For newly married couple, Ashley Austin and Josh Hoppe, teaching in the country of Kuwait was an adventure of a lifetime, that is until COVID-19 turned Kuwait upside down much like the rest of the world.

Both Austin and Hoppe are graduates of Brandon University’s Education program and are experiencing their first year of teaching in a suburb in Kuwait.  Their 2-year teaching commitment began last August, and now with travel restrictions and the closing of airports, the two want to return back to Canada to wait out the storm of the coronavirus.

Josh Hoppe hails from Brandon but spent his education practicum as a student teacher in Boissevain School.  Austin grew up in Dauphin and the two met while studying at Brandon U.

The two are residing in Hawally, which is a large city suburb and commercial center for most computer-related goods in Kuwait.  Their school is across the street from their living quarters.

With the scare of COVID-19 comes the scare of being stuck in Kuwait longer than they intended due to transportation challenges.  Restrictions include a 5pm to 4am curfew with dire consequences if caught out on the street during this time.

Hoppe tells us more:

“There are people who are getting out to get supplies before the curfew hours,” he explains. “So at 5:00 pm there is literally nobody on the streets.  But, at 4:45 or 4:30pm, if you want to go and grab something quick from a convenience store, you might see 20-30 people packed in a building that’s smaller than a hallway.”

“It’s a little crazy right before curfew and they actually want to change the curfew so that people can only go out for 3 hours a day, to get groceries and get supplies.  But, that’s concerning because you would only have 3 hours to do that but you might have thousands of people going out at the same time, which could cause the virus to spread.”

Hoppe says the many American ex-patriots who reside in Kuwait have first priority on flights out to return to the U.S.  Flights out are only scheduled when the Kuwait government wants to retrieve their own citizens from other countries, like England, Spain and the United States.

“We’re trying to find any option possible,” explains Hoppe, “but the Kuwait airport is shut down.  That was one of the things they put in place first. But, basically the only chance for us to get out of the country is to get on one of those flights.”

“But there are no flights going directly to Canada,” he adds.

Hoppe and Austin signed up with the ‘Canadians Abroad’ program. However, in this situation they haven’t received much direction, mostly because they are in a safer place than many other Canadians who are in desperate situations.

“They’re basically saying that we’re on our own, and I can certainly understand that because there are those Canadians who are in Peru and in situations where they are in a third-world country and there’s looting happening, and there’s violence happening.”

“In my current situation, I’m blessed that we’re safe, and there are no problems here in Kuwait,” he explains. “But, in all reality I do want to get home at some point and it’s worrisome to think that it might not be until the start of summer.”

“Our chances of getting home are getting slimmer and slimmer as more and more people get sick.  I think my only chance right now is to get on one of the ex-pat (ex-patriot) flights back to the States and then catching a connecting flight back to Toronto and Winnipeg.

Hoppe says there are other Canadians in much the same situation as they are, wanting to get home but not being a priority.  He adds there is quite a large number of Canadians in Kuwait, enough to bring some favorites from Canada to the country.

He shares some unique similarities between Canada and Kuwait: