I was teaching at a school in Morocco and half-way through the year they asked me to start teaching biology- but suddenly stated I could not teach evolution. They invited me to leave the school if I had a problem with that. As I had an ethical commitment to my students within my profession as a biology teacher, I took their offer. But the school never provided the legally-required visa and refused to give my final paycheck, and we were therefore forced to leave the country after 12 years with two weeks notice, with a subsequent loss of $7,000, from which we never recovered, which ate into all our savings.
Three years later, after visa extensions, a C-section, an operation, hospitalizations for Dengue and other maladies, and the Covid Life we all struggle with, we have become stranded in the Philippines without any financial cushion left. There is no insurance available, Delta is rising in the Philippines, ICU beds continue to fill up and Covid patients are now bedded in the street, crowds are risking Covid in order to get vaccinations before the extreme lockdown, and only 7% of the country is vaccinated simply because there isn't enough vaccine available – even Sinovac. Vaccines that are available are for those in the National Capital Region - which we are not in. We have no yard, there are no parks in our city, and children aren't legally allowed outside. Other than visits to the doctor, my children haven't really been out of the house in a year - so much so that my one-year-old had extreme social anxiety when we went to the mall to get his passport. In order to get vaccinated and provide a safe environment for our children, we urgently need to fly to the US where we can stay with my brother and a part-time position is waiting for me.
