The Masked Men

So, its fall season, and today it plunged almost towards freezing. They cancelled classes for our 1st and 2nd grade ladies for three days due to the pandemic we all know as "swine flu," or how my friend Michael calls it, "Pig Flu." My friend Ryan's school shut down for a week last week due to several kids and staff catching the dreaded disease. Michael's school has a whopping 160 students out of action, and they still haven't shut down the school. Worldwide, people in many countries are stocking up on TamiFlu and going to their clinics to put needs into their arms.

Rewind three months to August. I just returned from the United States. Reports in the media circulate worldwide for an upcoming pandemic. "Get ready for the worst." The U.S., England, Spain, and other countries monitor patients who catch the disease early with the closest degree while the WHO tries to figure out ways to prevent the worst. Its something to keep their eyes on for sure.

But the funny thing about this tiny Indiana-sized country is that when a media report circulates, its usually inflated to degrees that are not necessarily true. Its only August.

Go back to last year, 2008. Reports come around this country that American beef is tainted and is prone to mad-cow disease. Some Koreans claimed that there was evidence that Koreans are suscepitble to "infection" of mad-cow than other races. Give me a break.

Since I came back from a country that had few cases of mad-cow disease, I got the best gift possible: an extra week of vacation, oh I'm sorry...a "quarantine." Which meant staying home, playing videogames, sleeping all day, going to my Korean classes, going to the bathouse, eating some more, and enjoying the hot summer sun. The problem is, who is checking my quarantine? Nobody was. I had a good time visiting my aunts by the way.

Thanks to the Korean government, I got TWO weeks of vacation, hot dog! Thanks to the scare, our school festival was delayed permanently. Thanks to the scare, I slept in all day.

Kidding aside, the panicky attitude of the Korean people got them into this mess, because when the real infections started happening late this Fall season, they were sitting on their hands and looking at each other and saying, "what do we do now?" Especially with the scholastic aptitude tests coming up November 12th, several of my senior girls are out cold because of the virus. If they were aware that infections pick up in the Fall, they should have focused their efforts for treating the disease and preventing it now rather during a time when hot weather kills diseases better.

So, I'm sitting in my office with classes cancelled. After several of my girls were hit by the illness, they decided to do the right thing and shut the place down. Let's put it this way, 37 girls in one room, and with Korean girls very touchy of one another and sharing each other's food...its about time they shut it down.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting in office, with lots of valuable time on my hands. Let's use this time efficiently. Time to pray and ponder about the future.

My favorite moment of the Pig Flu scare is when one girl was walking with two of her friends. She is fanning her notebook in front of her, outwardly, not inwardly. Not because she was hot. "What are doing?" I asked. "Swine flu, I'm trying to blow it away." I could only laugh.