Details on Swine Flu - School Closing

Now that the chaos has settled down, and I’ve had a good night’s sleep, here is a more detailed recollection of the Swine Flu outbreak at my school:

The day started knowing it would be chaos anyway. It was student council elections, which is pretty much an all day affair here at Colegio Americano. The schedule was supposed to be:

Period 1 – Normal Class
Period 2-3 – Assembly at the stadium to “present the candidates”
1st Recess – Normal
Period 4-5 – Normal Class
Lunch Recess – Prepare for chaos
Period 6-7 – Student elections.

Of course, here, student elections are more like a big run up to a massive soccer game here, with even more pageantry, but I digress.

The first thing that happened was there was no power to the secondary school, then there was, then there wasn’t. Since my room has few windows and is poorly ventilated without the electrically powered A/C-Fan unit, we switched from inside to me giving a lecture outside for my marketing class. First period finally over, it was off to the stadium.

Elections in Ecuador are quite different than what we do in the states. In the states, we vote for individual candidate who just happens to be a member of a political party. In Ecuador, you vote for a political party. You vote, and the members of the political party you vote for get office. So for our elections there were two competing slates – “Lista A” with their blue and white colors matching those of the Guayas state flag, and Lista B matching the yellow, red and blue of the Ecuador State flag (kind of like one being in the colors of the American flag while the other is in the colors of the flag of Texas, as an example).

First we start with some boring speeches by school officials about what we were going to do, and listening to stern advisements to all to behave in a “dignified and disciplined manner.” Then the student speeches started and the party began. With the student introductions there were horns blowing and confetti flying, with students singing and dancing to pounding drums in celebration after every speech and announcements of one of “their” candidates.

Great times, and I fully expect to regain my hearing in 2-3 weeks.

Finally, the candidates were sat down in chairs while school administrators asked each candidate a series of questions – two in Spanish and Two in English – with more singing, chanting and pounding drums made at every answer.

Then two final speeches from administrators about how the elections would proceed – and then there was a delay.
In fact, there was a delay that stretched on for quite a while.

With the whole stadium becoming restless, the principal finally came out to announce that members of the state’s health department were on the campus. One student who had just returned from a trip to Miami had just been diagnosed with Swine Flu, which officially was known as virus N1H1, and because of this classes would be suspended for eight days. And all hell broke loose.

The kids were cheering as if Ecuador had just scored the winning goal to win the World Cup Championship. This attitude changed fairly quickly, though, as Health Department officials removed the infected student’s course from the stadium to undergo examinations at the infirmary. Even more so as the minutes dragged on, and information was meted out piecemeal. This was not a vacation. Students would need to stay at home and not go to crowded public areas: no sporting events or extracurricular activities, no malls, restaurants, parties or movie theaters. Realizing what they had been hearing about the Swine Flu outbreak in the news, many students dived into their backpacks to pull out the breathing masks they used in chemistry. Others wrapped cloths over their faces. Some cried in fear. Many times I was asked, “Mr. Evans, are you worried?” and I would patiently explained why I wasn’t that worried, but that the restrictions were extremely necessary to follow to prevent a wider contamination.

Finally we were told that buses were arriving to take the children home, but that no one would be able to leave unless they first had been given an official notification that was being jointly made by the Health Department, Department of Education and the school. All of the students were dismissed to their 5th hour classes to await the notifications.

By this time a number of the students had checked their Blackberries to see that the school closing had already made the news on the local paper El Universo.

Finally the official notifications came. The students were sent off. There was a final meeting of teachers and staff, mostly saying that the same restrictions applying for the students applied to us as well. Classes would restart on May 25.

And home I went.