We just spent several weeks in Canada. It was almost surreal to be back home, after having travelled for nine months around Mexico and El Salvador. We flew from Puerto Vallarta to Vancouver, B.C. at the end of July in order to be part of Tom’s sister’s wedding. We were thankful that the mandates for flying out of Canada had been lifted, or we wouldn’t have returned.
But that didn’t mean we were free to come and go without some added issues. First we had to take an antigen test in Mexico. Fair enough. It was quite unpleasant though (especially for the girls), as the nurse wanted to prod our noses much higher than expected. But we were free to go when all five of our tests came back negative. At least for now…
In the weeks before flying, we had read a lot of stories online about Canadians who’d returned home, and were then getting calls almost daily, and receiving regular visits from health enforcement personnel during their “required 14-day quarantine.” This extra surveillance was due to downloading the Arrivecan app— used by the government of Canada to ensure that the “un-jabbed” stay home for 14 days after their return, symptoms or not. They also require the “un-jabbed” to take another THREE Covid tests within the first eight days of arriving home. For “fully-jabbed” on the other hand, they have no requirements, and even if they did have Covid, they could roam freely after just five days.
But we had seen some stories online of Canadians refusing to use the controversial app, who were slapped with fines for their choice. And we also read some stories of others who hadn’t used the app and weren’t fined at all. We decided to join their ranks and stand against what we considered to be a punishment for the unvaccinated. We were confident we were making the right choice by taking a stand against the discriminatory policies. It was a bit nerve-wracking though, especially when we were met with a harsh border services officer, who took our passports and led us straight to the Public Health lady who had an RCMP officer standing nearby.
I’m so proud of my hubby for staying strong. I was mostly just tired and cranky. So I let him talk and I prayed…and recorded him. When asked why we didn’t do Arrivecan, Tom said,
“We completely disagree with what’s happening in Canada, and the fact that Canadians are being discriminated against. Every developed nation in the world has dropped this. You don’t have to do this in Europe—there’s no quarantine. The United States, Australia, and New Zealand no longer treat their citizens like this. So it’s irrational. I can’t teach my kids to follow rules that don’t make any sense…”
Refusing to use the Arrivecan app meant we had to wait an extra hour while they wrote up the fines—not too bad, except that this happened to be at midnight. At one point in the midst of our interrogation, our oldest daughter asked Tom, “Daddy, are you going to have to go to jail?” Within an hour of returning to Canada, Tom and I were already questioning our choice to come back.
We were slapped with nearly $12,000 in fines. Simultaneously they handed us the dispute forms. Without missing a beat, we filled those out the very next morning and sent them away. Now we are waiting to hear when our court date will be for our noncompliance. We have no regrets for not complying with the irrational quarantine rules and instead standing for freedom.
A few weeks ago, my mother-in-law and I had just taken the kids to the library, and I needed to grab a couple things at the grocery store. I walked into the Save-On-Foods and immediately heard a woman announce over the loudspeaker, “Anyone with first aid training, please come to checkout three.”
I dropped my basket and hurried over. A large hand was clutched tightly to a shopping cart, which blocked me from accessing whoever was sitting on the floor on the other side. A very concerned older woman leaning over, informed me, “My husband has dementia. He just told me he needed to sit down—and then he collapsed!”
I took his hand off the shopping cart and moved it out of the way. Now I could see him sitting on the floor, his eyes open. Then three of us helped him stand, as I asked him his name. He was able to tell me. He then walked a few steps with some help, but his wife was concerned at how pale he was.
Someone working there brought over a wheelchair and we helped him sit down. He was still very pale, almost yellowish, but his pulse was regular, and was able to answer simple questions. His wife called 911 and thanked me profusely, although I felt like I hadn’t done much. I told her I was happy to help, and wished them well.
The ironic thing I realized later was that no one asked me my vaccine status in the midst of the “crisis.” Nor was I concerned about theirs. Why would anyone care in an emergency? And I thought about how a person would not be worried about something like vaccine status if they were in a burning building and a firefighter was climbing through the window to rescue them. Or if a woman being attacked on the street was yelling for help, would she care if the policeman was jabbed or not?
We are returning to El Salvador now—no longer as tourists, but this time to live for awhile, and applying for residency. This is a war-torn country that is making many changes for the better. It has gone from being the country in Central America with the highest crime rate, to having one of the lowest crime rates now. We’ve left a country run by a leader who seems to be doing the opposite—letting violent criminals out of jail, while imprisoning peaceful protestors and freezing their bank accounts.
He has vilified good, hardworking people for wanting to preserve their bodily autonomy. And in doing so, he has caused major rifts amongst families, friends, coworkers, etc. This has caused unimaginable grief to millions of Canadians. It’s been incredibly hard to watch our country go downhill in the last few years with all the lockdowns, mandates, and the firing of many thousands of well-trained workers.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time back home. We had many wonderful visits with good friends and spent our days reconnecting with the people we love the most. The wedding was a beautiful expression of love, and we are so thankful to have been part of it. The girls were so excited to be the flower girls, and for the three of them it was their first wedding experience. We all danced together into the night. 💕
But in talking with lots of our friends and family, there is so much uncertainty and distrust now, after what’s happened these past couple years. It’s hard to fathom how they so recently treated so many good people with such blatant discrimination. And that in a place that was considered to be “the best country on earth” to live…up until fairly recently.
We’ll be spending over half the year here in El Salvador in order to get permanent residency in a few years. There are lots of challenges we’re taking on by making this decision, but we’re excited. Many Americans, Canadians, Australians, and Europeans have come here because of the amazing changes happening here. There are also many Salvadorians who left years ago and are now coming back to visit or live here due to the positive changes they see happening. The president, Nayib Bukele, says that he envisions El Salvador as being the “Singapore of Central America.” Last year he made Bitcoin legal tender, which has attracted a lot of attention around the world. His party is called “Nuevas Ideas” which translates “new ideas.” They want to try new things, because what was being done before obviously wasn’t working.
All of us ex-pats here are starting a new life, a life where we may have to work hard to build some things from the ground up, but that can be a beautiful thing.
I’ve been pondering how depending on your world view, your moral stance, or whatever most influences your perspective, you probably think one of two ways about what we’re doing. It might seem to you that what our family is doing is amazing—or you might think it is borderline insane. And I get it, because sometimes I have to remind myself of the reasons we’re here.
In the past, I spent a lot of time and energy worrying about what people thought of me. This is a quote I’ve heard for most of my life, but it’s only recently become more meaningful to me:
“If you try to please everyone, you won’t please anyone.”
I’m happy to say, it’s a work in progress—not worrying about what people think too much. Right now this blog is a big part of that. It gets me out of my “comfort zone” and helps me think about how to express what’s going on around me and in my mind and spirit.
Thank you to all of you amazing and supportive friends and family…and even to readers whom I’ve never met. Your encouragement and feedback help me so much! I will attempt to put into words what’s happening here and what we’re learning along the way.
For now each day is a new adventure 💜
Thank you for writing this. I will be visiting El Salvador this Nov! I like to see what's happening in my own eyes!
I’m really excited to continue reading about your experiences! I’m grateful for people like you and your husband who stood their ground and stood for what you both believed in. Imagine a world where people didn’t stand up for themselves? I’m afraid we might be getting closer and closer to that world. Keep fighting the good fight! Which is following your beliefs :)