When Bruce and Sonja Nisley set out from Powell in May to cycle across America, they expected some detours along the way. They recently paused their trip for a month, parked their bikes in South Carolina and boarded a flight to the Bahamas to serve at a field hospital for COVID-19 patients.

“We received a notice that Samaritan’s Purse was looking for medical personnel that would be willing to go to the Bahamas to help with the COVID crisis it was experiencing,” Sonja wrote on the couple’s blog. “We said we could go right away and were so excited when we received the call that they would send us.”

Both Bruce and Sonja previously worked as nurses at Powell Valley Healthcare, and they’re thankful to use their medical training to help others.

Samaritan’s Purse opened a field hospital at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau on Oct. 19, and the Nisleys have worked daily shifts from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“We treated and released about 40 patients out of the ward,” Bruce said.

Samaritan’s Purse has since turned its operations over to the hospital, which was the ultimate goal, Sonja said.

“Their COVID numbers have really decreased,” Bruce said. “We really came right at the peak, and since that time, it’s been declining, so that’s been a good thing.”

Empowering lessons

While the couple started out caring for COVID patients, Bruce also drew upon his past experience as an instructor — including at Northwest College — to teach Bahamian medical staff.

“Once they realized that Bruce was a teacher at heart, he got asked to be on the IPC [Infection Prevention Control] team,” Sonja said. He and other nurses “have taught over 1,100 employees about how to protect themselves and how to protect patients.”

Some medical workers didn’t have training in personal protective equipment (PPE) procedures during the pandemic and would wear it from one patient to the next, then go down the hallway and wear it home, she said.

“They talk about how afraid they have been until now that they understand it,” Sonja said. “It’s so empowering — they feel like they know what they can do to protect their families. They’ve just been very, very grateful.”

Bruce spent two weeks as a nurse and about two weeks as an educator, teaching the same lecture three times a day, seven days a week.

The classes have been an important part of the Nisleys’ time there. Sonja said when the Samaritan’s Purse team looks back “on why God brought us [to the Bahamas], I think it was more the education piece than the actual nursing care piece.”

This is the second time this year Sonja has served with a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) through Samaritan’s Purse; she cared for COVID-19 patients in a field hospital in Central Park during the New York City outbreak in the spring.

“In New York, it was really intense nursing, so it was long hours and it was more critical patients,” Sonja said. In the Bahamas, “the hours are long, but it’s not as intense.”

While they do have patients in the ICU, there aren’t as many.

“Most of who we’re seeing down here get better and go home,” she said.

She isn’t sure why they’re not seeing the severity of illness in the Bahamas that they saw in New York.

“New York was unique,” Bruce said. “I mean, everybody kind of says that the outbreak in New York was certainly more critical for so many people. I don’t know if it was a different strain of virus or if the viral load was greater — I don’t think anyone has a great answer on that.”

Island on lockdown

Just as Sonja saw New York City during the shutdown when Times Square was deserted, the couple has now seen the Bahamas without any tourists.

“The beaches are closed, the stores are closed — everything,” Bruce said.

Samaritan’s Purse team members are the only ones staying in an all-inclusive hotel.

“It’s very nice, but it’s like the apocalypse,” Sonja said.

Sand has blown over stairs, the pristine beach is covered with seaweed and there’s not another soul in sight on the streets.

“We’ll have to come back someday when it’s open again,” Sonja said, adding, “This is not like how you’d think of the Bahamas.”

The couple has enjoyed the “great people” they’ve met and served alongside.

“Bahamian people are kind people, really friendly, and so that’s been really fun, too,” Bruce said.

They’re also thankful this detour on their cycling trip came when it did.

If the Nisleys had been in Florida in early November — as they had planned — they would have been caught in hurricane-force winds and rain.

“We’re pretty amazed at how God works things out,” Sonja said.

In a rare November landfall, Tropical Storm Eta slammed into the Sunshine State earlier this week. The couple saw Eta’s effects from the safety of the hospital and hotel.

“It’s coming straight for the Bahamas, but it looks like we’re going to get just the edges of it,” Sonja said Sunday. “But we’ve been kind of watching it and wondering.”

Throughout their journey across America and time abroad, “God’s just protected us,” Bruce said.

As the couple gets ready to leave the Bahamas this week, they’re ready to get back on their bikes.

“We’re really excited to get back to cycling again,” Bruce said.

The Nisleys plan to cycle the perimeter of the United States.

“The ocean is mesmerizing, and we are just loving the idea of doing perimeter,” Sonja said. “We just get to constantly see the shoreline — from Maine or the rocky coast to New Jersey and now down to Key West.”

While the couple often did 80-mile days early on, they usually average between 50 to 70 miles, as they enjoy stopping along the coast.

“Every afternoon we try to find a place on the beach and set up our chairs and eat lunch and just watch the waves,” Sonja said. “We spend a lot of time just enjoying.”

They hope to be in California sometime in the spring, but they’re open to joining another Disaster Assistance Response Team, if the call comes.

The couple started a blog where people can follow along with their cycling trip at http://theroadlesscycled.com. Their website also features a map, which tracks their progress with a black line — from Wyoming to South Carolina so far.

“We can’t wait to make that little squiggly black line keep going,” Sonja said. “It’s been sitting in the same place for quite a while now … we’re excited about what’s ahead of us.”