Masks, Shields and Body Gowns

With the pandemic, everyone is cautious about flying; especially overseas. You’re trapped for hours breathing the same air as hundreds of others. What precautions should I take?  What will each airline require?  Will someone who sits next to me be positive?  These are things we worried about too.  In addition, we worried about the restrictions imposed on entry into our destination.  There were mounds of paperwork required by the airlines and India before we could fly.  This put us, as parents, on edge.  It was another layer of stress in our move.  

Our trip was a combination of three flights.  The first left in the morning from Salt Lake City headed to Dallas. We had to show passports, visas and the required paperwork.  As no one has been allowed into India, the airline wasn’t sure we could fly.  In fact at first the couldn’t find our tickets.  We had to produce papers saying we were approved for entry.  We sat at the counter for over an hour before we finally checked in our baggage.  The flight was full but non-eventful. There we had a short layover.  We got Subway sandwiches and hung out.  The next flight was on to London England.

We had purchased seats in this flight so Dennis had extra leg room. Being so tall on a long flight is miserable for him. His knees hit the seats and his head can’t reach the headrest. This flight wasn’t full so they allowed us to spread out. We landed in London at 1:30 am MST.  We all took a little snooze while we waited 5 hours for the last flight.  Up to now everything had gone well. As we weren’t able to purchase seats for this flight until 1 day before the flight, we missed the opportunity due to our earlier flights.  We stopped at a flight counter to get seat assignments but were told that the flight was full and we couldn’t be accommodated. 

Our flight was so far out that the gate wasn’t in the digital boards but we had been told it was in concourse C.  An hour before the flight, the boards updated to tell us to go to concourse A where we had originally flown in to.  Ugh!  International flights take longer to board as we had to produce our passports at each flight.  We quickly ran to the train terminal.  Perfect!  A train was just arriving.  Wait, there is a bag in the first train and no one with it.  Great?!?  We see it and wonder what will happen.  We aren’t getting in that section. Then the trains all go on lockdown while security clears them. We have to wait until it gets removed and they start the trains again.  Will we make it?  We don’t have time to walk there.

With 10 minutes to spare. As we entered the plane, we were given face shields to wear in addition to our masks.  They were both required for the flight.  It’s hard enough to sleep in a mask but add the shield and it was almost impossible.  As we sat in our seats, it was Liam, Emma and I.  Dennis was squished with the boys in the regular rows. This would be miserable for sure!  A flight attendant then told us that the middle passenger had to don a full body suit for the flight. What!?! It was a long sleeved gown. We about died. Since we were all members of a family, they let us skip that requirement. Thankfully the flight wasn’t full and as we prepared for takeoff we were allowed to spread out.  Emma and I sat in a row.  Nick and Dennis had rows to themselves.  Ben and Liam shared a row. Dennis had his own view of the situation below: 

“So I can’t say flying is my favorite thing. Anyone that knows me understands that getting into a plane seat for me is like trying to shove 10 lbs of ‘stuff’ into a 5 lb bag.  I mean really, when I have to climb out of small cars, my friends start the videos hoping to find YouTube gold.  At 6’ 8”, 260 lbs, plane seats are the equivalent of having that crazy, mean teacher from elementary school (come on, we all had one) pull your hair, ears and anything else she can get ahold of, nonstop for 10 hour chunks of time.  You might survive, but it’s not pretty.  Now, that the stage is set, add in the COVID precautions.”

“Please understand, I am not trying to downplay COVID-19.  It has affected some horribly, and I am not making light of that for those that have suffered, and my sincere condolences and heartfelt prayers go out to the families affected.  As companies try to figure out ways to protect us, however, it does create some interesting situations.”

“As we began to board our final flight from London to Bengaluru, we were informed that we had to wear face shields in addition to our masks the entire flight.  Now mind you, I know why, but it didn’t change the situation.  You now have 15 lbs crammed into a 5 lb sack with a full on face shield and mask. I sweat on good days, add a mask and a shield on a plane and I have my own personal rain forest. I mean, by the end of the flight, the sunflower seeds I dropped from the snack were sprouting out of my shirt.  That same sweat that is sprouting the seeds is making my shield slide down my bald, slick, shiny head.  Now let’s try to sleep.  Since I am too tall for the headrest to do me any good, every time I start to nod off, my head whips around like the Mike Ditka bobble head doll I won at the Idaho State Fair playing ring toss.  When Mike’s head bobbles, my industrial grade, meat cutter’s shield goes flying.  The poor passenger behind me probably has PTSD from dodging face shields all flight.  That thing would shoot off like a greased pig out of a chute.  Once I woke up fast enough to see it flying like a maple seed, helicoptering towards the guy across the aisle.  It was an awesome experience or at least, call it that.”

“Once again, I can’t really say I enjoy flying anyway, but with the mess we have going on right now, I think I’ll just sit the next one out.  I am sure my potential flight mates will appreciate that as well.  At least we made it, no one got sick, and I had a few sunflowers I could transplant into our yard.  What an experience, and for any of you wondering, my temperature is 96.7 degrees as confirmed by 5,327 temperature checks along the way, but that’s another story. ”  

When we arrived in Bengaluru, we had our temperature taken, presented information about our COVID status and cleared customs and immigration.  We thought we were out of there when Ben was stopped at immigration.  Before we left the US, we made contact with the Indian Consulate to make sure that we would be allowed entry.  As Dennis has an employment visa, we were told we could enter.  Ben was worried as we all stood behind the counter and he was stuck on the other side.  Dennis spent over an hour working with the immigration officials and in the end it was all sorted out.  The officials were courteous and did a good job of getting us through; it was just a tense situation especially for me as a mother!  I kept thinking, what were our options? We weren’t going to leave him there.  Would we all have to fly back?  Would they let him in?  Thankfully, everything was in order and they processed him through and we were on our way again.

Waiting outside the whole time was a 12 passenger bus we had rented to haul us, all our suitcases, and the items that had been purchased for us.  It was floor to ceiling stuffed.  The driver I’m sure thought he had gotten himself into something he didn’t want to.  We then drove 6 hours to Coimbatore arriving early evening.  The total trip went from Monday morning until Wednesday evening.  

With an eleven and half hour time change and 3 flights, we looked and felt rough.  When we got to our house, everything needed to be unloaded and some semblance of order established before we could go to bed. We had a meager dinner of cooked noodles with cut up tomatoes, mushrooms, and cucumbers seasoned in a packet of dry ranch powder.  Liam was so wiped that we could barely keep him awake for dinner.  This was the start to a crazy two week quarantine.