Sick Irony

This year’s SARS is Avian Flu. Last year, many JETs were unable to travel to Southeast Asia, and even Australia because everyone’s Board Of Education was scared to death. I was barely able to slip out (turned off my cell phone because Joe warned me that his BOE had forced him and Jason to cancel their trip to Japan) with Justin and Nam to Thailand. Once there, I didn’t once think about SARS, except when other people mentioned that the Secratary of Health (or some important Thai Guy in charge of the wellness of the Thai people) was offering something like 10 grand to the families of any person who died because they caught SARS in Thailand. Supposedly, really poor people were trying to get infected and come into Thailand to claim the reward…
Imagine my surprise right now. I just walked in, and on the front page of the Daily Yomiuri reads: “Avian flu hits bantams in Oita Pref.” with a huge map with an X on it about 30 minutes drive from my house. I was just thinking at lunch “Hmmmm… Ubuyama has a lot of chickens, but Avian flu would never reach this far from Yamaguchi (which is located on the southern-most tip of the main island of Honshu, just North of Kyushu). Its too bad that some schools have made the teachers take over caring for the chickens, and that some have even killed all of theirs in order to be on the safe side. Ah, I better eat faster, it looks like Miki-chan is catching up to me…”. And so, we will see how this affects Ubuyama. Luckily I don’t live next to the chicken farm like my supervisor.