Quarantined in the Bahamas for Almost 2 weeks

And it was not a vacation

When some people think of the Bahamas, they associate it with sunny skies, tropical islands, and postcard beaches with someone sipping a margarita in a hammock. However, my time there was not all sunsets and blue beaches, it was dark forecast with stormy nights.

After living there for three months, there are so many people, places, and stories to share. It is something unreal and yet happening. Most people will have trouble understanding what it was like exactly, but here is a summary of the time I was quarantined in the Bahamas for two weeks.

During quarantine, I kept a journal of the two weeks I was there for. The quarantine was unexpectedly long. What started as just a few days turned into much longer. From the first day of quarantine, I was bored so naturally decided to keep a log.

As a volunteer in the Bahamas, it is hard enough as it is, but Covid and protocols make that work so much harder. There is so much to do, but so little you can. Without Covid it is hard enough, however with Covid, it has made the work done by these NGOs so much harder to do. We must follow the Covid guidelines, which may prevent working together collectively as an organization so much harder.

This Cohort’s group of volunteers is split into three groups of roughly 15–20 people. If one person in that group gets Covid or even just symptoms, then the whole group has to go into heightened awareness or quarantine, meaning no contact with anyone outside your group.

From the beginning to end was a test of our mental stamina and ability to see the glass half full when it’s empty. It’s to fool ourselves into thinking that today we might get out of it, even though we knew it would take some time.

Volunteering in the Bahamas has been a life-changing experience in my life. It reminded me to expect the unexpected. Following the Covid guidelines has become a daily ritual here in the Bahamas. These rituals consist of always wearing a mask, stay six feet away from people, and bathing yourself in sanitizer.

Early on in the Beginning

So far as I write this, I am currently quarantined in the Bahamas. My journey started volunteering for an NGO that helps build schools. Now that I am in quarantine, I’m unable to do such tasks.

Our living conditions are that of a summer camp we live in their little living shed structures, basic food portions, porta-potties, bucket laundry, outside showers, etc. It appears we may be here a while, 3–5 days the most if the test is negative.

It is day 2 so far and I don’t know how long this will last, but hopefully not too long. We don’t know how long it will last we are waiting to take tests but will continue to update this blog daily for as long as we are in this prison cell.

For the first few weeks, everyone was following these rules. We had zero reported Covid cases, however, that doesn’t mean that things will always go as planned.

Everything was going smoothly until the end of the second week an unnamed individual had symptoms of Covid. Instead of Quarantining right away, the individual stayed on base because the health clinic was closed since it was the Easter holiday weekend. He or she couldn’t get tested.

There were three groups divided in our cohort in case one person gets sick, they can contain the one group while the other two groups continue to work on site and bring food to the quarantined group. Our group was the unlucky one of being in that common denominator.

Quarantine Day 1

It’s the first full day of quarantine. We are not allowed to leave the area where we sleep, except to walk to the bathroom. The other outside groups of people look at us with disgust. Hopefully, it’s because of the quarantine, nothing else too personal. We are not allowed to go to the worksite and build the school.

Everyone in my group got tested for covid with a PCR test. They were talking about the antigen but those are only accurate 50 percent of the time.

I drew quarantine symbols on my living structure to warn people.

Quarantine Day 2

I worked on a demo reel and did a 500 piece puzzle for nine hours, with many breaks, of course, and much help.

We got the results of three out of 16 people. They were negative. The other 13 results are coming back tomorrow since we were tested later than the first three. If we are all negative, the soonest we can get out is Tuesday. Since we will still have to wait and see if anyone else develops symptoms.

#FeelingHopeful

At night we played a fun drinking game that my friend Ashanta made. It’s like Monopoly, but every time you land on a piece on the board you either drink, sing, dance, do a dare, or take a picture. It was fun, but running out of alcohol here in the quarantine zone.

Quarantine day 3 Thursday

I woke up at 6 am to do yoga exercises in the morning with my friend from Nepal. He is experienced and taught me a lot of stretches for my back. It is intense but relaxing overall.

We’re still waiting for the Covid result for the other 13 people. If everyone’s tests are negative, then we will take one more quick test on Monday and be released from quarantine on Tuesday. If not, then it could last another week.

A Few Hours Later…

Bad News Everyone!

Everyone was not negative. Three people were positive and had to leave and be put somewhere off base in isolation. Like Survivor, our numbers are dwindling from 17 to 16 to 13 now.

Quarantine Day 4

Another person in our group was worried that they might have symptoms so self-isolated away from others. Our group numbers are now down to 12.

