Image Credit: Skype

By Jill Sperling

COVID-19

Kamloops woman happy to be home after struggling to get flight out of Morocco

Mar 25, 2020 | 4:55 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops lawyer has quarantined herself at home after a recent trip to Morocco.

Kathy Kendall joined a tour group in the African country in early March, not realizing borders would soon close to travel and result in a scramble for Canadians to get home.

“There were no travel advisories,” she said. “We checked and it was a thing, it was a story, but there were no travel advisories. Certainly I don’t think anybody saw it coming.”

Kendall left for Morocco on March 3 and all was well, until COVID-19 began its rapid spread across the globe.

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“I’m not really good on my dates, but I think it was around the 13th or the 14th that foreign affairs said that canadians travelling abroad should come home and the next day Morocco closed its borders,” Kendall said. “There weren’t any flights available and the local tour company we were with said, ‘your tour’s over, goodbye.'”

As her group worked to secure flights back to their respective countries, the situation became tense.

“We didn’t know from day to day if the hotels would stay open, and of course we were looked at in a very unfriendly light because it was travellers that brought the virus to Morocco.”

Image Credit: Contributed by Kathy Kendall

She finally returned to Kamloops on Friday, March 20. After passing through five airports, she was alarmed by the lack of concern displayed by airport security.

“At the London airport they just asked us if we’d been to China,” Kendall said, “at the Vancouver airport they asked if we had any symptoms, at the Calgary airport we were just changing planes so nobody asked us anything, and at the Kamloops airport, there was nothing.”

Kendall is now happily quarantined and thankful to be home.

“Big shout out to everyone who is still working in essential services,” she said. “When I got off the plane in London, the pilot was standing at the door and I just couldn’t thank him enough. That’s when I cried, when I told him thank-you that we were home.”