Home from Kabul at long last: the nightmare is over
In only seven more days, the journalist Kathy Whitehead could be back home in Wilderness after a months-long struggle to be repatriated from Kabul, Afghanistan. She and her brother Allan Whitehead (66), who was visiting her when the world shut down, were on board a special flight that landed at Oliver Thambo Airport in Johannesburg last week. Having been stranded in Kabul since March, Kathy certainly knows the meaning of “lockdown”. She told George Herald on Tuesday that she is really glad to be back in South Africa. “I am fine and it is going much, much better.” They are currently serving out their 14-day quarantine at a hotel near the airport, together with the rest of the 115 people who were on the same flight. All of them had been stranded for months in different parts of the world. Kathy says the quarantine conditions are not bad.
They have to stay in their rooms and are allowed outside once a day for a 20-minute walk, wearing their masks and keeping social distancing. She enjoys the walks. “You can’t walk that much, but at least you get fresh air and sunshine.”
They also have access to WiFi and television and the staff/ nurses are friendly. She expects to be released from quarantine next Tuesday, 14 July, and has been offered a lift by friends who are going to Johannesburg to attend a funeral. With George Airport still closed, flying is out of the question. She said this is the last hurdle.
“I can’t wait to get back home in Wilderness.”
Kathy’s mother, Mavis, is a resident at the Tuiniqua Care Centre in George.