on swine flu, travel and homeschooling
July 2nd, 2009 by rutha few days before we were set to fly to thailand for a week’s holiday, i was so close to canceling the trip. not only is thailand included in the list of countries with community spread of swine flu, it was also jan’s last week of school holidays, so if he does fall sick, he would have to miss the first few days of classes, which i consider very important in setting students off to a good start. i was chastising myself for not having considered these before i made the bookings, but then, at the time, there wasn’t a single case of swine flu in southeast asia. how was i supposed to know it will spread like fire, and from zero, the number of cases here in singapore has ballooned to about 700 in a span of just a month!
and although we were armed with hand sanitizers and N95 face masks, i felt so heavy about the decision to push thru with the trip, knowingly putting my children at risk, for a reason as frivolous as having a vacation. it was an unnecessary travel we could have easily skipped.
it’s been a week since we’re back, and i think i can now safely say that we have made it unscathed. both hubby and jan have been ordered to stay away from the office and school though, as a form of quarantine. jan has been receiving lessons and worksheets from school which we work on at home. it helps to at least keep him busy, instead of just whiling away the week.
we are scheduled to fly to the philippines in september. but if the swine flu alert does not ease up until then, we might just have to skip it altogether. good thing we got those flight tickets dirt cheap, so it’s not a lot of money thrown away!
i think baby gap has the most gorgeous pieces especially for toddler girls, but frankly, i’m too much of a cheapskate to shop at gap. old navy, yes, but gap is just a tad bit over my price range. fortunately, mia has a constant supplier of gap baby clothes: my sister, hehe.