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.
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