Day 0 | August 1st

6:06 am

Whew. Barely made my flight. Couldn’t check in using kiosk. Agent at check-in literally was trying to tell me I couldn’t fly to Antigua even after I pulled out my SKN passport for sis 🙃. After chatting with someone on the phone and me showing her my approval letter from Nevis she finally asked for my Covid test results. I then had to deal with reshuffling my 38 lb and 61 lb bags. I doh understand why she ain’t just combine the weight of the two and done. Oh and then I was charged $70 lol. Sanitized my seat in flight. No one across, in front or behind me.

Also, side note Delta gave out ziplock bags filled with two snacks, a water, and sanitizer. These will come in great during quarantine.

3pm

Antigua’s health screening before immigration honestly gave me major anxiety. I was literally like

They had us go through a health screening where we were asked to present a recent negative PCR test.That wasn’t the issue for me. The real issue for me was the amount of people who were in close proximity to each other. Because about three flights landed at the same time, there were a large number of people sitting and standing in the waiting area before presenting the required paperwork to the health official. That shit gave me so much anxiety. This was probably the most stressful and most anxiety driven part of my trip.

6pm

Cried seeing Nevis on arrival in air. The small 6 passenger Cessna took a group of returning nationals including myself to Nevis in 18 short minutes. It was a short and smooth ride over to paradise.

Day 1 | August 2nd

Caught up on work emails. No health check. Got second bag that I had to leave in Antigua since the plane was too small. Major thanks to Omel for keeping her promise. Got some more produce delivered including Soursop. I also got mango from my neighbor two doors down in quarantine. I ordered food using the local delivery app, CaribeEats, for the first time. Also have a migraine. Could it be from lack of eating? Did some work on blog tings.

Day 2 | August 3rd

Sore throat. Two more mangos. Got reprimanded by one of the guards for walking too far. In my defense, I didn’t know we couldn’t walk outside of the gate lol. Today was Emancipation Day or August Monday.

Day 3 | August 4th

Work. Sore throat. Work.

Day 4 | August 5th

More work. Feeling better. Nurse called. Casually mentioned sore throat. Called back in 20 mins. Get swabbed tomorrow. Current went. Generator.

Day 5 | August 6th

Got swabbed in AM. Cuban doctor. Practices spanish. Resident doctor knows Spanish went to school in Cuba. Good times. Sample sent to carpha lab in Barbados. 3-4 days for results. Will call with results. Obvi nervous and anxious. Overall good day. Level up and conchs water

Day 6 | August 7th

Work. Work. Weekendz conchs AND a pink ting. Opened with butter knife. Watched a Netflix movie. A trip to Jamaica. Realized the week has flew by faster than anticipated. More Spanish with nurse. Nurse checked in after I forgot to send vitals in am

Day 7 | August 8th

Discovered deck. Sunbathing. Did interview followed by spontaneous live with mas.iv.

Day 8 | August 9th

Cousins would joke about me and my hostel adventures but they prepared me for this adventure haha.

Day 9 | August 10th

Results came back negative. Sunbathing and exercise on deck during lunch break. Work. Felt productive and in a better mood with more energy. Tempted to order kfc from sk but no wedges so like what’s the point?

Day 10 | August 11th

Wow. What a day. Got caught up with work. Forgot to check morning vitals so nurse messaged asking if I was ok. I ordered lunch via CaribeEats at 12:07 and was told I had to wait for 5pm delivery LOL all I ordered was a salad and chicken fingers. I got so vex, I deleted app. Had to make impromptu lunch with cheese crossaint avocado and a boiled egg. V pissed off. Got a lot of work done. Really in a better mental state. Spoke to neighbor about US politics. Went to deck and got some sun.

Day 11 | August 12th

Monkeys like 12 in trees. Staring at me. Almost seemed like one was mocking my mask. Tilting heads watching me. Work. Higher productivity and overall energy. Still up at 2:56am. Got so much done for work. The positivity is helping with my productivity as I am doing better mentally. Redownload caribbeats. Salad and mahi mahi. Deck is def my fave place here. For sure. So grateful to be home.

