No water for a while; seeds in bananas; 'leave fan'

We didn't have water for 36 hours at our house this past week. Even though the time without water was relatively short, it was a big hassle. This wasn't a scheduled shutoff. It was completely unexpected, making it a bigger hassle because we have a 21-month-old girl who has just started potty training. And it's 98 degrees fahrenheit here every day.
The city hired high-quality contractors who were working on the drainage system on our street and they somehow cut the water line to our house. While they were repairing the severed pipe, dirt, rocks and probably litter got into our water line. This prevented water from getting into the house. Our water tank on the roof went empty very quickly and we weren't getting water from the street. So we went dry.
Phuong carried buckets of water from her parents' house to our house while I entertained Joanna. I got the better of that deal. We always have a big container of filtered water in our kitchen (remember, not many people drink tap water), and we used it for coffee and dishes. We washed and bathed out of buckets and used buckets of water to "flush" the toilet. The showers were kind of fun and fairly effective, especially with Phuong's help. Well, that's what Joanna intimated.
When city workers finally showed up, they removed the sidewalk (again!) and cleaned out the line. But they said they could not replenish our empty tank because there wasn't enough water pressure to send the water to the tank on our roof. Their solution was that we buy a "special" machine (probably a water pump) to send the water to the tank. Thanks, guys. But for whatever reason, the water just came back on about five hours after the debris was cleaned from the line. Good work, guys.
Here's a brilliant revelation I had after all of this: Life without clean, running water is incredibly difficult and dangerous. People in Flint, Mich., and Puerto Rico have had to endure this. People deal with this all over the world. I'm a big fan of boiling water, even (or especially) from our tap here. It's interesting how things we take for granted, like water and electric, become super enormous deals when they're taken away from us.

* * *

I've never had bananas with seeds before until I moved here. I bit into a banana and a little black seed about the size of a BB nearly shattered my bridge work. The seeds are quite hard and can number from one to five. The bananas with seeds are shorter and more stout than the bananas in the U.S. and they have a mushier texture. Not all of these bananas have seeds, but many do. People have told me to eat more bananas to combat dizziness from my head injury incurred more than four years ago. My dizziness remains sporadic but I've steadily gained weight from all the bananas I'm eating. Hence, the White Monkey.

* * * 

I know all kids repeat, but my daughter Joanna takes it to another level. She loves to turn off the fan and run away while Phuong and I have dinner in the kitchen. Phuong lets Joanna get away with just about anything that isn't dangerous to her, but I try to set a few limits, especially when it's 98 degrees every day. So I said to her: "Leave the fan alone, leave the fan alone, Joanna!" She ignored me, of course, and ran away after shutting off the fan. But a week later at the tennis court where we play on Sunday nights Phuong turned on the fans in the change-over area, and Joanna immediately barked: "Leave fan!" Also, she loves spotting the tiniest of details in books that aren't related to the story. She'll see a fish in a little picture on the wall in the house of the Three Little Pigs, for example, and shout "Fish! Fish!"  Typical kid behavior, I know, but joyous nonetheless.

Sadly, many of the small kids in the neighborhood will have nothing to do with Joanna and a couple are over the top rude. Life lessons, I guess. And Joanna is quite sweet, but many of the kids could care less about that. The parents care even less than the kids. The parents are taking selfies while their kids try to bully Joanna. More life lessons.

* * *

I won't say much about my tennis with Phuong other than to report that I've lost good leads in our last three matches, so I've fired my coach and replaced my advisors. Of course, I don't have a "coach" or "advisors", but if I did, I'd fire them. Worst thing I ever did was help Phuong improve her serve.

No power, no cold water, no visa (yet), no adult guidance

We've lost power on our street twice in the past two weeks. The power outages lasted about 90 minutes each time and both occurred on Saturday night at about 7:30 p.m. That means no lights and no air conditioning. Since the weather has been typically nasty lately -- 98 in the day with 80 percent humidity -- the outages are no fun for me. I suffer in heat and can't wait to move somewhere cooler, if I don't die from heat stroke and skin rashes first. The neighbors seem to enjoy the power outages, however,  running out into the street and talking excitedly. A big neighborhood cheer goes up when the power returns.  Cheap thrills.
We've lost cool water in our house for the past two days. Our hot water -- we have a solar panel of some sort -- is really, really, hot, and working almost too well. It's not a huge issue because not many people drink the tap water in Bien Hoa. You just have to be careful in the shower or your skin will get burned. Really, it's that hot.
I dealt with pretty much the same issues in Peru except there was no hot water. Cold water was plentiful so showers provided a different challenge.  In Yellow Springs, Ohio, my house has flooding, drainage and plumbing issues, but my wonderful property manager (Teresa D.) is helping me deal with them. Bless you T.D.
My house in Yellow Springs is important because I plan to eventually move there with my wife Phuong and our baby Joanna. But that's contingent upon Phuong getting a waiver to enter the U.S. We sent documents to our lawyer and are still waiting for a response regarding an application for an I-130 visa interview at the surly U.S. Embassy in Ho Chi Minh City. If all this falls apart, I'll lose lots of money but no sleep over this "pathetic" process. But I'm not sure why a country would NOT allow a tax-paying, reasonably loyal citizen to bring his foreign national wife into his native country with her American husband and American child. Phuong is a certified nurse, accountant and IT in Vietnam. She's a dedicated mom. Worthless skills in the U.S., right? Sounds to me like some petty U.S. bureaucrats are on a power trip. I won't lose sleep because our daughter is doing quite well here. I'd rather my American daughter grew up in the U.S. with her American dad and Vietnamese mom, but U.S. bureaucrats seem to want otherwise.

