At some point if something becomes such an epidemic then at sometime it will affect your life in some way.

Lately the scourge of Swine Flu or H1N1 “Aka 新型インフルエンザ　(shin-ga-ta-infuruenza) [lit. New Type of Influenza]” has hit Mutsu City in a very nasty way. Nearly a half or more of the schools here in Mutsu have received one or more cases of swine flu. To combat this outbreak schools have implemented a plethora of strategies from: asking students who are sick not to show up, canceling full grades (like 4th and 5th grades), canceling and clearing out full floors of schools, to even canceling school itself for upwards to 1 to 2 weeks even.

In the meantime, visitation type teachers like me- who go to different schools every day or so- continue to be bounced around like volleyballs with the simple order to “not get sick.”

Today my school visitation was at one school where it was rumored that swine flu had closed down all classes. I couldn’t tell you for sure at the time since most of it was hearsay from other schools. To me, it was only logical that if my boss didn’t call me and tell me to not show up then I had to make some effort to show up. This particular school wasn’t exactly the closest either. Often it takes about 30-40 minutes one-way to get there.

My arrival at the school wasn’t exactly welcoming. It was one that I typically dread and often dream about. It’s the case where you arrive at the wrong school and they look at you funny and you realize that this wasn’t the right school you were supposed to be at and now you’re embarrassed and late for the right school- who by the way is calling your boss and all their friends. Well today that was the vibe I was getting here.

The vice principal came over to explain surprise that I came today. Her tone was one of the ‘haven’t you heard the news’ type. She explained, pointing to a white board with scribbled names tagged with “Infuru”, that the school had been suspended for a week due to the horrible out break of swine flu. Suffice to say the rumors were true.

My heart saddened for them, this isn’t a school I go too very often. I decided then that I should probably call my boss. Though the time was 8:00am-ish and he hadn’t gone to work yet– I knew he’d be on his cell. I called and told him, to the best of my knowledge, what was happening over at this school and his reaction was one of surprise and befuddlement. I could tell he didn’t know. It was too late schedule wise, or even time wise to reschedule me to another school so the best solution was that I’d return home and hang out there for the day.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but I agreed only because hanging out at a school that had swine flu wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do. Even if the teachers didn’t have it… In my mind, if I had any sort of flu (swine or otherwise) I’d be a flu pollinator for the entire Mutsu city. At this point the best thing was to apologize profusely at my mistake of arriving and slowly excuse myself from the teacher’s room.

The rest of the day, didn’t feel much like an extra vacation day either. Typically unplanned days off aren’t. I couldn’t help but think how such a thing has started to effect me– make me feel self consceus and a bit worried. The funny thing about it is that getting the flu isn’t what has me concerned at all. It’s the social stigma of having been tainted that I’m most worried about.

~J out

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