Well, I hope I don't look back on this post and become horrified at my flippancy, but for a couple who have lived through the SARS scare in Asia, the coronavirus emergency just seems a tad overblown. Don't get me wrong, I'm saddened and concerned that people have lost their lives and have become very sick, but the protocols that are now in place in Taiwan seem to be cautious at best and overzealous at worst. This country doesn't need this....they're beating it!
In 2003, we were rounded up like cattle, placed in a lock-down at school, and told to go home and self-quarantine for a week. We were "not to pass 'Go'", not to collect any supplies, just go home and wait for instructions. Of course, people were breaking quarantine left, right and centre or they wouldn't have been able to survive. Following that and a send home to Australia, we had to make up the "learning gap" later and endured revised scheduling, online learning and extended days for months: I'm not sure if it helped or hindered the kids' learning in the end.
Today, we were informed that we are not to go back to regular school days until February 25th. We (the teachers) can go to the campus for meetings, resources, work environment etc, but no kids will be present. We're tasked with modifying the curriculum to online learning methods and all our lessons and feedback will be in this style. So, we'll be busy, probably busier than in a normal working environment. Those students or members of their families who have traveled to China for the CNY break will be required to self-quarantine at home for 14 days after they return from the mainland.
The situation is fluid: we'll be receiving updates from our divisional principals on the latest protocols and receiving directives from them as to how much (quantity) and how complex (rigour) will be the materials and requirements we send to students. Cass and I met with Todd today to decide on the start of some of these things....we have to wait and see, play it by ear and continue grading the poems I mentioned last week (of which we've made some inroads, but perhaps not as great as we'd wished!)
Until now, we've enjoyed the most blissful of breaks and really managed to re-charge our batteries. We've (well, Cassy mainly!) taken to our mini-cleanup with some gusto and it has been methodical and time consuming but also satisfying and cathartic. We've reminisced as we've pulled documents from files and letters from folders about what great teachers we were and are(!!), but also realized how many things we've done, classes we've taught and students we've influenced one way or another.
I neglected to photograph the garbage carnage but we filled bag after bag with recyclable materials (mostly paper), and tonnes of clothing destined for the thrift shop bins. The scooter has been getting a workout rumbling between home, garbage depot and clothing bin. The irony is that despite the gargantuan tonnage of refuse that has left the apartment, it doesn't look any different! We know, however, that the filing cabinet is no longer bursting at the seams with unknown documents in Chinese, the cabinets in the living rooms don't hide trinkets and keepsakes that we never should have kept in the first place, and that our wardrobes and drawers aren't cuddling much loved but long neglected items of clothing that just cannot be resurrected!
Apart from the long, slow cleansing, we've also thoroughly enjoyed some decadent sleep-ins (how could we sleep so long day after day?!), some time to kick back and enjoy games of BBL or a movie or some TV series. I met up with Wal, as is tradition, for some beers on Friday night, but we've pretty much hunkered down and hibernated in the typical CNY cold snap, where the temperatures have plummeted and the humidity has remained high, meaning uncomfortable cold alleviated by comfy tracky dacs, ugg boots and reverse cycle air-conditioning!
Who knows what the coming weeks will bring? We hope everyone stays safe and that the coronavirus really does fizzle from the vaccine which is hopefully just around the corner. Photos: what to do with 100s of DVDs?, the Moop, garbage bags need replenishing,and our meeting with Todd photo-bombed by an oversized-head temple puppet (only in Taiwan!)