I Was "Rescued" From Guatemala. (My Coronavirus Story)
Yes, I went to Guatemala. I left Canada the morning of March 13, and later that day the Canadian government asked people to avoid non-essential travel. I had been looking forward to this trip for months, and I was just glad that I made it Guatemala before someone could stop me.
Two days after I arrived, the president of Guatemala announced that the airport would be shut down for two weeks. No commercial flights for 15 days. I had a flight to leave on March 22 that was now cancelled.
For other people a situation like this might be a horrible thing, but for me, it was an answer to a prayer.
In the days leading up to the trip, I found myself dreaming up how I could work remotely one day, so that I could stay in a place like Guatemala. I knew that a 9 day trip was too short. Too short to unwind myself from months of stresses from the city. Too short to sync my creative flow with nature’s rhythm. Too short to learn Spanish and feel like a local. I wanted more time.
I was in Guatemala to produce a promotional video for author Joyce Maynard's memoir writing workshop at Lake Atitlan, a stunning lake surrounded by volcanoes. This was the practical, earthly reason I was in Guatemala. At the spiritual level, this trip was much more.
Once in Guatemala, the ladies at the writing workshop that I was filming, were constantly on their phones checking up on the latest news about coronavirus. I didn’t care much about the virus. I was just happy to be in Guatemala, and I wished the ladies would shut off their phones.
Still, since the virus was the conversation at ever meal, I scanned my work emails a few times over the course of the week. The two companies I work for in Toronto were transitioning to fully—on their own. Due to the instructions from our Prime Ministry to stop the spread of coronavirus, the companies closed their offices and asked people to work from home.
Now I could stay in Guatemala!
Once my flight was canceled, I pondered how long I could stay in Guatemala. Early April? Mid April?
As soon as the workshop ended, the Americans in the group found a flight back to America and got on it. I, along with the other two younger women, moved onto the Joyce’s property, a dream home hand built over the last 20 years. It had multiple guest rooms, a garden with colours in every colour and a tree house.
I was excited to try my hand at working remotely and living in Guatemala. I emailed my bosses, told them that I was in Guatemala and would have no issues working remotely since Joyce’s house had wifi.
On Monday I tried to log onto my staff meetings and the wifi was spotty. I leapt up and down the steep stairs to find a quiet stop with good wifi. The house was designed with lots of outdoor spaces and doors. Voices could be heard from almost anywhere in the house. My heart sank.
I was forced to admit: this wasn’t going to work.
All during my first week in Guatemala, I was preoccupied with filming and being present to the workshops. I had no headspace to process what was going with the coronavirus globally.
Finally, on one of the last day of the workshop, I registered with the Canadian embassy in Guatemala.
After a few days of attempting to work from Joyce’s house, I received an email from the embassy saying the they were organizing a charter flight back for Canadians to go back to Canada. I felt it in my gut. I was supposed to be on that flight.
I knew it would be near impossible to keep up with my work, master’s program, and film editing while living in Guatemala. It was way too much work to properly take in Guatemala.
As much as a part of me wanted to stay in Guatemala, I trusted the feeling that I should go back.
***
There is much more that happened to me on this trip. It will take me a while to write it all out, but I wanted to start with this. To crack open the lid and let the words start pouring out again.
I am safe. I am healthy. I am in self isolation for the next 14 days. And my heart is very full. Unlike my return from Jamaica in December, I feel like I received all that I wanted and more on this trip.
It always feels awkward to start writing again, after not writing for some time, so best to let it flow with this brief update.
I did learn some very practical things about writing memoir and I look forward to putting more of it into practice!
I have lots to catch up on how that I’m back in Toronto, but will write more as soon as I can! Thank you so much for reading and being here!