Still unable to go anywhere, we fixed the roof of our Outside shade structure in the Quarantine Zone.

Quarantine Day 5

My Guru friend and I did Morning Yoga. My body was feeling tense from his advanced techniques. Overall, I felt better afterward. I’m starting to feel the effects more.

We are still not allowed to leave our group’s designated quarantine zone. Tomorrow, we will get tested with a rapid test to hopefully have a chance of leaving quarantine by Wednesday.

I talked to friends and family and worked on my online writing job.

Played Ping Pong with my Nepali friend, he’s really as good as me, we keep playing multiple matches where we will both win and lose.

At night time it started to rain very hard with fast gusts of wind. We were told to stay inside and not go rain dancing, so naturally, we went outside to rain dance. I filmed some of it on my camera and participated with a dozen or more other people.

It reminded me of the ending of Shawshank when Andy is finally free from his prison cell and it’s pouring outside. The rain washed away the past and gave hope for a better future. I hope.

Quarantine Day 6 — Monday

Morning Yoga/ Meditation

Covid Test — We got the rapid test so we won’t have to wait another day or two for results like last time. Test results came back the two people in my room are negative, now waiting to see the results for the other 9 people in our group and the rest of the base.

One hour later, the whole base is negative, which means we can leave Quarantine on Wednesday. I think the first thing I’ll do is play guitar in front of a local bar.

Quarantine Day 7 (last full day of Quarantine) I think??

-Morning Yoga

-Breakfast

-Called my cousin

Nobody knows what’s going on. We were told we can leave today, but then we were told the opposite.

We need to take another test soon to be cleared.

Crossing fingers 🤞

Day 8 of Quarantine

Everyone was expecting to leave today

They said to wait more, so if anyone develops symptoms, we will be in here much longer. They said two more days would be a week since we were last in contact with Covid positive people and by then if we had it we would show symptoms.

We got one more quick rapid test just to be sure.

The tests came back negative. However, this did not mean we can leave. The people in charge said we must wait a full week since our last positive case, which was Friday. So we now have to wait two more days till this Friday.

Day 10 of Quarantine

We had a pool party to celebrate being released soon. The party had no pool but plenty of alcohol and large buckets of water.

We filled large buckets of water, then we used cups and bowls as our water guns and bazookas.

Everyone got really drunk by 3, not AM, but PM 😵

At 5 pm, we had a group meeting. I don’t remember what I was saying, but I think I talked a lot about quarantine.

Dinner was brought to the quarantine zone, and we ate shortly after.

After dinner, my friend and I were going to play ping pong, but I got injured when the table fell on my foot while I was wearing sandals. I was still drunk and felt very little instead of treating it with ice; I passed out in my bunk around 7 pm. I later found out that everyone at the pool party went to bed at roughly the same time.

At 10 Pm I was starting to sober up. This meant my foot was starting to hurt more. I couldn’t go inside to the base fridge since the doors were locked, and I wasn’t even allowed to leave the quarantine zone.

Friday Day 11- Freedom Day!!

My foot was still hurting. I asked someone to get me an ice pack and had to file a medical report, again (long story)

Breakfast was brought to us like usual. No one in our group had any symptoms. We had a meeting and were finally allowed to get back to the site and work at 9:45.

My foot was changing colors. Everyone was going back to work except me. I iced my foot from 9 to noon.

After icing it for hours, my leg was feeling well enough to go back to work.

Leaving quarantine was a lot like a prisoner being released from confinement and into the world. Kind of like in Shawshank Redemption, when Brooks gets released from prison, he finally got his freedom after decades of incarceration. Brooks felt wrong being on the outside, which is why he was overwhelmed and went crazy.

It felt wrong interacting with people from the outside. It felt like I should be back in my prison cell and be by myself. The world changed so much around me, and by the world, I mean the construction site. They were finally putting the roof on the school. So much progress was made in the short time that we were gone, which felt like forever.

Overall

It was a test to ourselves to see who would break and who would grow? Who would come out of this for the better? And who won’t make it??

The beginning was not too bad. We got to rest while others worked in the school we were building. However, after the first few days with the group, people were getting under each other’s skin. Some people were crying because of these claustrophobic conditions, lack of privacy and inability to go anywhere. People wanted to go to stores, walks and just see other people however, could not. It took a psychological toll to be trapped in a confined space for such a long time. Even though it wasn’t that long, it felt much longer than it was.

The Program Director (PD), the man in charge, who was with us, said how impressed he was with our group. After almost two weeks, we were still able to have fun, smile, and joke about such a serious situation that we had to endure.