Coronavirus: Exchange students stay in Argentina fearing safety in Australia
This Aussie thought it would be safer to weather out the COVID-19 storm in Argentina so she stayed put. And now it’s too late to leave.
As thousands of Australians heeded the call to “come home” amid the coronavirus pandemic, Sydney student Thanmaya Navada, 21, decided to do the exact opposite and stay put in Argentina for her year of exchange.
“Everyone is like ‘why would you?’” she told news.com.au. “But for me, I thought ‘what is safer?’ And at the time it was (safer) to stay in Argentina (than Australia).”
When she made the decision to stay, Argentina had just gone into lockdown with fewer than 100 cases of coronavirus, while in Australia no social-distancing measures had yet been taken.
Argentina is now in full lockdown with all travel grounded, and the last mercy flight to get Australians out of the country has been and gone.
But Miss Navada maintains she’s happy with her decision.
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honestly very glad i'm not in australia right now and have no plans of coming back any time soon https://t.co/Ty9VdnHKyp
— Thanmaya Navada (@thanmayan) March 20, 2020
ARGENTINA’S LOCKDOWN
As a fourth-year international studies student at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Miss Navada was set for the experience of a lifetime with her exchange program until COVID-19 came along.
But three weeks after starting at the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA) in the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires, the lockdown began.
“We got the ‘stay home’ order on March 7,” she said.
“By the time we were meant to start classes properly it had all gone online.”
UTS called her home a few days later.
“With the email we got from UTS, the wording was quite strong,” she explained.
“They ‘highly recommended’ that we return home.”
The Federal Government changed their travel advice in Argentina to “Do not travel”, and with travel bans being imposed by many countries across the world, tourists, exchange students and even permanent residents returned to their home countries.
But back in Argentina, “not all of us were on the same page”, and many were torn about whether to stay or go, according to Miss Navada.
Just two days ago, a rescue flight left Argentina to bring home more than 150 stranded Australians and 20 New Zealanders.
It is the fifth Qantas repatriation flight staffed by a volunteer crew. The 787 Dreamliner named Kookaburra landed in Melbourne at 7.30pm last night.
But Miss Navada is staying put and will see out this crisis in Argentina.
WHY STAY IN ARGENTINA?
“Going through 24 hours of travel through various international airports was one of the bigger worries for everyone,” Miss Navada said, fearing they would contract the virus on the way home.
In early March, Australia was in the peak of its panic-buying craze, and lockdown measures hadn’t yet been introduced.
“Argentina was so proactive,” Miss Navada said.
“When they announced the lockdown in Argentina we were just over 100 cases. Australia hadn't even been thinking of a lockdown at the time.
“People in Argentina had been taking precautions for a while, wearing masks and gloves.
“It’s a tradition in South America to kiss people on the cheek – but they’d stopped doing it (because of the virus).”
uts strongly recommended that we come home 3 weeks into our year long exchange because of covid-19, but truth is argentina has gone into lockdown with just over 100 cases and people have been self quarantining way before this was announced. we're so much safer here.
— Thanmaya Navada (@thanmayan) March 20, 2020
Panic buying was another reason to stay.
“That's one of the things I really noticed – there’s been no shortages of anything (in Argentina),” Miss Navada said.
“There hasn't been that level of panic buying we’ve seen in Australia.
“I live very close to about four supermarkets, lots of fruit and veg shops. We’ve been able to find everything we need.
“I assume in Argentina … not a lot of them have the disposable income to buy a month’s worth of food.”
She added with a laugh: “Some of the supermarkets here have an entire aisle of toilet paper.”
Miss Navada also had her family to think about.
“I have older family members who have asthma and other different things that would make them at risk if I came back,” she said.
“So I thought I should probably just stay put.”
Perhaps the biggest reason she stayed, however, was that she didn’t want to give up on her year abroad, having spent years saving up for it and studying hard.
“If I'm going to be stuck anywhere doing absolutely nothing, it might as well be somewhere exciting and different,” she said.
ARGENTINA’S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Miss Navada can see a huge downside to her decision — Argentina’s healthcare system.
“We got an email from UTS saying that Australia might be more dangerous right now but to think about the future,” she said.
She decided to stay, fully aware that Argentina’s healthcare system is not ideal.
Miss Navada’s roommate came down with flu-like symptoms, including a cough, just days after the lockdown started.
“She walked to the doctor’s,” Miss Navada said.
“It was hard for her to communicate on the phone in her broken English.
“They weren't able to see her as quickly as she would have hoped.”
After that, the Aussies made a pact with each other.
“We decided that if any of us get sick, don't hide it. Be honest with each other,” Miss Navada said.
She recognises that because they’re international students, they probably won’t be the highest priority in Argentina’s public health system.
The university has been sending frantic emails ever since.
“They’re essentially saying ‘let us know you’re alive’,” Miss Navada said.
“I guess now when you look at the graphs and stats, Australia is doing well now.”
But she’s still glad she stayed.
“So far so good,” she said.
WHO STAYED AND WHO LEFT?
“I'll be honest, most people have gone back,” Miss Navada said. “That messed with our heads.”
Miss Navada and five others from UTS decided to stay in Argentina. So did countless other Australians from different universities.
“Generally, the Europeans have stayed if they’re from Spain, Germany, France. They had absolutely no reason to go back at the time,” she said.
“My friend had two British roommates. They left pretty quickly.
“A bunch of Americans here flew back.”
She wonders what’s happened to them now.
“It’s hard to say, whether going back to that day I made the right decision, whether to stay or go back.
“But at the moment, I’m pretty happy with our decision.”
Have you stayed in a foreign country rather than return home? Continue the conversation alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
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