Today I went to work.
I got up at 6.40am and was out of the house by 7am. Heh. So damn enthusiastic about leaving the house.
So I cleaned up my work station a little, did my mountains of marking. What does a PE teacher have to mark? You ask.
Health Education Books (6 classes of 30 to 32 students, 6 – 7 pages each)
Outdoor Education Worksheets (same)
FTGP books
I\’m not complaining though. Compared to the acad teachers these are not considered respectable marking, but we still have to tick the answers and correct their atrocious spelling, just sayin\’.
While I was doing my work, I got a phonecall from Kid4\’s teacher to check-in with him. I told her to call Mr Rain since he\’s OIC (overall-in-charge) today.
Then about 5 mins later, I got a text from Kid4\’s other teacher.
I don\’t know what happened in the end. I didn\’t bother pursuing because I\’m determined to be at work today. Won\’t try to micromanage from the phone.
A while later, he texted our group of friends for some help for Kid4\’s Chinese homework. Heh.
I told him Kid4\’s teacher is probably not familiar with the system, used a template and didn\’t erase the portions she didn\’t use. Plus I have been doing Kid4\’s homework because he doesn\’t understand the language.
My kids have been going through speech therapy since they were 4. The speech therapists all advised that we stick to ONE language so it\’s easier for the kid, and we\’ll see progress faster. So all my kids can only speak English.
Then they get judged for that because they speak in \”slang\” English (heavily Caucasian-accented English) and cannot speak a single word of Chinese. They all have a pretentious accent in their English because of this condition called \”Odd Prosody\”.
In Singapore, if you\’re a Chinese who can\’t speak Chinese, you get looked down by other Chinese who can speak Chinese.
I digress.
Kid4\’s exemption from Chinese is pending approval from the Ministry, so meanwhile his parents will complete all the homework for him. Since the father is also hopeless in Chinese, it means I\’m the one doing his homework.
So what did I do at work other than marking? I explored all the other channels of video communication and platforms for learning. Called up the students whom I had not spoken to for the entire week because they skipped my video conferencing.
Turned out they don\’t log in so early because their parents have to use the laptop to work. They usually get their turn to do the homework at night, when their parents are not working. So I might have to shift my video conferencing sessions to late afternoon or evening even, for these kids.
When I got home, it was 2pm. I saw a lot of McDonald\’s packaging on the dining table, so I guess Mr Rain ordered MacD\’s for lunch. Later I found out it was brunch, because the kids and him skipped breakfast.
No problem. I\’m not on duty today. No micromanaging. The man\’s trying his best.
I took a quick shower and went to take a nap. I\’m determined to give myself the day off from being a mom.
Later in the evening my dad got a call from the Ministry of Health. One of his co-workers contracted Covid-19 so he\’s on home quarantine order. He works as air-con maintenance so in a way he\’s essential worker.
Now here\’s the thing.
My dad already knew his co-worker contracted Covid 4 days ago (Sunday). He was ordered to stop working on Monday by his company as a preventive measure. On Tuesday, he was assigned to go to Istana to work, but he came home half way because his company didn\’t update his particulars for approval. Wednesday he was at home because the application was still pending.
Today, Thursday, at about 6.30pm, MOH called him to say he\’s one of the close contacts of the worker who contracted Covid. The last time they worked together was 8 April. So my dad is on home quarantine until 22 April. We are supposed to allocate a room with an attached toilet for him, and he\’s supposed to stay inside for the duration of 14 days, starting from 8 April, which we did NOTHING as preventive measures in our house.
I have 2 bedrooms and 9 people living at my place. How do I allocate one room just for him?
I called back the MOH officer and told him that it\’s not possible for my dad to be quarantined at home given those restrictions. I also told him my housing constraints. I asked if my dad can be quarantined at the government\’s official quarantine quarters. I mean I have 4 autistic kids and my senior citizen Mom lives with me too.
The MOH officer said no. No other place to quarantine him and we just have to find a way to adjust our living conditions to meet their requirements. It\’s for compliance. They will send someone to come my house and check within these few days.
WHY? Why can those serving Stay Home Notice stay in hotels, the foreign workers assigned to some facility to quarantine, and my dad has to stay home?!
I mean strictly speaking, if I don\’t want anyone at home to be exposed to the highly contagious virus, given how packed my house is, the safest move is to get him to stay at a designated quarantine facility, right?
Anyway, while I was stumped by how ridiculous and unreasonable the situation is, Mr Rain, who had prepared for the zombie apocalypse all his life, remained calm and gave instructions.
Clear out the storeroom, put a mattress in, my dad sleeps inside. Designate the loo in the kitchen for him, he will stay in the storeroom for everything and when he comes out to use the loo, wear a mask. Everyone else will use the loo in my room. This way, we are kind of complying with MOH\’s rule. Change out my dad\’s bedsheets and disinfect all the places he has touched.
Then he went back into the room and played his zombie games.
I took a bottle of Lysol wipes, placed it on his table, and told him I don\’t know how to disinfect. He can help if he wants, or we can all turn into zombies.
At this point of time, my head was throbbing. I don\’t know how to explain the amount of stress that is going on inside my small brain. I want to add that Kid3 didn\’t do any work today at all. The reason given by Mr Rain is that she\’s in my school, so he doesn\’t know what goes on. He\’ll just handle the other 3 who are studying in his school.
Anyway, today is almost over. I take over tomorrow. Although I am very stressed at this moment, I must say I had some form of peace at work today and I took a nap. I should be satisfied.
Tomorrow is a new day. New battle.
Fight.
Evangeline Rain 