We're locked down; turning 5; decisions to make

 As coronavirus swarms around Vietnam in general and Bien Hoa in particular, we're spending 98 percent of our time indoors. New cases, possibly from the new strain, have topped 1,000 a day for the past four days; July 8 had 1,300 new cases and July 9 had 1,600. We're trending in the wrong direction. I ran down to the market in monsoon rain to get some groceries, and the shelves were empty and the place was packed.  It could have been a super-spreader event. People were buying all the noodles available. Some markets limit the amount of a particular item you can buy. My mother-in-law was allowed only one ear of corn at Bien Hoa Market, which has since been shut down. Vegetables are scarce, even in cans. Hard to hoard vegetables, but masses apparently are swarming the few markets that remain open. Our daily trips to the park have stopped, and even the Coffee House is open only for takeout. I got a cappuccino to go yesterday. Seats have been removed from the Pizza Hut, where we go for takeout, which, like all restaurants here now, is all that's available anyway. Ho Chi Minh City announced a 14-day shutdown on Friday, so officials are clearly concerned if they're shutting down the financial hub of the country. Our daughter's passport expires in August and we're told we have to get tested and produce a negative result in order to go to the U.S. Embassy in Ho Chi Minh City. I'll guess this is what life was like in the U.S. a few months ago.
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Our daughter Joanna turned 5 on Friday so I got her one shrimp pizza and one pepperoni pizza, and Pororo grape drink, and my wife decorated the house beautifully for her. I also made her a Birds of Paradise mask, and her cousins got her a stuffed frog, which she absolutely adores until a new favorite comes along. Frogs are her new favorite animal now along with Birds of Paradise. She copies the Birds of Paradise dance and even cleans the dance area, just like the birds do in the David Attenborough BBC video. Joanna was very excited and happy for her birthday and seemed to enjoy herself immensely. She doesn't really have any friends here but there's probably no party gatherings allowed anyway.  She's starting to play a little with her brother Elijah, but he's still having an extremely difficult time with teething. He's a bit of a fussy Gussy, and seems happiest kicking a soccer ball around.
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With new Covid variants and the coronavirus situation here, my wife's waiver application to get a U.S. visa is expected to take longer than usual. No shock there. That puts a decision on Joanna's schooling up in the air. I could continue working with her. She's shown real improvement pronouncing unfamiliar words and can read pretty much anything I put in front of her. Her work with scissors and glue, and her drawing seem very age appropriate. She doesn't like math, which is also probably age appropriate. My issue is that I'm not sure my energy level can be maintained to teach such an active child. Joanna's motor never stops running. I'd really like to get her involved in some sort of sport. She doesn't need much sleep and has never napped, a source of difficulty here for her in the schools. I need more than the 6 hours a night of sleep I've been getting as a 66-year-old.  I was hoping a sport would force Joanna to get to bed earlier and get some more rest, but sports for a girl here even in the best of times would be difficult to arrange.
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My son Elijah is a climber, and readily moves chairs, boxes, pillows or whatever's available – and stack them if necessary – to reach his desired altitude and destination ...  Joanna says to me that she likes speaking English and doesn't want to speak Vietnamese.  She understands more Vietnamese than she lets on ... my reading streak with Kindle is at 84 weeks and 580 days in a row. Since we're locked down, I suspect my streak will continue ... of course there's no more tobacco in my life (more than 5 years) and I haven't had any alcohol (other than what's in Cool Mint Listerine) in more than 19 months. I could see having one glass of champagne if my wife ever gets a U.S. visa ... my friend continues to fight for his life in a USA hospital, and has shown slight signs of improvement. If he gets through this, he deserves to be called Highlander.