COVID-19 Maui Diaries - Day 1: Crisis Averted

Sep 28th, 2020
8:19PM Hawaii Time (2:19AM EST)

Under normal circumstances, having a trip to Hawai’i on the books would excite any reasonable person. However, this is 2020; “Normal” is obviously not part of the scheduled programming. As an organization that develops and implements projects on islands such as Hawai’i and even the more remote Palau and American Samoa, yet whose employees live on the East coast of the United States, logistics can be a bit tricky. While we can plan and communicate with our partners from afar, it is important that our team is on the ground surveying the land and getting our hands dirty. So, despite the many obstacles keeping us from traveling, we committed to a 2020 trip to Maui.

The months and weeks prior to the trip were stressful, because the island rules and restrictions were constantly evolving, clear answers hard to pin down. The Hawaiian islands were closed to visitors until late September, since the coronavirus pandemic officially struck. Finally, they started easing their travel ban, very carefully – and for good reason. Maui has relatively low cases while contagion in Oahu is surging, so even inter-island travel is sketchy. Our departure date kept getting pushed back, week after week, until finally we felt confident enough to buy tickets. Finally, we booked our flight: September 28th. It was official. Now we just needed the State, or at least Maui County, to approve us as Essential Workers so that we could accomplish the work we were traveling there for. We applied, we emailed, we filled out all of the forms; and our efforts paid off.

The State still requires a strict 2-week quarantine for all incoming passengers (they will track you and they have arrested people); but due to our work with agriculture wastewater, we were deemed Essential Workers with Limited Quarantine Exemption status – meaning that we could travel to and from our rental home and place(s) of business, and that’s it. Food and goods would have to be delivered to us; even a store visit is forbidden. Despite the restrictions, we are grateful for the ability to finally get on the island, start some new pilot projects, check on existing ones, and reinstate our commitment to the mission of reducing pollution to the precious Hawaiian reefs.

After 10+ hours of air travel, and several more spent in airports, we finally arrived at Kahului airport in Maui. It was empty until the passengers of our plane departed the aircraft, and we were then queued down a well-watched lane to speak with airport employees who donned both masks and plastic face shields. We were almost out of the airport, on our merry way to our Quarantine in Paradise; until Paul received a very poorly timed voicemail from our AirBNB host, saying that they were no longer comfortable with us staying there, on account of there being a $5,000 fine for COVID-19 violations by rental home owners. Obviously, they were fearful and uncertain of the consequences, generally untrusting of visitors (can you blame them?), and unfortunately, waited until the last minute to tell us. You know, just after we landed in Hawaii.

We instantly became alert to the potential consequences of this situation: all of our State-approved paperwork done up to this point may be in jeopardy, risking our legitimacy as Essential Workers, and potentially endangering ourselves or others by needing to change accommodations last minute to a more crowded hotel rather than an isolated cottage. Uh-oh.

I am happy to report that after some back-and-forth with the host, we convinced him to still let us stay at his cottage – and assured him that we had no intention of breaking quarantine and getting him fined. So we are settling into our humble abode, which we will become more than familiar with as the 2-week limited quarantine rolls on. Fortunately, we have several projects on the island to attend to; and when we are stuck at home, we have a guitar, three go pros (don’t ask), a jump rope, a yoga mat, and three extremely passionate, creative people. I’m confident we can entertain ourselves. Who knows; maybe we’ll solve world hunger while we’re at, too.