Down with disease

Me: Good morning.

Kaitlyn: Good morning [looking at her phone]. I got another message from home asking if we are okay.Me: Have you looked at the news today?Kaitlyn: I have. It just keeps talking about the problem in Wuhan, and now most every New Year celebration in China has been cancelled. 

 The shared look of disbelief was not the first between Kaitlyn and I. As our trip progressed it became clearer by the day, sometimes by the hour, that something eerie was happening. Initially, we had been celebrating simply making it to Urumqi-a major metropolitan area of 3.5 million and the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of China with good health and all of our gear. Our reason for being there was to film a story speaking to the historical and cultural roots of skiing, which many scholars and historical research point to origins emanating from Central Asia, and some more specifically to the Altai Range where we would be traveling to from Urumqi. From friends who had either lived in China, or spent significant time in the country, I thought I was mentally prepared for the general chaos of the country. Little did I know how close our group would actually get to Covid-19 ground zero, and that at one point we would potentially get stuck in a village in one of the most remote regions of the world.