide, bringing all volunteers back to New Zealand. The AVI (Australians) and the Peace Corps (Americans) had taken the same decision a couple of days earlier. It is a sad time for volunteering agencies across the globe, and even sadder for the developing countries such as Vanuatu which were benefiting from the great help and assistance that volunteer workers brought with them. Even if the virus passes swiftly, it will take many months or even years to rebuild the relationships and reputations that these volunteer organisations had in their host countries. If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please do consider making a donation to the VSA, however small. As I’ve said before, they do good work.