- We were booked to go back to Melbourne and Hamilton for a holiday over Easter
- The coronavirus started spreading and killing people
- We were told we would have to stay in isolation on arrival in Australia for two weeks
- The first case was announced in Tanzania
- The police appeared on the streets wearing face masks
- A second case was confirmed
- Wednesday a week ago both our workplaces closed indefinitely
- Another volunteer who lives in our compound self-isolated because she had flu-like symptoms
- Someone reported her to the authorities
- Health department authorities arrived and took a sample for testing
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| Not what you want to see in your compound |
- AVP announced that all 400 global volunteers were to go home to Australia as soon as possible
- We got the AVP travel agent to book us flights for Monday - so now we had two options
- One by one - various flights on our two options were cancelled and new options found
- A couple of farewells with AVP colleagues who left earlier than us
- Our original holiday flights home became impossible to use
- Early on Monday our AVP booked flights were cancelled
- By 1000 we were on our way to the airport with new Qatar Airlines tickets
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| So happy to see this chap arrive at Kilimanjaro airport to start us on our journey home. |
- Safely home Wednesday via Dar es Salam, Doha and Perth (41 hours door to door)
- Now 14 days in isolation in Hamilton
Our sick volunteer colleague didn't have coronavirus and flew home on Tuesday.
