Thou shalt not bear false witness

Much like allowing the clergy to marry and not practicing idolatry, this seems to be another tenet of the Judeo-Christian belief system that has fallen by the wayside with our dear Catholic employers. So here all, is the latest installment of the soap opera that our jobs have become.

A VOICE in the wilderness called out to me (no, not those voices, and besides I don't have access to my firearms here) and whispered some words into my ear about even further duplicity on Sister Preverica's part.
Now, it seems she, or another Sister (who swam over the damn) has been telling parents that the teachers were planning on unionizing.

Now teachers here in Taiwan are not allowed to unionize for some bizarre reason. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they would then be allowed to have their summers off rather than come in to answer the phones or sit around with their thumbs up their collective asses for appearance's sake. I must stipulate that this does differ from school to school. Now, no one at any time even dreamed of unionizing. We just wanted pay and conditions on par with the other schools within our organization and region. Is that unreasonable?

Anyways, after the big pow wow/confabulation with the parents happened, and Sister with forked tongue finished tempting them with an apple, it was agreed that a meeting should be held between the teachers and the administration, both new and former. This was to have taken place last week but it was pushed back to the 29th. We were then told that the meeting couldn't take place because the new principal would be unavailable. Well, one of the teachers phoned the new principal, in Taipei, to enquire(or is it inquire? I can never tell the two apart) about this. It seems Sister Preverica told her not to come. I think that I've mentioned previously that the meeting was then set for June 11th and the whole can of worms that presented.

It has also been brought to the teachers' attention, by parents sympathetic to our plight that the nuns have been telling the parents that it was the teachers who decided to walk out on the school and students. The parents were told that the Sisters made an offer and it was turned down by the teachers who then decided to leave. At no time was any offer made by the Sisters, so how could it have been turned down? After the initial consultation with them(The Sisters), they asked for time to consider the requests. That was the last discussion that was held involving the teachers. The rest involved the Coven and their Dark Master, Mammon.

As it stands, the Sisters have hired four South Africans to replace some of the teachers and are looking for more. Now, I'm not questioning their academic credentials, but South Africans have been known to work for food to avoid going back to South Africa (hearing some of their horror stories, I can't blame them). I'm not sure about the legality of this, as the School is currently in breach of contract. However, that being said, I have to remember that this is Taiwan, land of gray skies and even grayer legal issues.

There are also some other troubling matters, involving someone we thought supported the teachers and was considered a good friend by some. As it stands, rumours are flying about this individual putting words into others mouths and speaking about matters that were discussed in confidence. I sincerely hope that these rumours remain merely rumours and misunderstandings. As it is, we've lost a lot of respect for the clergy and this would be the proverbial nail in the coffin for many, Catholic teachers included. I'm wondering if I should wear an Orange shirt, with the Orange Lodge crest on it to work. More importantly, would they understand the significance, being Filipinos and Chinese?

Now that I've got all that off my chest, onto other less weighty matters(I'm happier than pig in shit that I do most of my teaching at a university). The weather has gone from being hot and dry to hot and humid to just plain old wet, over the past two weeks. It's supposed to rain for the next week, which is the first significant rain, except for one or two short lived cloud bursts, we've had in several months.

The last heavy rains we had, we actually had an indoor waterfall, as leaves clogged the patio drain on our fourth floor. I was sitting watching TV in our living room, on the ground floor, when I noticed that I was hearing the sound of running water. I assumed either Shannon or Joseph were having a shower on the second or third floor and thought nothing of it. Yes, being male I have the natural ability to tune out many background distractions/noises - children, spouse, sirens, fire alarms...... while keenly focusing my senses on an important task at hand, namely my PS2 game.

This must have gone on for a while because after I emerged from my quasi-autistic state, I once again picked up on the sound of running water. Water isn't free, and I was about to tell whoever was running up the water bill to get out of the shower. I then noticed this was a slightly different sound then a mere shower, and that water was lapping at my feet. I waded over to the kitchen and to the stairwell. Upon opening the door, I discovered that it wasn't so much a stairwell as a small cataract.

I traced this torrent to its source and discovered the plugged drain along with the real hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant, Noah's Ark and Jimmy Hoffa's body, which was sitting on top of a copy of the Colonel's secret recipe (we don't go up to the fourth floor patio a lot).

Opening this drain involved a little effort and a lot of Anglo Saxon expletives, and when it finally opened a small maelstrom ensued which left me clinging precariously to the patio table.

As a bad as things got, I wasn't going to call Taiwanese Search and Rescue, as a few years ago on TV, I watched as 4 men drowned while they and the police(or army) argued over who had jurisdiction...I kid you not!! This wasn't a case of the workers floundering in a rain swollen river. These guys were stringing power cables and were stranded on a sand bar as the water rose. TV cameras (yup, enough time for news crews to get there and set up) caught everything, right up to the final hour when the sand bar was flooded and they were swept away to their deaths, likely thinking 'I'll be waiting for you bastards in hell!'

Needless to say, I spent the next 4 hours with a pail and a squeegee preventing our house from joining a list that includes the names Mu, Lemuria, the Library of Alexandria and Atlantis. All of our drains now have screens on them and the leaves are cleaned up on a regular basis.

Other than that, we had a birthday party for our youngest and just sat inside for the weekend watching movies, while it rained outside. Today is just about perfect weatherwise, the only downside being I had to spend the day at work. Oh, and my wife got a cat for the kids to fight over and terrorize. Pictures of Asian Pussy anyone?