CISS: A Home Away from Home

Imagine a land filled with sun, starry nights, and sensational beaches. A place where family and friends are close, and food is plentiful. Now, envision leaving all of that behind to live in a place unknown, a place that has the most Covid-19 cases. Difficult, isn’t it? That is what me, my wife and unborn child decided to do, and it was the best decision we ever made.

Arriving at CISS, we were welcomed in a way that puts the red carpet to shame. Both the principal – Mr Norman and Madame Duan were waiting eagerly to greet us with smiles hidden by masks and cameras at the ready to capture this momentous moment for us.

Reaching our room on campus, we found little gifts from the other teachers – a bowl of spaghetti to fill our stomachs after our long travels, a packet of chips to snack on, and notes that made us feel right at home. Thereafter, and although we were stuck in this room for 14-days of quarantine, all the staff continually made us feel welcome with messages and kind gestures.

The end of our quarantine finally came, and with it, the meeting of our neighbours. Seeing us walk into the cafeteria, they embraced us with handshakes, hugs and a five star meal that could feed an army. Our relationship has continued to grow since then, and now I no longer call them neighbours or colleagues, but rather friends and family.

Sound like a dream? Well, that’s because it is.  CISS is a dream, a home away from home, and for some of us, like me, my wife and unborn child, our new forever home. 

Mr. Steinberg.

A change in our hearts and attitudes

People-watching at the airport in Danang on our way out of Vietnam after the holidays proved to be quite an eye-opener: signs of desperation, frustration and even panic as one flight after the other was canceled, were abundant.
As the weeks passed & Corona spread like wildfire, false rumors mounted by the minute, leading to unsubstantiated and open accusations; mankind’s age-old and worst trademarks manifested itself openly and with no uncertainty: bias and prejudice.
On our return to Shenyang from our home country, Amanda and I also became the victims of this phenomena:  a fellow South African on duty at the book-in counter, literally wheeled his chair away from us, horrified by learning that we have been in China five weeks prior to our departure that day.
We were at the front of a long queue and brusquely told to stand aside until such time as one senior upon the next came to deal with “the situation”. Eventually, we were shooed off and told that would be called if permitted to board the flight. 
In the end, we made it to the flight in time: regrettably, this unfortunate treatment obviously led some passengers to feel not only ill at ease with us being on board but also entitled to openly snide remarks at us.
Those were still early days and since then, hundreds (if not thousands) similar and much worse incidents happened around the globe.
By sharing this experience, I hope I can bring about awareness to all readers hereof, and maybe, just maybe, also a change in our hearts and attitudes. It certainly made a huge impact on me and lots to reflect on.
I would like to again refer to the video circulated amongst us a few months ago, titled: I’m not a VIRUS, I’m a HUMAN, REMOVE THE PREJUDICE, dated 05 February 2020. [It is still available on Bing/Google]

Mr. Allers.