OK then. Let's start with one of the recent hitters - H1N1 or swine flu. Luckily, none of the foreign teachers were Mexican because I heard they got expedited quickly out of the country (never can be too careful... apparently?). However, 2 of the teachers were asthmatic. But more about that in a minute.
The only "news" or announcement we teachers got were from the internet and occasional student reports. That's right, my students knew and always know, way more about events than any foreign teacher. So, students start disappearing from class. Keep in mind that we are also meant to keep attendance records. Conversation goes like this:
Teacher: "So, where are all the other students?"
Random Student: "Oh, they are in hospital. They aren't allowed to come to class."
Teacher: "Not allowed?"
Student: "Yeah, they have a cold and are being held and checked for H1N1."
No, notice... no, 'by the way' we are pulling students out of class to check them for that deadly flu that's going around... no, you can call this person if you get sick... nothing. My students were totally amazed that I didn't already know about the new H1N1 rules & procedures.
OK, skipping forward to flu season and our asthmatic teachers. One gets a flu. Some of the flus in a foreign country can really knock you around... but having asthma on top of that! She had an attack and knocked on another teacher's door and with more phone calls and a taxi ride it was off to hospital. There were 3 foreign teachers, 1 academic administrator (Chip-on-Shoulder) and 1 foreign department administrator (the Evil Queen). Attack gets treated eventually (they really don't like steroids in this country) and then they are talking of checking for H1N1. The Evil Queen gets impatient (and besides the teacher's better now, right?), "I'm going to go home now". Everyone is astounded, but what are you going to do? Chain her?
Chip-on-Shoulder, to her credit, stayed for quite a while and genuinely looked concerned. Later, all attending teachers were asked to take 1 week off classes because they may also have H1N1 seeing as they went to the hospital and all. No testing, just a week off you understand. Oh, and before you get any ideas, all classes should be made up on your own time, while pushing all room requests through the ever-incompetent Chip-on-Shoulder (who may not put the right thing into the "system" and blame you for her mistake).
Hospital Teacher recovers, everyone is relieved and teacher eventually makes it back to school about 3 weeks later. Academic staff give her the welcoming present of "You must make up all of your classes on your own time"... with room requests pushed through the incompetent Chip-on-Shoulder...
A lovely ending to a lovely story of the sharing, caring JXU.