* * *

Now neighborhood kids and teens on our street insist on shouting "FU@K" at me when I walk to a local coffee shop while carrying or holding hands with my 21-month-old daughter Joanna. I guess they're showing off, or something intelligent like that. I ignored it twice, but since Joanna is with me,  I confronted them the third time it happened, but they courageously ran into their house. An older woman was with the boys, so I said the same to her in Vietnamese to demonstrate what the kids were shouting at me. But she refused to look at me the entire time and obviously took no action against the kids. Folks, all I want to do is walk to a coffee shop with Joanna to give her some exercise and get a cappuccino for me. Who benefits from stupid, ignorant behavior like this? It's about the sixth time I've had this happen to me in Vietnam, and the most disappointing aspect is that parents and other adults who are present pretend they don't hear it or act like they're looking the other way. I don't blame the ignorant kids. I blame the ignorant parents and ignorant adults who let it happen. What a bunch of ignominious ignoramuses.

* * *

Phuong and I tied 6-6 in tennis on Thursday, and she beat me 3-6 on Friday. Her style is difficult for me -- she's a counter-puncher who hits a slower ball. This forces the White Monkey to try to generate pace on his shots, but I generate unforced errors instead. Phuong can also hit very well-placed returns that I have to chase down. This wears me out, even though my fitness is exemplary. Ha ha. But I'm not one to make excuses. Ha ha.

Poorly installed air conditioner nearly falls from on high

The bedroom air conditioner in our house almost fell to the floor last week. The unit was poorly mounted above a picture window -- the installers used anchors and screws that weren't big enough and strong enough to support the air conditioner.. It didn't actually fall, but literally hung by threads of the screws. Our 21-month-old daughter Joanna sometimes plays under that air conditioner and looks out the picture window, and the outcome could have been tragic if circumstances were slightly different. Thank God they weren't. The air conditioner, which we purchased at Nguyen Kim in Bien Hoa, works quite well. The installation by store employees didn't work so well, and that's not acceptable. There are no reasons and no excuses for substandard work like this, especially in a house with a baby. I've had issues with substandard work in the United States, Peru, and even Poland. But these issues involved internet, computers and other stuff that wasn't life-threatening. Because of sloppy work, a falling air conditioner could have killed a small child.

* * *

Joanna was quite sick this past week with some sort of stomach virus. She didn't have any energy and was rather cranky. She didn't eat and had diarrhea. We took her to the clinic because we don't have a baby doctor -- I guess that's how it works here -- and the doctor there said a lot of kids in town had the same problem. After three days of medicine, she's back to normal. A little leaner and meaner, but back to normal. I downloaded The Very Hungry Caterpillar video for her when she was sick, and now she's obsessed with it. She'll make a slurping/eating noise to signify that she wants to see the video. She's been walking around the house making slurping/eating noises for a week. Funny kid. I teach six mornings a week, but on Sunday, or when the private students don't show up, Joanna and I walk to a little coffee house nearby. The heat wears her down, which is a good thing because she'll take a nap and go to bed at night instead of playing under falling air conditioners.

* * *

I have nice private students, but my favorite student "Sam" (her nickname) is making remarkable progress. She reads slowly and clearly, expresses herself very well,  and has improved her pronunciation dramatically. And Sam approves of my use of American phonics rather than using the  so-called international phonetic system. American phonics uses the 26 letters of the alphabet, sometimes with symbols above the letters, to create phonemes that represent sound to teach pronunciation, while international phonics uses many symbols that are not among the 26 letters of the alphabet to represent sound (for example: ɖ ŋ æ ʌ) ... There's nothing wrong with the international system, and perhaps it's more precise than American phonics. But to me, the international system is like teaching and learning another alphabet (credit to Chris Larsen for that reasoning). I prefer keeping things simple for my students, and maybe I'm Mr. Lazy (Sam's nickname for me). But I can teach my EFL/ESL students to pronounce any words in the English language, even  choir and squirrels. I guarantee I can improve the speaking and pronunciation of my students because of American phonics. Really, speaking well is what it's all about.

* * * 

We're shipping lots of documents to our lawyer in Cleveland. We're applying for an interview to get a spousal visa for Phuong.We know we won't get the visa, but we're hoping to find why, in God's name, Phuong has a lifetime ban from entering the U.S.

* * *

I blew a 3-1 lead and lost 3-6 to Phuong in tennis on Tuesday.