border visit, 8 march 2020

Sunday, March 8th 2020. Afternoon at Roxham Road, US. 
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A warm March day. It was busy at the border. When we arrived at 3.15 pm, the RCMP officer said that 25 people had crossed after 2pm that day.  While we were there 19 people also crossed: 11 adults (6 women and 5 men) and 8 children (6 boys and two girls). 

The first taxi came with two men in their late 30's - one man from Pakistan and the other from Nigeria. Both accepted gloves, hats and scarves. They crossed without incident into Canada.  Next came a taxi with a family from Columbia - mother, father and a boy about 14 years old. All of them looked stressed and since they only spoke Spanish they were at a disadvantage.  One of us was able to communicate in basic Spanish with them and they crossed over without difficulty.

Almost immediately another taxi brought a tall Sudanese woman with three small boys aged about 4 to 8 years old. They were all wearing surgical masks. The little boys looked very tired and it seemed they had been travelling along time. The boys took mittens and some hats. Speaking with the mother, we could see she was  very scared and when one of us asked if she wanted a hug she nodded and burst into tears during the hug.  After she calmed down she was able to go to the border with her children and cross over. We helped with the luggage.

Next up came a taxi with a single Sudanese woman and her baby ( two and a half months old) and a man from Sri Lanka.  Because there was no room in the taxi for her baby's stroller,  she had to wait for the next taxi to arrive with it. We talked for a bit. She told us she was from Khartoum and had travelled a long way to get here.  The man from Sri Lanka spoke very little English, but he waited for the taxi to arrive with the stroller so he could help the Sudanese woman with her luggage and baby.

A taxi then arrived bringing a Haitian family: mother, father, grandmother and a one year old girl who was carried by the grandmother. They had a lot of luggage that we were able to help them with.
They accepted some warm things.   Everyone crossed over without incident.

The last taxi came with a  Haitian woman and her two boys.  They also took some warm things and entered Canada without difficulty.

The RCMP officers respected the protocol.  Some but not all of the officers were wearing surgical masks.