Spoiler alert: we got out. Boarding a plane to Miami on March 20.
Continued from Evacuation Diaries Part 1.
Sunday, March 15
President Ivan Duque announces all Colombian schools will close for the foreseeable future.
Foreigners can no longer enter Colombia unless they are legal residents. Airlines begin announcing they will suspend flights.
At 5 PM, I go on a run with my friend Ivan, expecting the evacuation order to come in just a few hours. Most volunteers spend the evening refreshing our emails, waiting for an update.
At 9 PM, we receive an email from our country director informing us that we will evacuate our sites the following day. Global Director Jody Olsen issues a press release ordering the evacuation of 7,300 volunteers worldwide.
My host mom helps me pack but the power goes out so we save it until the morning.
Monday, March 16
Saying goodbye to my work partners on the last day in my site.
I sleep just four hours and leave in the morning to visit my rural worksite before I head to the city. My work partners give me a traditional Carnaval totem they’ve carved and we say our goodbyes. I am relieved we’ve already spent most of our grant funds—our work together was my proudest accomplishment of service.
Volunteers arrive at a hotel in Barranquilla to fill out paperwork, close our bank accounts, and await flight information. The country director informs us that with so many volunteers evacuating at once, Colombia is classified as “tier three” in priority, meaning we might have to wait five to seven days to get on a plane.
President Ivan Duque closes all land, sea, and river borders.
Tuesday, March 17
The city of Barranquilla confirms its first two cases of COVID-19. They are treated at a hospital on the same block as our hotel. Police grow more skeptical of foreigners in public, as they are looking for people violating quarantine when arriving from abroad.
The local governor announces a curfew from 8 PM to 5 AM and orders bars and nightclubs closed. Stores begin to restrict the number of people allowed to enter at a time.
Wednesday, March 18
Colombia confirms 93 cases of COVID-19.
All Colombia volunteers officially close our service with a bell-ringing ceremony—a Peace Corps tradition. Many volunteers have flights the following day, and we share our final moments as a cohort that entered Colombia together at the beginning of service.
My cohort celebrates closing our service on March 18 (ft. three members who couldn’t make the photo).
Thursday, March 19
26 volunteers leave Barranquilla on commercial flights.
A group headed to DC gets stuck in Panama when their connecting flight is canceled. Panama has already closed its borders, so they hop on a charter plane with Peace Corps Panama volunteers to Miami.
Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá enters a “quarantine simulation” for five days. Thousands of people attempt to flee the city before the order goes into effect at 2 PM.
At an afternoon meeting, the country director informs us that flights will stop completely at midnight on Sunday. Our commercial flights are scheduled for the following day, but several have already been canceled. It’s much harder to get out of a smaller coastal city like Barranquilla where there are fewer travelers than Bogotá. We learn that if we can’t leave on commercial flights, we may have to stay in consolidation for at least 30 days when Colombia reopens its air borders and we can return home.
The remaining 55 volunteers reach out to our friends, family, and elected officials to pressure Peace Corps headquarters into chartering a plane to get us out of Barranquilla. Within a few hours, we receive notice that we will leave on a chartered flight the following day.
Friday, March 20
In the morning we still haven’t heard about our charter flight, which makes us nervous. By noon, we get the details, pack our things, and eat lunch at the hotel. Our plane is delayed leaving Miami and we spend several hours waiting for confirmation that it is on the way.
Colombia confirms 145 cases of COVID-19.
We learn that Colombia will enter a national lockdown on Tuesday, March 24 in an attempt to stop the virus.
At 6 PM, we head to the airport and take off around 9 PM. We arrive in Miami at 1 AM and spend the night at a hotel.
Saturday, March 21
I take two domestic flights to arrive home in Columbus, OH.
Sunday, March 22
Colombia closes its borders at midnight. No flights in or out.
Thanks for reading. If you liked this format, let me know and I’ll continue to write stories like this about other events from my service before evacuation. You can read more about the Peace Corps’ mass evacuation from the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune.