Away from home

Stay at home.

That’s the order.

It’s difficult for anyone.

Imagine being thousands of miles from home when that order goes into effect.

That was the situation for Jay County High School’s contingent of 13 exchange students.

“It’s hard because when you’re pretty much still a child … you still expect to be close to your parents and them to protect you,” said 16-year-old Alina Nikolaiets of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. “You’re in this situation and you just don’t know what to expect when you’re in another country and you’re basically by yourself.

“Of course you’re surrounded by people who want to help, but they also don’t know what to expect. It’s just really stressful.”

Much of that stress comes from uncertainty.

Some exchange programs have mandated their participants return to their home countries.

The U.S. State Department’s Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) and Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programs, through which Jay County’s exchange students came to the United States, have not made that move.

“This is obviously unprecedented,” said Chrissy Krieg, the JCHS exchange program coordinator. “Normally when the kids come over they have an arrival date and a departure date … they just stay until their departure date. But now that’s really kind of up in the air because the coronavirus is such an international issue. Their countries are dealing with it very differently.

“And then, the other issue is that borders are closing. So we have some kids who are from countries that are in areas that might be hard to get back to later.

“Most of the kids have really just wanted to stay. They don’t want to go back. They want to stay. And their families really want them to stay. They feel strongly that it’s best for them to be here. … But we’re starting to see a little bit of a shift in that.”

While the initial reaction for Jay County’s exchange students was to stay, the situation is ever-evolving.

On March 24, two had decided to depart. Two days later, that number was up to four. On Monday, it was six, with several more expecting to leave as soon as flights can be arranged.

Nikolaiets, who left Saturday, was the first to depart. For her, opportunity was the key.

The Ukrainian government offered its citizens who are in the United States a direct flight home — New York to Kyiv.

“Of course it feels great because we know that our country worries about us and cares about us,” said Nikolaiets, who lived in Jay County with host sister Mackynzie Fairchild and her family.

Still, it wasn’t an easy decision. She had less than a week between the time she said yes to the direct flight and her departure.

Family was the deciding factor.

“I just really wanted to see my family,” Nikolaiets said. “I know that my grandparents, they’re really old and they will not live forever, especially with this virus. I just don’t want to be on the other part of the world when something bad might happen, though knock on wood that it wouldn’t.”

Nikolaiets flew Saturday from Fort Wayne to New York and then from the Big Apple to Kyiv. Her home city of Zaporizhzhia is about 275 miles southeast of the capital.

“I really enjoyed just being in this country and just getting to know everybody here,” she said. “This was my dream almost all of my life. It’s upsetting to leave this country, but still, I really got to do a lot.”

Habet Mikayelyan of Mayisyan, Armenia, was the other of the first pair to decide to leave — his parents wanted him to be back with them — although he hasn’t departed yet. He had a flight scheduled but it was canceled.

That’s part of the challenge. In some cases, borders are closing and flights are sparse if they are available at all.

Juste Griskonyte of Kaunas, Lithuania, was planning to stay as of late last week. At that point, safety was driving her decision.

“It’s way more dangerous to transfer flights in the airport,” said Griskonyte, 17, whose host parents are Carol and Ed Gebert. “I would have at least four transfers. It’s way more dangerous to travel right now that to just stay here, sit, wait it out, just trust in everything that it will be OK.”

In the days since, that perspective has changed. Griskonyte is set to return to Lithuania on Thursday.

Ghida Emran of Maghar, Israel, leaves today, followed by Chema Pradigta of Bandung, Indonesia, and Griskonyte a day later and Gana Elseoudi of Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday.

Those staying put, so far, are Camelia Hodorogea of Chisinau, Moldova; Aisha Bashirova of Baku, Azerbaijan; Misaal Fatimah of Lahore, Pakistan; Omar Alhussein of Gaza, Palestine; Nayade Sabbagh of Akkar, Lebanon; Aidai Meirachova of Osh, Kyrgyzstan; and Amaan Shah, 17, Kashmir, India. But Krieg noted Monday night that any of them could be heading home if and when they can get flights arranged.

The status of the coronavirus pandemic in their countries vary.

Among the homes of Jay County’s exchange students, Israel has the highest percentage of confirmed cases at 490 per million according to data from the World Health Organization and CIA World Factbook. India is lowest at 0.82 cases per million. (For comparison, the United States is at 369 cases per million. Spain and Italy rank highest, both with more than 1,500 cases per million.)

Those facts are being weighed now. And the students, their host programs and their families must also consider what the picture may look like in a couple of months.

Meirachova’s original departure date for her exchange trip was mid-May, while most of the exchange students have departure dates in June. Depending on what the pandemic looks like both in the U.S. and around the world when those dates come along, it's possible that Jay County’s exchange students will end up extending their stays.

“There’s a real chance that we may not be in a good situation in May,” said Krieg. “So if that happens and kiddos are in a position where we can’t get them home safely either because the borders are closing or flights just won’t really get them there in a safe way, they could end up staying longer.”