A Margarita a Day Keeps the COVID Away!

"in a few weeks everything will be back to normal"

Ready to join his family in their rented apartment in Barcelona for a month of vacation, Mark takes his seat on the plane as it sits on the tarmac in West Africa, absentmindedly using the hand sanitizer provided by his company. Reports have been circulating around the world about this thing called coronavirus, and so his employer has started issuing travel kits containing hand sanitizer, disposable gloves and a surgical mask to each employee as they fly out for vacation. Mark is surprised to see a colleague actually wearing the mask for the duration of the flight. It seems a little over-cautious - surely this thing will blow over in a few weeks.

After 5 years working month on/month off flying in and out of West Africa, Mark is about to permanently relocate to the US, with his wife and two little girls who are currently living in Barcelona. As part of the relocation preparations, Mark and his wife Arely have been trying to arrange an appointment with the US Embassy to apply for her visa. Neither are US citizens and so each need visas in order to make the move to Houston. Mark, a Canadian, already has his visa but Arely, who is Mexican, does not. The Embassy provides them with a choice of 2 dates for the appointment, and because Arely’s sister is visiting from overseas, they select the later option. The appointment is scheduled for the week after Mark returns to Barcelona, and he’s only been home for a few days when the news hits like a punch to each side of the head. First, the Embassy has been closed thereby cancelling Arely’s appointment. Second, Spain is going into lockdown.

It’s the cancellation of Arely’s visa appointment that will ultimately define the rest of their year. Without her visa, they can’t possibly go ahead with the move to the US unless Mark goes alone. If only they had taken that earlier appointment - it’s the question they can’t help but wrestle with as Arely’s appointment is rescheduled and cancelled, again and again, over the remainder of the year.

Spain is one of the first countries to be hit hard by the virus and the lockdown conditions set by the Government are strict. Mark and his family are directed to stay in their apartment for an initial period of 15 days (the maximum period the Spanish Government can impose) and are only permitted to leave for two purposes: to get groceries or for medical reasons. All other businesses are closed, including schools and daycares. In that first weekend of lockdown, eager to keep the experience light-hearted for their girls, Mark and Arely enthusiastically plan a play of “’The Nutcracker”. Each family member is given a role and a funny costume. It will be the first of many activities Mark and Arely invent to keep the girls entertained over the next 3 months.

There is no child-friendly manual explaining the nuances of COVID-19 and its associated restrictions. Mark and Arely do their best to simply yet accurately explain the “coronavirus” situation to their three-year-old Spanish-speaking daughter, Olivia. She learns about “los bichos” (“germs”) and is vigilant in enforcing the “don’t share drinks” rule, with a shout of “coronavirus!” any time Mark takes a sip from Arely’s drink. Other than a terrace, the family are effectively confined to the apartment; not even going for a walk or exercising outside is allowed. Determined to stay fit, Mark creates an indoor workout routine using water jugs as weights and doing burpees in the living room. Olivia watches, imitating him with her own mini-burpees all the while yelling out the reps in Spanish until finally collapsing exhausted on the floor. Although she adapts to indoor life fairly robustly, there is no containing her joy when she is finally allowed out into the street again: “Estoy en la calle!” (“I’m in the street!”)

Every evening at the designated time, Mark takes his girls onto their balcony. It has become a kind of a tradition across the country to applaud the health-workers who must confront the virus daily. Despite having never met, they wave to their neighbours who stand on their own balconies across the street - and wave back. It’s a sweet demonstration of solidarity in the midst of such widespread isolation.

The Spanish Government continues to extend the lockdown in 15 day increments and it is soon clear that Mark won’t be able to travel back to work as scheduled. The transition to a working from home set-up is gradual; first from the couch, laptop on knees, upgrading to a desk in the girls’ room and finally purchasing a monitor to complete his workspace. Interruptions from his girls are inevitable– there was more flexibility during the first month where he was technically still on vacation, however they are fortunate to have Arely’s Aunt staying with them to assist with the usual endless parenting responsibilities. Her two month intended visit fast becomes six meaning she has technically overstayed her visa – it is a relief when the government finally announces that time spent in lockdown won’t count towards visa timing.

Despite the help and the appreciation of quality family time, there are only so many live versions of “The Nutcracker” that one can do, and so Mark’s penchant for activities such as constructing a labyrinth out of suitcases for the girls will eventually be supplemented by a subscription to the Disney channel. The girls’ Disney diet eventually consists of a movie in the morning followed by another movie in the afternoon. Each evening, once the girls are tucked up in bed, the adults settle on the couch ready for some non-Disney Netflix, while Mark mixes up their nightly margaritas. Thankfully hard liquor is available in supermarkets, although they have had to substitute the obligatory Cointreau with some kind of knock-off Spanish version – it seems Cointreau is not a popular ingredient in Spain, even without the pandemic.  

It’s been over 3 months, and towards the end of June, Mark is able to return to work in West Africa on the first commercial flight from Paris. His family’s plans to relocate to Houston however remain up in the air. Not only has Arely still not been able to obtain her visa, the US has temporarily banned entry for certain visa holders, and so now Mark can’t even relocate by himself, even if he wanted to. On top of everything, Mark, a Canadian passport holder, is not actually a resident of Spain, and it continues to be unclear whether he will be permitted to transit through European airports to get to and from work in West Africa. Due to the lack of regular flights he must enter France and stay overnight in order to get his connection the following day. He is fully prepared with documentation including a boarding pass for his connecting flight and hotel reservation but they still hold him up at Customs where he waits, sweating for 10 minutes while they scrutinize his documentation. If they don’t let him through he will either have to sleep in the airport or head back to Barcelona. The Customs officials finally clear him, but the question remains, will he be allowed back into Spain at the end of his next work rotation to see Arely and his girls?

The trouble is, Mark can never know for sure exactly what will happen when he tries to enter the EU on his Canadian passport. Gone are the days when the rules were clear. Some officials look at his passport and allow him to enter without a second glance, question, or considering where he is actually traveling from. Yet who knows if others will subject him to greater scrutiny, asking for proof of residency, reasons for traveling? There is just no way to know. Nor does he have a decent Plan B beyond sleeping in the airport should he be denied entry.

Meanwhile, their living situation in Barcelona is thrown into chaos. The lease on their apartment has run out as has the grace period established to protect tenants during the lockdown. Their landlord has advised that they need to vacate imminently because the apartment is going to be sold. They are still planning to make the move to Houston once all the documentation is in place, but given the continued cancellation of Arely’s visa appointments they still don’t know when this will actually be. In September they manage to secure a place to stay temporarily through a friend which at least provides some much needed flexibility for their ever-uncertain plans.

2020 has almost ended by the time Arely finally gets her visa appointment with the Embassy in Madrid. Having already navigated so many hoops, they realize only two days beforehand that they also need to apply for permission to leave the Barcelona region. Approval is eventually obtained just in time; Arely and the girls attend the long-awaited appointment in Madrid, and the 3 are finally granted their visas for the US.

The four of them, with 8 suitcases of belongings, fly together from Madrid to the US, faces concealed behind masks, even the littlest, who although not required to wear one, does not want to be left out. A year later than planned, they finally make it to their new city. The girls adjust easily to their new environment, ready to dive into this English-dominant arena as their friends back in Spain quietly start to fade from memory.

In one month’s time, the family will move into their new house.

It might have taken more than a year, but they made it.