Allison Parratt and her family were supposed to be on a plane headed back to her home province in China this week.
Fate, or rather COVID-19, had other plans for the Gander native.
Parratt had been hunkering down with members of her extended family in Australia since the virus hit China in full months ago.
For the first time since the COVID-19 virus shut down the country as officials sought to contain the outbreak, the Chinese government reported no new locally transmitted cases this week.
There was hope life could get back to normal in that part of the world.
Countries on her side of the world were shutting down their borders to international travel, making it difficult to fly as a byproduct.
"We will get there when we get there but safety for our family is number one at this point in time," said Parratt. "My only advice for everyone is stay at home, lose the ‘it can’t happen to me/us mentality’ and do what’s right for the community."
They were on a holiday in Malaysia when the COVID-19 virus shut down much of China and subsequently redirected themselves to Australia.
The Gander native, who teaches in that country, was originally told the school would be closed for a week. It is been eight weeks since then, but there are signs Parratt may be back in front of her students at the Suzhou Singapore International School in Jiangsu province as early as next week.
During the extended time away from her home, Parratt has been teaching her students remotely from her temporary residence.
“We decided that it was best to stay out of China as the uncertainty was unsettling. We are now in Australia visiting with family now that COVID-19 has become a pandemic,” Parratt told Central Voice via email.
While her adopted home is presumably on the other side of the pandemic, Parratt’s hometown is just getting started.
It has been a week since Gander and the rest of the province started enacting measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. Many of those towns, Gander included, have suspended access to their municipal buildings and have closed council meetings to the public.
“One of the hardest things during uncertain times is being away from family, whether you are on the other side of the world or not,” said Parratt. "I am fortunate to have a really supportive family in Newfoundland and I am also very fortunate that I married into a supportive family in Australia. All we want for each other is to be safe and healthy and, at the moment, we need to minimize our travel as much as possible.”
It wasn’t that long ago Parratt would have been using her position as a teacher to inform her students on things like water usage, food waste, energy conservation and ways to reduce carbon footprint.
She’s helped as students planted a pair of herb and vegetable gardens in school fields, explored the amount of waste in the community and helped facilitate the removal of paper cups in their classrooms and canteens.
There have also been tree planting trips Shanghai Roots and Shoots’ Million Tree Project that students have participated in.
It is part of the reason Parratt was one of three teachers out of 150 schools in the Shanghai region to be awarded the Outstanding Mentor Award. She was presented with the award at the Shanghai Roots and Shoots 20th anniversary in October 2019.
“I feel that the education of our youth and the willingness to help guide their curiosity and interests in the form of service to either animal, people and/or the environment is the most important thing,” she said. “Our world is changing and we need to support each other to make it a better place.”
