Whatever you call it, it’s not pretty.
As we (myself, V, and L) were preparing for this big trip, by the end of Nov/ beginning Dec, the Indonesian government rule on quarantine went from 3 days, to 7 days and finally to 10 days within a week. It was so uncertain that I decided we got to leave now before this turned into 14 days, or worse (!) 21 days (Thanks Singapore, for coming up with this hideous idea).
Preparation went smoothly, until we got to the airport and about to pass Migración. I needed a parental permission for the children to travel only with 1 parent. Our story is often a bit more complicated when we travel. The children don’t have my last names, three of us with three different passports, the father was traveling to Brazil at that moment who is a citizen of a different country than the three of us, while we all live in Panamá. Long story short, I prayed and prayed, used my newly polished Spanish, and begged the officer to let us through. We were blocking the line and people behind me started to get uneasy. Sometimes a miracle happened and 3 seconds later we were sprinting to the gate!
After all that trouble, I have a confession to make. I actually have the permission to travel that has been prepared and notarized. I just forgot to pick it up from the notary office and on the day we flew out, their office was closed. Yep, I took the risk and went to the airport anyway. Yay to me!
Almost 40 hours later, we landed in Jakarta, after spending the afternoon and evening in Istanbul, and 2 long haul flights.
We did our quarntine dutifully. Looking back, we did it with ease and grace. 10 days straight the kids never had any big fights. 2 days into it I decided we needed a routine instead of being like a sausage in bed with iPad in our hands and in pajamas all day and night. So on day 3 we started having our routine of breakfast, morning exercise, sunbathing by the window, iPad, lunch, monopoly, afternoon exercise, Nintendo Switch, dinner, monopoly, bed. And so it went 8 times.
Other than being contained with no direct sun and fresh air for 10 days (the government needs to learn that lack of vitamim D adversely affects our immune system), I choose to look at the bright side. Spending 10 days in a closed contained hotel rooms with the kids is quite special. We had each others’ attention for the entire 10 days yet we learned to appreciate our personal space regardless of the limited physical space. There is always a lesson to learn regardless of the situation, and for that I am thankful.
You can be certain that on Day 10 we all rushed out of the room? In reality, not quite. We took our time. L was acting like a sloth and stayed in bed late.
We finally crawled our way out and got outselves checked out. Merdeka! (Freedom/Independence in Indonesian)
Next it’s family time (and eat!). Coming now now.
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