From Durban to Shanghai (via Dallas)
A 14-Month Journey
The past 14 months have been unprecedented times for teaching abroad.
Every international school student, parent, teacher, leader, and board member/owner has been affected.
Documented below is Misty’s (my wife’s) journey over the past 14 months.
This is the story of many international educators and their families who know what ‘stuck’ feels like; stuck in their host country, stuck in their home country, or stuck in a country they ended up in with no long-term visa.
Misty’s story is characterized by patience, perseverance, and courage. May it bring encouragement to you and yours.
June 2019
One year of study leave in South Africa (SA) begins.
Misty entered SA on a tourist visa. After receiving incorrect instructions from a government agency on changing her tourist visa to a long-term visa, Misty was labelled an undocumented alien or as SA puts it: “an undesirable.”
January 2020
Misty signed a contract with a bilingual school in Shanghai, China. The contract was set to begin in August 2020. As a family, we were thrilled about moving back to Shanghai; we had spent four years in Shanghai between 2012 and 2016.
As a family we considered this opportunity a gift to return to our Chinese home city, Shanghai.
March 2020
SA closes schools and unbeknown at the time, Livia then aged 10 and Liam then aged 8, begin a yearlong homeschooling journey.
Homeschooling was something Misty and I never saw ourselves doing. In fact, the idea of homeschooling was something we hoped to never do in a million years.
As you read on, you will discover that as a family we made many unprecedented choices as the pandemic raged on. If we have learned anything from our experiences over the last 14 months, “never say never!”
SA’s hard lockdown also suspended all domestic and international travel, as well as immigration and mail delivery services.
May 2020
While on lockdown, Misty completed her thesis and graduated with her master’s of education in inclusive education. Excitement was tangible in the Russell family as we all anticipated the next chapter at a new school in a familiar city. At this point the kids were wanting to pack up and head back to China right away.
June and July 2020
SA’s COVID numbers surge.
Borders remained closed.
It became clear that an August start in Shanghai may be pushed to October or December. This was a very anxious time for us. We knew we were running out of savings and everyday spent away from employment was costing us dearly.
When all you want to do is to move forward, but are forced to stand still, you begin to feel like a bug on fly paper. You can push against what is happening around you, using up a lot of strength, but in the end, you are still trapped, unable to move.
August and September 2020
Immigration offices in SA remain closed.
At this point is became clear that Misty may need to leave SA without fixing her SA visa. To fix her SA visa, an FBI check from Virginia is needed. However, the FBI check got stuck in the mail due to the suspension of mail delivery during the hard lockdown and SA immigration offices remained closed and were unable to process Misty’s visa.
The feeling of entrapment increased as the unknowns of the situation started to pile up.
October 2020
SA reopened its borders.
Hastily, the decision was made to leave Durban and travel back home to Dallas.
We made the decision, bought tickets, and left within 10 days; this included packing up all our belongings and saying goodbye to dear friends.
With six-month immigration backlogs now at the semi-reopened immigration offices, the chances of Misty fixing her visa in SA was close to zero. She would have a better chance of fixing it after leaving SA. As is common practice at embassies and consulates, when one applies for a visa outside of one’s passport country, one’s current visa must be up to snuff.
Which was not going to work.
By traveling back to the U.S., we would all be back in our passport country and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. would be able to process our Chinese visa applications.
December 2020
Misty and Wayne receive visas from the Chinese Embassy.
Livia and Liam’s passports were returned without visas.
We learn that the issuance of visas to minors has been suspended.
At first Misty had agreed to journey to China on her own and take up her post at the school in Shanghai. I would stay back in Dallas with the kids and wait for the virus to dissipate and for China to allow minors in the country again.
January 2021
We made the heart wrenching decision to travel to Shanghai ahead of Livia and Liam.
Before this Misty had said on many occasions throughout our marriage that she could not split the family up no matter what life threw at us.
That is the problem with saying never.
We never thought we would live through a pandemic, we never thought we would live on three continents in three months, and we never thought we would have to make so many hard decisions.
Livia and Liam are staying in Dallas with their Nana and Papa.
February 2021
The 48 hours before our flight’s departure was nail-biting.
Misty and I had appointments at an approved testing site for both PCR and antibody tests; both test results needed to be negative to board the flight to Shanghai.
We submitted a series of documents online to the Chinese Embassy to apply for green go-ahead travel codes. It was critical that we crossed all t’s and dotted all i’s on each of the documents; a discrepancy between any of the documents could mean rescheduling flights and redoing PCR and antibody tests.
When we boarded the flight, we learned that the night before the flight 97 passengers were booked on the flight. However, only 36 of the 97 received green travel codes. Four of us were foreigners; all of us were educators.
Quarantine fun: From the airport in Shanghai, we were taken to a special government-run quarantine hotel.
We spent 14 days in a room, only interacting with doctors is full hazmat suits when they took our temperatures at 8am and 1pm each day. Our meals were placed outside the hotel door. The food was healthy, but lacked salt and spice.
During quarantine we learned the importance of maintaining a daily schedule and drinking a lot of water.
Then came the sweet breath of FREEDOM!
On our first day out of quarantine, we could certainly tell that our leg muscles were weak from the lack of movement within the quarantine hotel room.
March 2021
Misty began teaching at her new school.
I (Wayne) will help the school cover a grade 5 classroom.
There are still many questions yet to be answered and many answers that are unexpected.
This is part of the adventure we currently find ourselves in.
If the past 14 months have increased our patience, perseverance, and courage, the months ahead will continue to test us as people and international educators. It will also continue to test our industry. We are hopeful that the way ahead will be positive but will require ever-increasing doses of hope.
Uphill we climb, but at least we still climb.
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