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Hello, my name is Paula Ospina,
00:06
and I am currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.
00:10
I have been here since May 2018,
00:13
and I was supposed to end my service next month, April 2020.
00:18
There was a message sent out that all the Peace Corps
00:22
volunteers are being medically evacuated
00:25
until further notice, and that they will reopen
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once the coronavirus has stopped or things have slowed down.
00:33
We found out about the evacuation on Sunday,
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and today it is Tuesday.
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We were told to stay in our villages,
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start packing our bags, and just be ready
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to go whenever that time comes.
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It is not the way I expected my service to end.
00:51
I know that I only had a month left.
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Other volunteers are still going
00:55
through the training process.
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Other volunteers have only been here for a year
01:01
and are just starting to get in the swing of things
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and are starting to get work off the ground.
01:06
So it is a very hard time for a lot of volunteers.
01:17
[Falilou] Hey, Maria?
01:21
[Falilou] Yes, this is Falilou, the CED APCD.
01:23
Oh, hi, hi, how are you?
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[Falilou] I am good, and you?
01:27
Good, currently in my hut.
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[Falilou] Yes, so, I am calling you
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to give you specific instructions
01:35
in regards to your evacuation.
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[Falilou] So if you can get to the Hotel Hobbe
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tomorrow, Wednesday, that is your consolidation point.
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[Falilou] So don’t leave anything behind,
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and take all of your personal belongings.
01:51
Don’t leave everything behind,
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take all my personal belongings.
01:55
At what time are we leaving on Thursday to Thies?
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[Falilou] Yes, you will be leaving on Thursday to Thies,
02:01
but I don’t know when exactly.
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It is Wednesday, March 18th.
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I’m waking up, finishing packing,
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and then I’m gonna go outside and start saying goodbye
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to my village and my family.
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I should be heading out into Kolda
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to be consolidated with other volunteers around noon.
02:26
[speaking in foreign language]
02:30
[speaking in foreign language]
02:35
[speaking in foreign language]
02:39
[speaking in foreign language]
02:41
[speaking in foreign language]
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[speaking in foreign language]
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[speaking in foreign language]
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[speaking in foreign language]
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[speaking in foreign language]
02:59
[Paula] We are going to our original capital
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in Kolda, and then we will be heading
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the next day on a bus to another
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region called Thies, which is about 10 to 12 hours away.
03:10
[steady, percussive music]
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Good Friday morning to everyone.
03:20
Today is a beautiful day, the sun is out,
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and you are all going home today.
03:33
[Woman] We’re going home today!
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Everybody’s going home today!
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It has not been easy.
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As you probably are aware, the situation globally
03:45
has gotten pretty difficult.
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The situation here in Senegal is still
03:52
as not as difficult as it is in some places.
03:55
We’re up to 38 in Senegal, the last that I heard.
03:59
We have many more than that in the United States,
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but we have many more resources in the United States,
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and so, Peace Corps has decided, in its wisdom,
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to take you guys home, to let you go back to your families,
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and to ride this thing out, and I hope that we will
04:18
see many of you back here in Senegal again.
04:21
Departure, wheels up, is going to be
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this evening at 1900 hours, 7 p.m.
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This is the last day of open airspace for Senegal,
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and so, the airport is probably going to be
04:36
a little bit busy, and so we’re going to do
04:40
our very best to get you through.
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We’ve got a special flight.
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We will get every single one of you on board.
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You’ve had faith in us up until now, we will get you home.
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So originally, we were supposed
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to be leaving Sunday, two days from now,
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but now we are leaving today.
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We have a lot to rush to, and a lot of admin,
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medical stuff to get through, and packing,
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and getting all 300-plus volunteers to the airport.
05:28
[speaking in foreign language]
05:30
[speaking in foreign language]
05:32
[indistinct conversations] [tense music]
05:49
[Woman On Speaker] This is the first board
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of A3 to the United States.
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All passengers are required to clear customs
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and hand over your baggage to transfer desk
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after clearing customs before proceeding
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to [murmurs] Concourse, C and D gates.
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[laughs] [she and others clap]
06:07
Welcome back, you’re going to hotels now.
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All right, welcome back, guys, yay! [claps]
06:22
We got here on Saturday, and my mother
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actually picked us up, but she couldn’t even hug us,
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she couldn’t say hello, it was just from a distance.
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I didn’t even feel like speaking or catching up with her,
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because it didn’t feel like I was home.
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To me, it felt like an Uber ride,
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even though it was my mother.
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So I’m hoping that after I’m not quarantining,
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in two weeks, I’m able to go home
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and hug her and just share with her
06:46
what this crazy experience has been like.
