Stuffed animals take unexpected swim in canal

Two small children -- a chubby boy and chubby girl who are apparently under the care of two older folks -- follow me and Joanna around the park when we're fishing. Joanna almost always carries a stuffed animal with her when we go out every afternoon. So this past week I'm fishing and Joanna is hanging nearby scouting for fish in the water and playing. The two kids usually try to take whatever animal Joanna has and then they'll run away. This day, Joanna put her stuffed animal on the ground next to me to get some bait, and as quick as a jackrabbit the chubby boy picked up Joanna's red cow and tossed it into the mucky canal.  The two older folks in charge of the kids laughed, which can be something of a standard reaction to anything here. Joanna shrugged it off, saying "he just threw the cow in the river. Sorry, cow." The animal  was a freebie with yogurt that I bought. I guess the worst part of this is that it's the second time these 2-year-olds have done something like this. A week before, the girl threw our bait in the water (some crickets and worms) and the boy tried to push our fishing pole in the water. He almost succeeded and Phuong had to climb the little concrete wall to retrieve the pole; it was a dangerous maneuver I wouldn't try, but I'm an old man. Joanna and Elijah were fascinated by the whole process, from the kids tossing our stuff to Phuong's crazy acrobatics to salvage the gear. We saw the same clan a few days later when I was fishing with Joanna. The whole group -- adults and kids -- were so loud and disruptive screaming about the worms we had for bait that Joanna went and played elsewhere and I stopped fishing. My wife came and told them to back off and they just laughed. They said something about the kids just having fun (throwing our crap in the yucky water) and that the kids were too fast for them to handle. The kids are two years old and both quite chubby for children.  Sadly, we just don't fish if we see them there. I don't want to create a real confrontation by yelling at them to get the hell away from me and my daughter. Besides, they would just laugh anyway.
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Lightning struck us twice this week at the park when a 3-year-old boy took Joanna's little stuffed shark out her hands and threw it in the canal. We were passing through the park on our way to Kim Koi 2 when the boy came up to Joanna and acted like he wanted to play. The boy was pretty aggressive and seemed to have some issues and the man with him -- most likely his grandfather -- did the expected when the shark went into the water. He laughed. Joanna said something to the effect of "we'll get a new shark," not quite understanding that it had some sentimental value since it was a gift from her cousin.  So let's get this on the record: In the past few weeks Joanna has had a 6-year-old boy come up and put his middle finger in her face; a chubby boy threw her stuffed cow into the canal and the chubby boy and his chubby sister tossed bait into the canal and nearly got our fishing pole into the canal as well; a boy tossed her shark into the water; earlier in the month, two men grabbed her arms when she didn't respond to their nonsensical drivel in a fashion that suited them -- I hip-checked one idiot and poke-checked the other with my walking stick. My stick is often targeted by kids if I put it down at the park when fishing. I'd hate to see it lost in the canal or broken since my brother gave it to me before he died. For me, it's no laughing matter.
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I haven't had cigarettes  (nearly five years) or alcohol (14 months), but I drink two or three cups of coffee a day, which is probably counterproductive for my sweat glands in the 93-degree heat ... My reading streak continues. It's at 61 weeks and 419 days in a row, thanks in part to Dune and Dune Messiah. I liked Dune but found it a little cumbersome. I really like the sequel, probably because I know the characters (by reading Dune) and the plot is easier to digest. ... This is my 300th blog post, and the blog has 71,600 hits overall ... We've made no hard and fast decision on coming to the U.S. as we monitor Covid and the new strains, and keep an eye on political tensions in the U.S. No doubt we'll get there soon enough for the sake of our two children ... and their stuffed animals.

Fish tale/tail has a happy ending; waiting again on visa

It's a water most foul that must carry the garbage discarded by a city under construction. Its flow is sluggish. That there's life under this wicked, often black waterway is a testament to the resilience of nature. It's amazing.

OK, I'm certainly not Melville or Hemingway, but I caught my first fish in the canal that runs through the park near our house. The best thing about the fish I pulled out of the canal last week was the reaction it produced in my daughter Joanna. She jumped for joy and ran up to see the little catfish. The smile on her face brought me so much joy. She loves all things fish and my catch after seven trips to the canal made both our days. A change of bait -- blood worms instead of meal worms and crickets -- resulted in a couple of strikes. My gear consists of pole, line and float. It has no reel, which added to the challenge. I don't even know how to keep the line tight. Maybe I don't need to since I caught the fish regardless of equipment. The second best thing about the catch was that there were quite a few people in the park at the time, and I even got congratulated.  My wife got pictures of the catch, and she also got a video. I have them on my phone so when I start getting advice while fishing, I'll flash the photos to quiet my many detractors. Ha ha. I may have lost Moby Dick off my hook the day before, but that didn't matter to Joanna on Thursday, and that's what mattered to me. And, by the way, catfish must be able to survive in pretty much any kind of water. That's why some species are prehistoric, I guess.
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Across the street from the park, a huge coffee shop opened with little waterways containing lots of koi. The idea is to attract families and kids, who can buy little containers of food for the fish. The problem I've noticed is that kids don't want to leave, and departure includes crying and complaining. The walkways are somewhat narrow, which means there are percentage points for some kids falling into the water. Joanna acts terrified around heights sometimes, but she's fearless as she runs and jumps along the waterways. The water isn't deep, but the hassle would be deep if she fell in. The coffee shop is very close to our house. but we have to walk down a narrow walkway between the houses. The problem is motorbikes have started using this walkway more frequently as a shortcut, creating a danger for Joanna and possible confrontation with pedestrians like me who don't like aggressive and belligerent motorcyclists honking their horns for Joanna and I to put our backs to the wall so they can race by. Joanna is really good at tuning out nonsense like this, but I get upset when my daughter is threatened. I don't want to get upset, so I want my wife to find out if it's OK for bikes to use the narrow walkway as a cut-through. If it's OK, we'll take the long way around on the sidewalk to the park or coffee shop or wherever. But that provides no guarantee you won't be confronted on the sidewalk by a cyclist or even a car. As noted, I've been hit a few times by bikes while walking on the sidewalk or walking across the street in the supposedly safe "zebra." A friend here told me the situation is much worse in India; he said it feels like the motorists want to hit pedestrians. Another friend mentioned the perils of city traffic in Sri Lanka. As if Covid and a possible uprising in the U.S. aren't enough to worry about ...
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Phuong was rejected in the final phase of her visa application, but it's not a huge deal. She needs to get a medical exam again because her previous exam expired. We reapply when she gets the exam and we should be good to go ... again. It's been a six-year struggle. Every choice we make comes with difficulties but schooling for our children remains the overriding concern. Of course, Covid and insurrection in the U.S. will figure into what we ultimately decide, but since my daughter exclusively speaks and reads English, the choices speak for themselves. And I won't lie. Teaching Joanna at home is tricky and exhausting. There's no question we've bonded, and Joanna has taught me more than I could ever teach her. But the fatigue factor enters into how well I prepare and deliver a lesson. I believe schools in the U.S. are better equipped than schools here -- and me -- to handle Joanna's unique skill set and personality. At least I hope they are.

