Covid- Part one

Covid

My classroom in Australia

Lets just say, we are all ‘over’ it!  

I left my home in Mexico January 30th, 2020, and headed to the Northern Territory of Australia.  It just happened to be on the very day that a Public Emergency of International Concern was declared by WHO.  It was to be a ten week contract, but things quickly changed, as they did for most of us in the world. 

First of all, the contract was immediately extended to eleven weeks – a change in the school calendar.

I had not anticipated that, but no worries.  My ticket had left a lot of wiggle room should I have decided to holiday a bit in the country while I was there.  

Something else I had not anticipated was the World Health Organization to declare the emergency a Global pandemic on March 11, 2020.  The state borders were closed, and road blocks were set up to protect people, largely the more ‘at risk’ Indigenous population of the ‘Territry’, from the new Covid-19 virus.  People living on Communities in the NT were living in crowded conditions, not a great thing for a virus.  

As a teacher, I received a card that allowed me through military roadblocks.  I was able to buy groceries in Katherine.. an hour away.  

It was the start of a new normal that was to last, well.. we are still in the middle of it.  At the beginning, it was frightening, isolating, and most of all, confusing.  People were encouraged, strongly encouraged, not to be moving about, and it was going to be difficult to hire a new teacher from Southern Australia, to take over long term.   I was a relief teacher, expected to fill in until they got someone long term, but now, well, it was going to be difficult to get someone from down south across the state line. 

Five weeks into the second term,  I was exhausted.  

Working in the NT is a challenge at the best of times.  I was teaching year three through six, just 15 children, but all at different levels, different socio economic backgrounds, and now, totally different programs.  I had students that often didn’t come to school, others that arrived hungry.  Some couldn't settle down enough to learn how to read and write, while others loved school, learning and needed to be challenged.   None of this was new to me, but in the four or so years since my parents passed and I had been largely out of the system, the administrative side teaching seemed to have become the focus, instead of the students.  Plus, my cohort seemed to be a whole lot younger.   

With Covid, teachers were asked to make learning available 0n-line.  Sure, the District provided work packages for each grade level.  A bunch of worksheets, as though that was all teaching was.  I was expected to hand out these ‘packages’ to my learners according to their grade level and go home.  With scheduled appointments for face to face with each child of course.  

I had a problem.  Children who had dysfunctional homes were to receive the same work as those kids in high achieving families.  Children with no computers were expected to learn and report in the same way as those very comfortable with technology.  Parents were expected to oversee their child's work.  It was a shame job in the making.  

But they told us that if we didn’t like it, we could make up our own packages.  

So I did that.  I spent my weekends making up packages.  

Some children wanted them, and I would contact the family and check their work.  Others continued to come to school.  I never knew who to make packages for and who would be attending the class.. so I made them up for everyone.  Plus, I planned for these same students should they show up in class.  My already very full 8 or 10 hour day was now extended, in order to plan for a variety of scenarios.  Sometimes I had just one or two students, other days, eight or ten.  

Weekend in Darwin

We learned how to wash our hands, singing Happy Birthday three times every time we went in or out of the classroom.  We tried to stay six feet apart.  There were no masks.  Toilet paper was in high demand.  We planted a garden, stayed out of the basketball court when the snake paid us visit.. made videos.  I always have fun teaching, but, teaching thirty children is easier than two or three.. believe it or not.  

The whole situation was unsettling.. eerie.. scary.  All I had at my donga in town was a radio, and the only station was the ABC and all they seemed to talk about was the pandemic.  

I worried about my own children and grand children, and finally bought a ticket back to Canada rather than Mexico.  My return flight had been cancelled anyway, by the airlines.  When Canada seemed to be about done calling Canadian expats home, I decided I really had to leave Australia.  There was just too much uncertainty around travel. I didn't want to end up on the other side of the world if things really turned ugly. 

And speaking of ugly, don’t forget.. not that we ever would.. Trump was the president of the United States.  

So that is how this whole pandemic thing began for me.. I was in Australia, the NT.  I was 64 years old, living on my own in the outback..  It felt like if I just went home things would be better.  Surely the pandemic and all the confusion that went with it, wouldn't find me there.  But of course, it did.  

The next thing I knew, I was in Kelowna.. straight out of the bush and into a city apartment for fourteen days of quarantine.  Karen brought me food.. and I started binge watching Netflixs.  

It was June, 2020, and... it was weird.