APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
~T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
April is a cruel month for teachers.
Why?
It's the long stretch between spring break and graduation. It's that annual malady, when the few remaining seniors who haven't succumbed to Senioritis develop a serious case of it. Sometimes, other classes of students get a good case of Senioritis, as well. For those of us on the island, it's April showers, which bring hordes of April buzzing, biting bugs.
It's the other sort of April bug. April means spring break here, celebrated by dozens of island inhabitants leading a mass exodus off our isolated community. Then they migrate back, bringing all sorts of mean and nasty illnesses, infections, infestations. This April is a cold that won't go away, and it's one of the most vile, vicious stomach bugs we've ever encountered.
I'll be honest; one of my first thoughts when we moved here and I saw how very isolated we are, and how very limited our medical care is here, was what if someone brings an extremely contagious disease on island? We carry extra insurance to be medi-vaced off island in case of an emergency, but it's really scary to realize the potential for a catastrophic event.
Forget the Zika virus or the Chikamauga virus; I'm talking more common things, like the flu or stomach viruses or tough strains of the cold. Or then again, maybe even something strange and rare and without a known cure. After all, we have people flying on island every week from all over the world. To live here, you must pass a physical screening. But what if they miss something? What if the US doctor doing the screening doesn't know what you contracted in Asia, Europe, Africa, or the Middle East?
I also would love to have faith that people exposed to such diseases off island and then feel the symptoms would be a dear love and decide to forgo the flight back, especially when they will also be exposing everyone on the Rotator or IBC flight. They should think of it as a self-imposed quarantine for the good of our little community. Plus a quarantine in the real world (the States) is much better than here, where you have limited, if any, access to basic medication to get well.
Good luck finding that Pedialyte when you get a stomach flu, or any type of cold medication for the majority of the year.
I do believe those people who do come back on island knowing they are bringing a contagious disease are the same people who load their sick kids down with Tylenol to avoid taking off a sick day. All of us in education have seen this, and yes, we do judge you when you bring your knowingly sick child to infect the rest of the class. Shame on you, especially in such a small community, where a class of only 12 kids total becomes a class of 3 or 4 if the contagious germs are spread just right.
So here's looking forward to May with its flowers and celebrations. Kid 2 is turning 18, and many of my friends' children are graduating high school or college. (Our kid's ceremony is in June). Here's to summer vacations and well-rested, lazy afternoons for my many overworked teacher friends and family members who are lucky enough to get it earlier than later. Here's to your kids running wild and emulating the GTMO feral child life.
Here's to good health. Here's to May, with a forward, wishful glance to June, and good riddance to April.
