So close, and yet so far

Rachel Perkins and Nkosinathi "Nathi" Gama, live half a world apart, Perkins in Chicago, Gama in the Kingdom of eSwatini, a small nation in southern Africa that many Americans still know by its former name, Swaziland.

Perkins, a second-year seminarian at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, was expecting to pick up Gama, her boyfriend, at O'Hare International Airport Saturday, a joyous Thanksgiving reunion after months apart.

Then everything went horribly wrong.

Now, the two are back to living 14,000 miles apart with no idea when they will be able to visit together.

Saturday, Perkins, her parents, Terry and Karin Perkins of Janesville, Wis., and another seminarian, doctoral student Rev. Francisco Herrera, went to the airport to pick up Gama, the first person she met in country during her volunteer Young Adults in Global Mission year in Swaziland with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America from August 2018 to July 2019.

As soon as her YAGM year was up, Perkins returned to the States and prepared to start seminary. She started her second year at LSTC in September.

On Friday, Perkins asked her seminary community to pray for Gama's safe travel and for the customs process to go smoothly.

Travel went safely, she said, but the customs process, not so well.

Gama, the only black man, was pulled out of line by several white Transportation Security Administration agents, Perkins said. His phone was taken from him and searched. His visitor visa was confiscated.

After several hours of questioning and waiting at the airport, and faced with handing over his visa voluntarily or be banned from the United States for five years, Gama turned in the visa and he was not allowed to enter the country. He was put back on a plane to Johannesburg, South Africa.

"He arrived Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and was on a flight back by 7 p.m.," Perkins said.

Perkins said she has been able to confirm he arrived back in South Africa after his four straight days of traveling. He will stay there until Wednesday, she said, when he will travel back to eSwatini.

"We are all heartbroken," Perkins said. "We all love him. He is our family."

Herrera said the TSA agents said Gama had the wrong kind of visa — a visitor's visa rather than a fiancé visa. But Perkins said the visitor's visa was appropriate. 

"He was not going to stay here. He was going back ... he had all the proof that he was going back." she said.

Herrera believes the episode was politically and/or racially motivated. Gama was the only black individual in the line, he said. Herrera added that the TSA agents were talking openly about their support for President Donald Trump and election fraud. 

The Thanksgiving break should have been a break from studies, from stress, a chance to catch up after months of separation.  Perkins admitted Monday morning she had gotten no sleep since Saturday. She preached at United in Faith Lutheran Church on Irving Park Road Sunday.

She said Thanksgiving break and the weeks to follow will be filled with calls and communication with every agency she can think to enlist.

Herrera, who has already worked on several similar situations, is reaching out, trying to help Perkins by advocating for legal assistance and people to support them financially. Getting Gama here took all the resources the pair had, he said.

Perkins is upset, but determined to do everything she can to get Nathi here for a visit, so he can meet her family and seminary colleagues, see her part of the world, and know the work she is doing to become an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Her update on Facebook Sunday showed a picture of the pair kissing in a better time, along with this message for him: "I will never stop fighting for us. You are my WORLD, Nkosinathi."

Edit, Nov. 25, 2020: A fundraising site for replacement airline tickets, a replacement visa and other resultant expenses is now located at https://fundly.com/love-for-rachel-and-nathi. Please help if you are able -- many small contributions will easily cover these expenses.