Job Discussion Forums

[china_gurl]

If I go there will be trouble. If I stay it will be double. Or something like that.

This is my situation:

I'm in Shanxi Province in a smallish city (1,000,000) with 3 comfirmed and 7 suspected cases.

I'm teaching 2nd grade at a Middle School who's sent home 1st and 2nd graders but is keeping 3rd graders here in order to allow them to continue studying for their exam.

About 1/3 of the 3rd graders live off campus. The remaining 2/3 live in dorms, 8 or 9 to a room.

I'm monitoring the cases of SARS in my province daily, and it seems to be increasing by about 20 cases each day. This, however, can't be indicative of the REAL number since I'm sure there are people who aren't reporting their illness, especially after having read THIS article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50743-2003Apr28.html

Our school asked me to take on some 3rd grade classes in light of the fact that I have no classes because all my students have been sent home. The school is talking like the students will all be back in 2 weeks, I'm sure this problem will be far from over then.

Is anyone else leaving?

Further, does anyone know about the legality of the school suspending my pay due to these "unforseen circumstances"??

I'm trying really hard to panic, but the more information I get the more it seems like I should just throw in the towel.

[china_gurl]

Of course, by 'I'm trying really hard to panic', what I really mean is NOT panic.

Oops, glaring error.

[hubei_canuk]

Hello GURL,
Valuable article that.
One of the first to give the street view and warn of the dangers of the chinese government.
Some people laughed when i suggested some rural authorities (maybe even urban) would execute sars patients. I don't think some of those street people laugh at the suggestion.
...
Thrown in isolated containment with genuine case also amounts to execution.
..
The story of the plane is also interesting. It shows there is something to fear from various authorities in this totalitarian state. They didn't care for the safety of tha airline passengers. If one had it the govt was willing to kill them all (let them all die).
==========================
About your situation: You are the only one reporting in from a more dangerously infected zone, IMHO.
Still in the scope of things, the danger amy be very very small.
..
As for me, so long as my school is open i will teach.
I think they are paranoid enough to close it if there is any hint of real danger.
..
I sure ain't going home now. Catch the disease on a plane and give it to my mother?
Or get quarantined for 14 days just because i come from Chian.
Who knows the government might insititute a policy while i am in mid-flight and i can land and find myself quartantined.
at my expense.
Or ditto in China at any of the airport exits.
No thanks.
I'll wait till the hullabaloo dies down.
..
Good luck to you GURL.
Whatever you do, keep your head.

[juneinchina]

Hi,
I am in Guangzhou with my daughter (20). We arrived from Perth, Western Australia in February. We are going home tomorrow.
I approached the College a few days ago and said maybe it would be better for everyone if we left and returned later. They have agreed and said they would pay the fares back again, when I return.
Since then my classes have been cancelled and my students all confined to their dorms. One student is in hospital, suspected, not confirmed.
We have no restrictions on us, personally. The College is providing a car to the airport tomorrow.
I was careful in my release request letter to say that the contract was to expire after our departure from China so that if the horrible happens, and we can't get on the plane, the College is still obligated.
Yesterday I was talking to a foreign student (from Jordan, studying medicine) in Zhongshan University (just down the road) and he said half the foreigners there had gone home. He can't afford to, or he would be gone too.
I'm not too worried about the SARS; it's an unknown that I'll leave to fate, but the disruption is the problem. I'm going because I came here to do a job and it's not possible at the moment, so I'll come back later.

[hubei_canuk]

A teacher fled this small city and flew out of Beijing tonight.
This city is about one hour away from Yichang.
He was at a particulary rude and abusive school. He complained not that he was afraid of SARS but that they were posioning the classrooms everyday.
He was fed up with the madness.
He won't get the airfare bonus but didn't much care as he had earned enough to cover his expenses.
The waiban found out and tried to collar him at the train station. The waiban was rude as usual and tried to give him a hard time.
...
The teacher is a massive 6 foot. when he kicked kids out of class he was in the habit of carrying them above his head, or sometimes one under each arm.
Anyway he gave the Waiban a steady stream of F-words (all deserved) and simply pushed past him and boarded the train.
...
The school deserved it. They are going to be put on blacklists by everyone who worked there this year.
It is so offensive to bring people here from overseas to a difficult environment and then treat them to a steady stream of abuse all of it totally unnecessary.
-----
Goodbye my friend:
It is a far, far better thing that you do, than you have ever done; it is a far, far better PLACE that you go to than you have ever known."