Day 12 | August 13th

Nurse calls and says tomorrow testing at 8:30/9. Best believe I’ll be there at 8:15. Up to sun deck twice today. Breeze felt amazing and the ocean looks so refreshing and calm. Older folks this morning were in front of their doors getting fresh air and anxious as the days wind down. St kitts looks so close but yet so far 😩 WhatsApp nurse in Spanish and English asking if I would be test tomorrow after sending vitals. She says 8:30/9. Best believe I’ll be there at 8:15 haha. Cleaned up room. Worked. Work email now at 3. Yay me. So productive. Up at 3:56pm. Why? Someone created a burner impersonation acct of me on ig with an underscore at the end. How creepy. Anyways. Used my detective skills. They’re masking up address with one from ashburn via under amazon internet. Ig acct registered under an Indonesian number. How weird. Anyways. Hoping that I get to leave tomorrow, well I guess I mean later today lol.

Day 13 | August 14th

Slept for an hour and change. First to get tested around 8:45am. Spent whole day hoping to hear back. Nothing. Maybe tomorrow in time for papa’s bday. Cleaned up. Packed and ready to goooo.

Day 14 | August 15th

Still here at 10:06am. Anxiously waiting. I may end up calling the lab myself. It’s time to goooo.

3:39pm FREEDOM. And just in time to surprise my grandfather for his 85th birthday.

My overall experience

Ok so here’s my honest opinion and feels on my overall experience. I want to be transparent and honest as to why I decided to come to Nevis. I was honestly not my best self mentally while I was in New York. I felt completely unproductive and struggled to get simple daily tasks done. More importantly, I did not feel like myself. I barely ate because I felt so depressed to the point that I lost 30 lbs. I weighed in at 217 lbs at a doctor’s appointment in late February and by the time July came around, I was already down to 185 lbs. And if you know me, you know I love food. There would be days when I literally questioned it all as I stared hopelessly out the window. When I got to Nevis, my grandfather admitted that he was actually worried about me because he could see how sad I looked when we FaceTimed. Oh and by the way, he wasn’t surprised to see me. He said he expected that I would decide to “pop in” at some point and also someone asked him THE DAY I ARRIVED if his granddaughter is here so he figured it was me. So there was that …

I say all of the above to be completely transparent and share some true feels with y’all. I realized how much more productive I became, especially work wise, when the tasks on my checklist were checked off a lot quicker than it had been taking me before. My work inbox is finally all cleared, something that probably wouldn’t have been possible previously given my former state of mind.

If for any reason you find yourself feeling how I previously felt, please seek help from family and friends. Facetiming with family throughout the day is literally what got me through my toughest days. If this isn’t an option to you, here are some resources that may be beneficial to you;

Crisis Textline – Text HOME to 741741

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1 (800) 273-8255

Lifeline Chat – https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/

I want to publicly thank all of the frontline workers who make repatriation possible. Dr. Nisbett has been responsive to my emails since day one and has always been pleasant. Nurse Mintos checked in on me daily. I would send her my vitals twice a day. Call me extra but I made sure to bring a blood pressure machine, oximeter, and a thermometer to monitor myself.

If I was running late with my morning or evening vitals, she would check in on me. I also met a Cuban doctor who is on the team. Honestly find it so extraordinarily selfless of the Cuba people to always and forever be a good neighbor.

Alright folks, that was my quarantine experience in a nutshell.

Much love,

Disclaimer: I have dual-citizenship and I am a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The majority of my family (namely my mom) are in Nevis. Under the current SOE (State of Emergency) protocols, repatriated citizens and residents of the federation must provide a negative PCR Covid-19 test as well as complete a 14-day quarantine at a government-designated facility. At the completion of one’s quarantine period, you are tested again on day 14. You are only released from quarantine if your test result comes back negative.