From Barleyhill to Shanghai
A TEACHER who has backpacked from Duhallow to China where she has worked for the past three years has spoken to The Corkman about her experience of restarting school in the first country to be hit by the COVID-19 virus and the first country to emerge from lock-down.
Fiona Sheahan from Barleyhill was back to work in her school last week after it reopened on May 18. Prior to that she had been teaching online since early February.
“I came to Shanghai to work in an international/bilingual school in August 2017, and my plan was to leave this Summer but now like so many, I am now unsure as to what lies ahead,” she said.
Before coming to China, Fiona, a Sociology graduate who went to UCC, had travelled extensively.
After graduating she went to London to save up to travel to South America. After that she spent many years backpacking - including living for four years on the Tibetan plateau where she worked as a volunteer teacher.
“I didn’t intend to work in Shanghai but it has a fascinating history, and offers excellent opportunities to foreigners to save.”
Fiona qualified as a primary teacher in England in 2007 as at that time the government there was paying £6000 to EU citizens to do so.
“After that I headed off to Nepal, India and the Tibetan plateau again.”
After more than three months teaching online, an experience she described as ‘stressful’, Fiona has looking forward to getting back to class and seeing her students again.
“I am really looking forward to seeing my students who graduate for secondary school in 4 weeks, but we will not be allowed have graduation parties for them in the school hall.
“Only eight groups of parents will be allowed at a time, so we will have to divide the class up and complete three short ceremonies.”
The school set-up has also changed, she says.
“We walk through a sanitiser tunnel on arrival at the gate, kids temperatures checked before school and in school. They will arrive with masks and we will give them a new one after they take the morning one off to eat lunch,” she explains.
“They are not required to wear masks when playing or in PE class.
“The school and classrooms are cleaned throughout the day, and all teachers have to be out of the school by 5 pm at the latest so a full deep clean will be carried out.”
Schools in China also get inspected by Government officials and perspex in place between students in the school canteen.
“In many schools and work places, they are not allowed use the AC, must wear masks and keep the windows open , in mosquito season,” adds Fiona.
“Fortunately, my school does not have a centralised AC system, so we are allowed the AC on. Shanghai from now on gets horribly humid and hot”
As Shanghai has emerged from lock-down, Fiona has seen a lot of changes not only in schools.
“The last three weeks here have seen big changes, with restaurants and streets full again though I know many bar owners are struggling.
“The metro is also a bit scarily too full, and I have noticed less people wearing masks on the street as the temperature increases. However, it is a requirement to wear it on public transport.”
She does notice, however, that attention to precautions to counter the spread of the virus has slackened in recent weeks.
“Premises seem to be taking temperatures less and less. Up to two weeks ago nobody was allowed in and out of my compound without their temperature being checked, now this is rare and Up to six weeks ago, anyone who was not a resident was not allowed in to my compound.
“Social distancing to be honest, seems to have been forgotten.”
Technology is playing a role in keeping China relatively virus free.
“Each person also has to register on either Alipay or Wechat (two Chinese Apps ) to get a special health code.
“If you have not left Shanghai it will be green, if you travel to a different province it will go red which means you will not be allowed in to many places e.g. gyms, some bars, government offices, banks.
“It also means that if you are working in a profession like a teacher, you would have to do a 14 day quarantine and would not be allowed in to the schools.”
Many hotels in Shanghai and in other parts of China are refusing to allow foreigners to stay in their hotels, though the borders opened weeks ago.
“The opinion here now is very much that China ‘won’ the fight and the foreigners have messed it all up, even though China bought them so much time to prepare.
“I have strong opinions on government issues here, for varying reasons, as well as how things were handled here at the beginning but when they decided to mobilise it was effective here in Shanghai, and people listened.”
Fiona has noticed that perspectives around issues of personal freedom are very different in the East as opposed to the West.
“Some people had complaints about their lack of freedom, but you keep that to yourself here. Also, from my experience of China and Asia in general, people are more flexible with change and with letting go of things they can’t control, In the West, we seem to fight this more.
“Reality was people needed to stay in to keep this virus at bay, and this is what they did.
“There was however a feeling in the air that Wuhan was sacrificed so we could all be safe, and horrendous stories did leak out on social media but then were quickly taken down.”
Fiona says it was hard to be away from home.
“It was really hard to watch Ireland go through it but I have been so proud of how our government have handled this and the majority of people it seems. It makes me sad and angry when I hear of the selfishness of people complaining that they can’t have parties etc. Last night I met a girl from Dublin who told me many of her friends are complaining about this, their rights etc. and they are 28.
“Horrendous to think that mentality is out there at home, similar to those protesting in places like Michigan in the States.
“If people don’t respect this lock-down, more people will die. It’s fairly simple. But my heart also goes out to people who are economically badly hit.”
Fiona is looking forward to being home in Barleyhill again – but it may be a little more time yet.