Earthquakes. State Department warnings. Civilians in face masks. What was this, you ask? A plague? A riot? Ancient Aztec Gods wreaking vengeance on the irreverence of modern people? No. This was Mexico in the days following the outbreak of the H1N1 (or more commonly called, swine) flu. But, we'll get to that soon enough.
The beginning of what was supposed to be my last full week of school began with a shopping trip in the mall with Adrienne. We had heard vague stories about something happening in Mexico City that shut schools down on Friday, but since we had been in school, we dismissed it as rumor. We looked at all sorts of stores in the mall, with quite a bit more diversity in the types of stores they had compared to American malls. We ate nachos at the movie theatre before we left. The next day we visited the Regional Museum and Planetarium, which were preparing the national celebration of Dio del Ninos (Children's Day). And we headed home to prepare for one more week of school.
Sometime on Sunday, reports of something called "swine flu" begin floating around. Numbers of people hospitalized and dead fill news stories. And somewhere in the mix of things, people began to panic. We heard on Sunday night that Mexican soldiers had been handing out face masks in the city to prevent airborne contraction of the flu. 6 million masks were handed out. However, in a city the size of Mexico City, that left 22 million without a mask.
Monday began with a different feel than usual. We saw people walking their children to school wearing face masks. There were fewer vendors on the streets. We began class as usual with an art lesson, and several students were discussing the swine flu that had mysteriously appeared. At school several teachers were wearing face masks, and just a few students. This made me feel a little anxious. The masks scared me a bit, and if the teachers were wearing them, then it made sense that it would scare the kids also. I didn't put one on until they were passed out to all of the students. Some drew faces on their masks, while some just kept fidgeting with them. And then, less than an hour later, we were told to take them off.
Everyone was already on edge when the alarm went off. Students and staff gathered outside where we learned that an earthquake had hit Mexico City (we learned later that it measured 5.8 on the Richter scale). The principal then made the announcement that the government had decided to close all schools in the country, from day cares to universities, until May 6th. We then returned to class.
Please, answer something for me: If you were a 6th grader, what would be going through your head if you were told you had the next 11 days off of school, but you still had to remain in school for the next three hours? Yes, that is what my students did.
My teacher then announced to the class that, since schools were closing until after we returned to the United States, that it was my last day. My students hugged me and said they're miss me, and we took class pictures. As their parents came to pick them up at the end of the day, I got more hugs and the goodbye cheek-kiss (even though the CDC and State Department did not seem to approve). My teacher also hugged me, we exchanged addresses, and planned to meet again before I left.
We had Tuesday off, and had begun to wonder what we would do with ourselves for the next week until our flight home. All of the tourist places had been closed down by the government. Stores were almost empty of people, and those that were open (movie theatres, Walmart) seemed a biohazard threat waiting to happen. Adrienne and I checked news websites, the CDC, State Department, US Embassy...everywhere we would think of to keep abreast of new developments on what was being called 'a potential global pandemic.' It was when the State Department website began to list the pros and cons of remaining out of the country, and the potential for border closings, that we decided it was time to come home. After an hour on the phone with airlines, tickets were changed, and Wednesday morning we were headed to the airport with our face masks on and hand-sanitizer at the ready.
I was sad for my trip to end sooner than it was supposed to. We had more trips planned, and I lost a good deal of time with my students. However, it made sense to leave the country when we did, to avoid what could have been a serious disease. When we landed in Charlotte, we learned we were not allowed on campus for the 7-day incubation period of the swine flu, just in case we caught it at the airport. With that in mind, we did make the right decision, instead of returning as scheduled and missing graduation. I guess things work out the way they should sometimes.