One of those who are coming home by ship, cruise ship to be exact is DJ Linda Blease. She has been working on cruise ships for years now and took up her most recent contract with Celebrity Cruises in January. The gig should have lasted until July, but everything got backed up by COVID 19 - and she has been stuck on a cruise liner in quarantine for two months now.
We spoke to her via Zoom Conference call today as the ship she's on is making its repatriation route up the Central American Atlantic Coast:
For the past two months Linda Blease has had to take the long view…She's been stuck on a cruise ship - with nothing much to do other than stay in her room under quarantine and work on her crochet techniques and take solitary walks on the deck.
Linda Blease
"We are here off the coast of Costa Rica, drop home some people."
And she hopes that by Saturday it will be her turn, as she and about a dozen other Belizeans on her ship will get their chance to come home.
Linda Blease
"At this point is anything until I get home."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"This is the closest you've been to home in some time how does it feel because we still have that uncertainty here you know the repatriation forms just came out, so what's the feeling like for you guys?"
Linda Blease
"Honestly Jules right now for me, for me personally I can only talk about me. When I talk about the other Belizeans all I can say about them, they're just waiting and waiting patiently and trusting that the companies that we work for are looking out for us with the Press release thing, which we think they are because they've been looking out for us for the past two months and they've really gone above and beyond to try and keep spirits up. So me personally I'm just happy that now they're accepting us back to come home."
She's been under quarantine for two months but is aware of the pushback from some Belizeans who don't want travellers to return home:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"You know that you have some pushback from Belizeans like we don't have Covid, you all don't bring that here."
Linda Blease
"First of all I understand how they feel. Trust me all of us out here don't want to go home and infect not even one person, worse our families and friends. That is not the intention. Me personally happy that they choose to actually sail we home in our bubble. We don't touch regular society. My biggest fear in the instance that they were saying that they were looking to send us home when they still had flights and stuff. I got a little nervous, because I didn't want to fly nowhere to get in situation that I could have been contaminated. So right now I am happy that I have the least percentage of a chance to get any type of contamination, the way I see it in my side. I can't stop people from think how they think, they think how they want."
And what she's saying now is that they're coming home with live and gratitude
Linda Blease
"We care for you all and we are hoping to get back home."
Reporter
"50 years from now your grandchild ask you how did you pass the 2020 pandemic."
Linda Blease
"I will say on a cruise ship with some amazing people and I learn how to crochet better."
Blease is on the Rhapsody of the Seas and it's currently en route to PUERTO LIMON Costa Rica.
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