Welcome to Paraguay, have some hand sanitizer

My first real introduction to the swine flu frenzy has been in Paraguay. Sure I’ve read about it other places, but this is the first country I’ve landed in which seems to have numerous cases and the paranoia that goes along with that. Arriving in Asuncion my director met me in the airport carrying a surgical mask while most of those around him were wearing one. It turns out that you couldn’t enter the airport without sporting a mask…just in case someone coming off a plane was contagious with the swine flu. On our first excursions around town the faculty liaison apologized for not putting any hand sanitizer into our welcome packages, explaining that the stores were completely out of it. Around the same time I found out that the Paraguayan national schools were delaying the start of school by two weeks for fear of too many students coming sick and passing on the illness. Not so our school. ASA started right on time, not that any of us were to worried. I was amused to have two boxes of Kleenex delivered to my room the day before classes started along with a jug of hand sanitizer, only to have a bottle three times as large delivered two days later (do they really think my students and I would use that much that quick?). Whatever. I’m willing to play the game, and have put it all out on my desk where my students have easy access to it throughout the day. Perhaps my biggest surprise in all of this was talking with my students the first day of school. I asked them to tell me a few interesting things about themselves, prompting them with “what did you do over the break?” if they got stuck for ideas. Several of them told me they “were in quarantine with their family because my sister/brother was sick.” While another shared that he had “had the swine flu, but don’t worry I’m over it and not contagious anymore.” Huh. I guess that should be enough to make it more real for me. At least it hasn’t turned out to be as fatal as health officials were initially expecting. Welcome to Paraguay, here is your mask and hand sanitizer.