So there's this thing here that's apparently all the rage. It's sweeping the school, even keeping kids from coming to school. Unfortunately, this thing is the swine flu. I've been to some meetings about it, gotten a large bottle of hand sanitizer, and instructed to send any kid with flu like symptoms to the doctor immediately... which is unfortunately quite a few. Yesterday 9 of my kids were missing, and over half of the 9th grade class has been out of school. With swine flu comes a mandatory 7 days of school missed. If a school has a reported case, the school has to be closed for 10 days. Word on the street is that there are cases at IST, but since these families are from upper classes, they are taking their kids to private clinics rather than public hospitals. They say that private clinics don't have to report cases to the Ministry of Health, but I'm not sure that that's a fact.
The other Christian bilingual school in Tegus has closed for the 2 weeks, and we all kind of know that there is swine flu at IST. There was a meeting today for the high school saying that the Health Department is coming to the school tonight to assess, but there's a good chance that tomorrow will be the last day of school. Now, we're not sure if this applies to elementary or if it's just high school, but we think that there's a few cases here in elementary, too.
I'll let you know what happens! If you feel comfortable, say a little prayer for swine flu... although I think that losing 2 weeks of school would make me have to start over completely with these little 6 year olds. In fact, I'm sure it would. Aaaaand, this is Honduras... :)
I 'll spend the night on my knees...hopefully not in front of the toilet.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Americans freaked out when it really wasn't a problem, and no longer care now that it is. At least, that's how I feel.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, didn't that guy from Harry Potter get swine flu? He's still alive. Too soon?
I think swine flu is also shutting down colleges over heah. Swine flu is the new black. Or, the new mono or menangitis.
I'm starting to see a re-energized freak out in the states now that school has started.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the pig people have managed to get the media to call it 'H1N1' instead of 'swine flu'... I think people would continue to eat bacon even if they thought it would make them sick. We know it gives us heart attacks and that hasn't stopped us yet.