Swine Flu

Bronwyn and I went to the mall yesterday and we saw a couple of people wearing surgical masks. We've already shared that the swine flu is now in our state. It's been coming in from Argentina and Uruguay.

The kids winter break was scheduled to be over on Monday.

On Tuesday of last week I read in the newspaper that the teacher's association met and agreed that schools would start back at the regular time. Schools in the interior have already extended their winter break to give the flu a chance to be killed off.

On Wednesday I read that the governor of our state said all schools needed to extended their winter vacation. Based on her instructions, on Thursday we received two different emails telling the kids that they didn't have to go back to school until August 17. Needless to say, Garrett and Carys were very excited with extra time off from school (this a family gene....a sickness really.... they get from their dad.....it's called ratherplaythanstudyopathy).

Before the kids even started their winter break we were getting regular emails from their schools letting us know different things about the flu.

If we traveled to another country we would have to evaluated by a doctor before our kids would be allowed to come back to school.

We also received helpful hints on how not to get the swine flu.
Things most of us know:

• Wash your hands before eating.
• Don't cough in people's faces.
  
• Don't put your fingers in your eyes, nose, ears or mouth.
• Blow your nose with a tissue, throw it away and then wash your hands.
• They also included a helpful picture to demonstrate another important thing not to do:

Okay, that last part was a lie.

But the people in our state, Rio Grande do Sul, are taking this flu seriously.