New vision; Tet rules; fish, aggression, hope

My new eye doctor at the American Eye Center in Ho Chi Minh City has halted the pain in my eyes with prescription and over-the-counter medicine, and he got hold of the proper eye medicine for my glaucoma. Too bad he doesn't work on backs. I got new eyeglasses there as well, and since they're not scratched to blue blazes like all my other pairs, I can see again.  And I like what I see. My daughter Joanna's wall of fame --with animals and other dot-to-dots that she colors, and a few cut-and-paste projects -- is filled with 104 pictures that she has done in the past 71 days. I also see Joanna "sneaking" books and being able to read them on her own when no one's around. She won't do anything unless she's completely sure of herself. I see my son Elijah standing with assistance from chairs and tables and anything else he can get his chubby little hands on. For better or worse, he looks like his dad, but for better he seems to have his mom's pleasant disposition. Yes, my new glasses and healthier eyes have given me a wonderful outlook on life.

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Christmas and New Year's aroused little interest here as people have already started gearing up for February's Tet holiday, the granddaddy of them all in Vietnam.  The gearing up includes cleaning and home construction, getting married, and even burying the dead. We experienced all of this over the traditional western holiday period. The ringing on Christmas Day came from the sound of a jackhammer demolishing the house behind us. The cleaning was provided by trash collectors, who hauled away our wrapping paper hours after Joanna opened her presents. There was a very tasteful and low-keyed wedding ceremony on New Year's Day and a very loud and tedious 3-day funeral service, featuring a 3 a.m. startup by the band. The funeral culminated with the body being taken from the house and driven down the street. I was told the body was in the house for a year before the ceremony.  I can't disagree with a friend's assessment that it's never dull on our street, although it was fairly quiet when my friend came to visit. The cleanup and construction will continue right up to Tet, which is February 12 this year.
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We've got a new family hobby: fishing. Joanna and I go to her favorite fish store and pick up worms and crickets. Phuong (Santa) got Joanna a pole for Christmas and we all meet at the renovated park where we're good to go .... fishing. No catches yet, but I did see a gigantic catfish in the murky, mucky, yucky, black water, which comes from the Dong Nai River and local toilets, I suppose. I've gotten a few hits; one pretty strong that took the bait off the hook, but Moby Dick got away.  The crickets upset Joanna for some reason, and she let them all free the last time we went fishing. She'll let me hook the worms, however. I'm the pole-sitter (actually, I stand the whole time) and keep telling my daughter and wife that the big one is imminent.  Phuong walks Elijah around the park in his new Japanese stroller while Joanna plays. Meanwhile, I get plenty of unsolicited advice from passersby -- in decent English and unintelligible Vietnamese. Everyone is shocked I'm not rapidly hauling lunkers out of the muck, and they've told me on three occasions that other guys are catching lots of fish. Obviously, I wouldn't keep any fish I caught out that water. There are pictures of the canals and water somewhere on this blog.
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A new coffee shop has opened at the park near our house, and it's going to have a gigantic fish tank and pool for kids. And the park's renovation is pretty much finished. It looks a lot better with brick paving.  Foot traffic has increased in the park, and unfortunately it included a couple of unsavory characters last Saturday, both of whom were very drunk. One tried to take a "friendly poke" at me, which I easily defected with my right hand while holding my walking stick in my left. The fat white monkey with the lame back still has a tiny bit of chi flowing. Another guy was mad that Joanna didn't respond to his drunken "happy new year" and grabbed her by both of her arms. I hip-checked the clown and signaled hands off. At the loud and excessive 3-day funeral service across the street from us, an older man approached Joanna saying some kind of greeting in Vietnamese (I guess). She backed up a little and the guy started to grab her arms; my walking stick intervened and the guy sulked away. Onlookers laughed at all three intrusions on our personal space. We've applied for our visas to the U.S. and their arrival is imminent, we hope, even though things aren't exactly ideal in the U.S. with Covid and bad politics raging. My holiday wish for hope and a new start were dismissed by some, who tried to sow seeds of dissent by invading the Capitol Building, and there are those who continue to foster division and hate. That won't affect our decision to return. We want the best for our children, and that's in the U.S. where we believe people will ultimately make good decisions and do what's right ... for all of us.