Yesterday at a meeting with the school doctor, we learned that the school would be taking some pretty amazing preventative measures to fight an H1N1 outbreak, in accordance with the Egyptian Government.
Here are some highlights.
-The school will no longer be using the central air system, because, you see, this is an airborn disease, and our classrooms need "fresh" air from the dessert. If I can't see the field through the haze most days, what does that say about the "fresh" Cairo air we are pumping into our classrooms? Not to mention the noise of the playground most of our windows open to, or the heat, or the bus exhaust from the 100+ buses that are left idling most of the day.
- the bus drivers and the guards at the front gate of the school will be yielding thermal detectors, and are not to let any student or teacher on the bus, nor any visitor in the school, who has a temperature higher than 37.5. When the resources become available, the school is hoping to add forehead thermometer readings to homeroom every morning. Yes, that does mean the kids will be checked twice in about an hour.
-the mandate wouldn't be complete without a nod to Egypt's social class system. In the elementary wing, there are what we call "blue people" (no joke, this is the technical term). They are typically from poorer Egyptian families, and are hired by the school to keep the proper ratio of foreign-local hires. When coming into contact with elementary students, they are to be wearing masks at all times, because, you see, they may take a drug that brings down their temperature but you won't know then if they have swine flu. The same logic is not applicable to foreign hires - no masks for them.
-and last but not least the most frustrating of them all (a government mandate, not the school). Every trip abroad must be followed by an 8 day "in country quarantine" before you can get back to work. SO, no one may leave for our six day break in November, and at Christmas we must be back in Egypt by January 2, not the 10th as originally planned. Incidentally, this has helped me get off the fence about going home for Christmas - not going to happen in two weeks.
As you can tell we're a bit frustrated with all of this, and it's a frustrating way to start the school year (should it actually start in three days ...). Perhaps another day will bring a more cheerful post.
you have GOT to be kidding me! this is CRAZY! I feel for you. Let's just say, I've had 3 kids absent in the last few weeks that may have come down with it. Nothing confirmed to me, but possibilities parents have told me. It takes a while to get the labs back and our school nurses asks that they are quarentined for 4 days. It's not as bad as people can make it sound. Just a different type of flu with a high fever and headaches but not throwing up.
ReplyDelete