Javier Firpo
08/05/2021 12:20
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 08/05/2021 12:20
Since Valentina Romero and Iñaki Domínguez met and started dating, in 2017, they have been planning the trip to Spain.
They were saving "pesito por pesito, doing overtime" with Teutonic discipline and managed, after three years, to
buy two tickets for 2020
.
The main reason was to finish some citizenship procedures for the 25-year-old boy.
for her it meant air baptism,
the first adventure outside her native Mendoza
.
The postponement of the trip due to the pandemic opened the possibility of doing it last June "more because of an order from Iberia than for us, because
I was not in good health, but the airline summoned us and we ran the risk of losing the tickets
", says Valentina, a 22-year-old from Mendoza, accompanied by Iñaki, 25.
"It was my first plane trip, my first time leaving Mendoza, Argentina, I
imagined something else, not this real nightmare," he
insists.
Since January, Valentina's mental health has been altered by the drag on family problems and worsened by the unexpected death of her cousin Agustina.
Then, there were attacks of anxiety, panic, insomnia and a depressive state from which there was no escape.
Valentina Romero has been stranded for three weeks and without her psychiatric medication.
"Having a disease like mine is difficult to be calm outside."
Having hit rock bottom led to the consultation of a psychiatrist, who prescribed Valentina Neuryl (anxiolytic), Plidan (muscle relaxant) and Sertraline (antidepressant), one tablet of each per night.
"They helped me a lot to find peace and sleep. Those medications, prescribed, I brought to Spain
for the twenty days that we would be there
, between June 26 and July 16. I never imagined that I would not be able to return home. And it's been 20 days since
I stopped taking the medication from one day to the next and my head explodes
, I haven't slept for weeks. "
The young woman who carried out
desperate attempts to get some medication to calm his clinical picture "I even asked my psychiatrist for help, perhaps with a prescription from him and an explanation of the psychiatric treatment I'm doing I could buy, but nothing, impossible, in the pharmacies here there are no way to access those remedies, "Valentina collapses, saying that
He hardly eats and is in the grip of "a constant, unrelenting headache and neck."
Valentina's first communication with
Clarín
was at 23 hours in Argentina (4 in the morning in Spain).
"This is how I am every night, I manage to fall asleep when it dawns and I sleep two hours. I drag a physical and mental exhaustion that causes me great reluctance. I do not feel like doing anything, or walking, or walking, or going to the beach ... Neither I, nor my boyfriend, we are almost without money, we received some family help, we live in a little room on loan and
we feel abandoned, nobody cares about us
. "
Valentina Romero with Iñaki Domínguez.
that he is an engineer and urgently needs to get back to work.
"Getting a job in Mendoza would be very difficult."
Each stranded experiences its own implosion. With good reason, each one sees his problem as "the worst" and that does not look at what happens to the other. "They see us young, they think we are fucking, that we do not work, what do I know, nothing, we are half in the jungle, it is for himself who can. I am an employee in a hardware store, I hope to find the job when I return but Iñaki is an engineer mechatronic and works in oil wells. His employment situation is much more delicate than mine,
the company is putting pressure on us to return as soon as possible ...
You know how hard it is to find a job in Mendoza! "
When Valentina and Iñaki Iberia canceled their return for July 16 and there was no longer any economic margin to continue paying for a room in a hostel (60 euros),
"nothing itself appeared to us
,
" says
the engineer. he takes off from his girlfriend, "I even try to accompany her on awake nights."
What do we do now?
was the big question mark. "Luckily Lorena, an acquaintance from Mendoza, who lives in Valencia, opened the doors of her house to us, but 350 kilometers from where we were. Everything is money, imagine."
They calculated that in a week they would have the return solved, they did not measure the problem, but they have already been living in a room without a door or light for
almost three weeks
and the uncertainty is greater than before.
"We are grateful that Lorena and her three children have saved us by staying with us, but at this point one wants to be at home, especially when you have a disease like mine, which is unmanageable to me."
Valentina Romero.
"We travel from Madrid to Valencia because we have a friend who is hosting us for free. We are out of money."
Rice, noodles and some canned food prepared in different ways are the dishes that are repeated day after day.
"Being like this, half
pitying
, is very difficult to bear and thinking that we have no answers from Iberia or the consulate puts us in a corner. Today we are finding out
the possibility of returning by
private plane via Montevideo
with all the risks that that implies.
Why?
First, because that 'executive' flight has to be approved by the ANAC and then because we have to find other stranded to join. "
As
Clarín was
able to find out
, these private flights that arrive in Argentina from Asunción and Montevideo cost between
700 and 1,500 dollars
, depending on the number of passengers, because the flight is sold, not the seat. "We would be getting a brave stop, because they would lend us that money, but Iñaki's work situation is really pressing. If we get other passengers, and we have the authorization to enter Argentina, we will go."
The Mendoza couple will make the decision
this Friday, when the Decree of Necessity and Urgency expires
with the current restrictions imposed by the National Government. "We know that in Madrid Ambassador Ricardo Alfonsín attended a group of stranded people to whom he
promised that they will increase the quotas on the planes
but gradually. That day we will call Iberia and we will see what they will respond to us, but we will not return in October. or November ... Not crazy! ".
With a thread of voice product of the emotional stress that crushes her, Valentina does not want to look for guilty and remarks that she is not angry with the country or with the Government.
"I just want to go home. I
only ask the president to understand that a psychiatric illness like depression is not a shit
, that I am really having a very bad time, that I am very afraid, that all this has made me regress with my illness. I only ask the president to have compassion for me. "
MG
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"Don't forget about us": the anger and helplessness of Argentines who are still stranded abroad