AMAZING & RIDICULOUS
Yesterday I returned home from the most amazing and ridiculous trip to the UK. Amazing because I realised how important it is to focus on the FULL part of the cup. Meeting people in person for the first time, after only seeing each other over zoom and video calls was amazing. We take for granted the impact direct personal contact makes on each of us. Closeness, touching, and feeling another person are paramount to good health. When you feel snowed under or pressured, the body releases the stress hormone cortisol. One of the biggest things touch can do is reduce such stress, allowing the immune system to work the way it should. Skin-to-skin contact is vital not only for mental and emotional health but for physical health, too. For me, the impact was instant. Seeing my friends Kat Lindley, Conell Loggenberg, Rob Verkerk, Meleni Aldrige, Mark Trozzi and Emma Brierly left me in tears. I was so emotional, happy tears, big smiles, and much need endorphin rush left me feeling invigorated.
5 days of meetings, sharing information, discussing strategies for a wholesome and brighter future while shopping, eating laughing, and just living. The personal interaction made the progress so much more efficient and effective. Never will I ever presume that the same can be achieved via video calls and zoom meetings.
The ridiculousness started as soon as my journey back commenced. I was not allowed to check in for my Qatar airways flight at Heathrow International Airport without proof of a negative PCR test. This is a requirement for entry into South Africa as I am C-19 vaccine free. They offered PCR tests at the airport, but the wait time for results is 4hrs and my flight was in 3hrs. When booking my flights, all I was told is that I have to adhere to covid-19 travel protocols. To my understanding, I had to present a negative PCR test to be allowed into South Africa. "What if the test is positive?", asked the lady at the check-in counter. "What if the vaccinated person sitting next to me has covid? " I replied. She admitted that it didn't make sense, shrugged her shoulders, and added "It's the rules."
I was issued boarding passes through to Durban once I showed her the report. She didn't bother to check who did the test, where the test was done, what date the test was done, or who emailed me the test. She confirmed that it was my name on the report and that the test was negative. All I can say about this is that she should have checked…
Our flight from London to Doha was delayed by 90 minutes. We sat together, with no masks or social distancing at the gate waiting to board. As we entered the airplane, those of us that had no masks were issued with 3-ply masks before boarding. Most of us promptly removed our masks as soon as we got seated. I was never requested to put my mask on, on any flight, going or coming, even though this is a requirement of Qatar Airways.
I and 15 other passengers missed our connecting flight to Johannesburg. Double and triple jabbed South Africans (who were jabbed in SA) and myself with a negative PCR test (from the UK) were not allowed to leave the airport. But the guy with a wet cough sitting behind me, coughing the entire trip, was fine to move about freely because he was jabbed under the NHS system. We were compensated with meal vouchers and an apology. Others got hotel vouchers and airport transfers. Turnes out that being stuck at the airport for 16hrs can make you new friends. Jason, Justin, Debbie, Jay, and her mum were great company. We exchanged numbers and will keep in touch.
Despite most of the staff understanding that the regulations and rules made no sense, they had to follow them because it was "their job" to do so. Airlines, like all other big companies, hide behind loopholes to accommodate the narrative because it is in their best interest to do so. South Africans and Africans as a whole are still treated as second-rate citizens and yet Africa is the first place the world turns to when looking for guinea pigs for any experimentation.
For once, the complacency of Africans has not worked in the favour of the powers that be. We are the least vaccinated continent with the lowest covid-19 mortality rate as well as the lowest jab side effects stats. Africa will save the world – we just have to be alive to the ridiculousness and NonScience around us. See it for what it is, expose it and work with like-minded people to build our own, wholesome and better world.