[Tao Burp]

As far as I know, there are no reported SARS cases in my small city here in the Anhui Province. Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't any, or there won't be any, especially with the influx leaving Beijing. My college did the shut down precautions beginning yesterday.
I have been teaching here for over 2 years. If the school you were working for was terrible before SARS, then yes I guess this is a good time to leave--the reason may seem genuine and rational if the situation has been abusive. But I am not leaving. It's easy to grasp at the straws of fear and irrationality and determine that every move and every irritation is a xenophobic reaction from a Chinese. They are nervous, just as you probably are. I think these things we should bear in mind right now, instead of posting conjectures based on our cultural difficulties and misunderstandings.

[china_gurl]

Only, it wasn't my decision.

I'm grounded in Shanxi. Allegedly, I can't get out of my province, even if I wanted to. Can anyone substantiate this?

[hubei_canuk]

Chinagurl.
If the school told you that i believe it is a lie. They told some teachers here the same thing: that there was a provincial edict that no one could travel out of the province. They even showed them some paper: all in Chinese.
They just didn't want the teacher to travel. As far as i know the teacher went to Sichuan last Wednesday regardless, without telling the school.
They are cultivating you as a mushroom. Keeping you in the dark and feedingyou horse manure!!!
If you want to leave, just leave.
A teacher here fled last wednesday. He was out on the plane to Canada last night from Beijing.
He said it was neat. He had the soft sleeper all to himself.. no one wanted to go to Beijing!!!
............
I am not leaving. if they drop dead in the streets, i'll just walk around the bodies.
I'm not Brave, i'm just lazy. It's just too much trouble to leave.

[china_gurl]

It was a couple of other non-school related sources. The school seems to be as clueless as we are, so they're not keeping me here.

Actually, I don't want to go. I agree with your sentiment, canuck, that I'm too lazy to go.

[Owen]

Personally, I have stayed to this point because the situation here in Shenyang has never been bad. Now, going back to the US would result in anxiety on the part of friends and there is the low chance that my wife or I would catch SARS on the trip and transmit it to my mother and father, 75 & 80 respectively. My wife is in the situation of use it or lose it on her immigration visa, so I will at least have to send her to the US by August. She can stay with Chinese friends though.

I am not really concerned about catching SARS in Shenyang. We are pretty well cut off from the areas outside the city and there is very little activity here. Officially one case, actually slightly higher but not spreading. What I am worried about is that if I catch a cold or the flu and develop a fever, it is off to a Chinese quarantine ward for me. That I really don't want.

BTW, for the US citizens, the American Consulate here has notified citizens that they are willing to argue our case for us if our school tries to get out of paying the airfare. They have been sucessful in arguing that point so far. Our school has informed us that even if classes are cancelled, they will pay our salary.

[hubei_canuk]

"BTW, for the US citizens, the American Consulate here has notified citizens that they are willing to argue our case for us if our school tries to get out of paying the airfare. They have been sucessful in arguing that point so far. Our school has informed us that even if classes are cancelled, they will pay our salary." - Owen
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Not True in Western Hubei near Yichang. Am American teacher phoned the embassy and they told him it wasn't their problem!
Specifically, him being in china and working for that school "WASN'T THEIR PROBLEM." ...endquote.
====================
Further to this TWO more teachers are leaving my city. They had an interesting meeting with their waiban (School representative) as well as the REAL Foreign Affairs Officer from the government (not the school). The school supported by the Foreign Affairs allowed them to leave on the 17th yet only promising them 70 percent of their airfare. However they denied hearing anything about a "ministry of Education directive" allowing foreigners to leave. I suspect they knew about such a thing otherwise they might not have paid even 70 percent.
..
Here's the punchline:
"HIS SARS WASN'T THAT BAD".
A man was pulled off the train 5 kilometers from here with SARS. The train car was quarantined. This is why the teachers wanted to leave. One had heard from a friend who was a nurse. Nobody knows where the SARS case and quarantinees were taken.
When confronted with this the two officials confirmed the information by saying "His SARS wasn't that bad".
ahem...
double ahem..
From that it seems confirmation that Sars cases aren't being officially reported although of course this is not publicly verifiable.
..
anyway that's all there is.
..
Aww, don't get me wrong. I'm not going anywhere.
Only because i always follow Alfred E. Neuman's famous dictum
"What me worry?".
...
You know... WW2 over yet?