Even though my life is ... uh ... challenging here, I seem to have a knack for hitting the lottery. I nailed the numbers again this week. Small stuff, really, but to repeat a quote from my beautiful wife Phuong: "A win is a win." I won 100,000 dong, about the fifth or sixth time I've done so. Not horrible for a 10,000 dong ticket. So that's very roughly $5 U.S. for a 50-cent investment. Like I said, it's small stuff but it beats losing. Plus, I hit for $150 on a 50-cent investment once, so I'm certainly not complaining. And I've been playing the lottery for only a couple of years, not for the nearly five years I've lived here. Getting your winnings, like everything else here for me, can be difficult. The sellers are supposed to pay, but some won't pay for whatever reason. A seller refused to pay me for the winning ticket. One of the hu tieu girls told me I have to buy -- or must buy -- more tickets in order to get paid. This pissed me off, of course, and I told her Americans don't "have to" or "must" do anything. I still don't have my temper (reactions) under control yet. I saw a guy I used to always buy tickets from, and he paid me the 100,000 no questions asked. I gave him a 50,000 tip.
The powerful drugs my wife and father-in-law purchased for me from the pharmacy knocked out whatever invaded my body. I'm well again after being in a drug-induced stupor for three days. Same with Phuong. In addition, Phuong has a complete set of teeth for the first time since she was 13 years old. A beautiful woman has become even more beautiful. But ironically, she's the second-best-looking female in our house. Joanna is No. 1, which is what one of our truly friendly neighbors calls her. Phuong accepts her runner-up status because Joanna's smile lights up a room.
Speaking of my temper, I was doing tai chi in the park on Thanksgiving
Day when two kids on bikes came a little too close to watch. One of the
kids kept staring and smiling at me, trying his best to distract me. I
said nothing, threw my hands in the air and gave up on the tai chi. I
walked over to Phuong and Joanna, and said I'll do my exercise at home.
The kids on the bikes rode about 50 yards away, and one of them yelled
F@%K YOU! in Vietnamese at me loud enough for a group of teens taking
selfies, two middle-aged couples and my wife and daughter to clearly
hear. My friend in the U.S. said I should have offered to teach the
kids, who were about 12 or 13 years old, how to say F@%K YOU! in English for a
small fee of, say, 100,000 dong. Phuong and I were both miffed, but those
bold boys took off on their bikes as soon as they swore at the White
Monkey, my Vietnamese wife, and my 16-month-old daughter Joanna. Some
people don't like the moniker White Monkey, but that's what I am to so
many people here. The White Monkey: No other name is more apropos.
Young people shouting F@%K is one of the reasons I don't work for language centers here anymore. When I complained about this behavior in the classroom, staffers always made excuses and defended the foul-mouthed young folk. Well, I say folk that.
Joanna continues to speak a little English and very little Vietnamese. According to internet research, you can't teach a baby two languages in a two-language household any more than you can teach them how to smile, or how to walk. It happens naturally, and Joanna (and all babies, for that matter) know when people are speaking one language or another. "Experts" say to just let the speaking and language thing happen naturally. Joanna seems well-adapted and we're happy with how she's doing. However, two neighborhood kids, a 28-month-old boy and 30-month-old girl, are a little too aggressive with Joanna. Two days ago, the boy shoved Joanna pretty good when she touched a toy elephant on the boy's tricycle (the boy wasn't on his trike at the time) and the girl refused to share any of her toys with Joanna, but she was more than willing to take toys away from Joanna. Kids will do that kind of stuff, so I'm not real concerned. Joanna is a big girl and she'll be able to handle herself in a very short time.
We're researching countries with favorable immigration policies in case the U.S. ultimately rejects our pleas to let Phuong in the United States. Can't imagine that would happen, but you never know. Uruguay and Ecuador are the leading contenders at the moment. We have a few years to worry about this, but we'd like to know something by the time Joanna is 5 years old.
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