More roadblocks; cooking, coloring, stairs help us cope

Our street was locked down on Saturday and police patrols have increased with the rise of Covid cases. Apparently, the Delta variant spreads rapidly, and children seem to be more susceptible to it than they were from the previous versions. One of our neighbors was outside sans mask and police nabbed him, made him pay a fine of 2 million dong (about $100 U.S.) and sent him to a clinic to get tested for Covid.  He was pissed. Mini-roadblocks are set up all over the city, not just our street, to keep people in their neighborhoods. You supposedly can only go to the market or pharmacy with a pass, but no random or spur of the moment trips are advised, unless you have deep pockets to pay fines. Some people do, but if they're caught before they reach their destination, they're sent back home lighter in the wallet. Rice, noodles and potatoes, along with pork, beef and chicken are always on the menu. Inexpensive local vegetables are available sporadically at government buildings around town, but items like peanut butter, yogurt, cereal and cheese are hit and miss, and it's mostly miss due to hoarding. The biggest change for me in all this is less walking for coffee breaks, and no cheese and peanut butter. So I drink more coffee at home and I've gotten creative with cooking with help from the Internet. One nice treat I discovered is baked eggplant chunks gently drizzled with olive oil and a spicy salt and pepper mix. It takes about 30 minutes in the new toaster oven and is quite tasty. To replace not walking as much,  I chase my son up and down stairs. Adding to all the fun is that it's been remarkably humid because it's rainy season -- and this is south Vietnam. Government did well staving off Covid in the first year, but the new variant seems to have changed the dynamic. I don't think the old tactics of contact tracing and isolation can control the new variant. There's lot of talk about vaccines, and it seems everybody has signed up to be vaccinated.  Including me. The U.S. apparently doesn't vaccinate Americans overseas.  My wife's dad got jabbed, but that's the only person I know here who's been vaccinated. While I've signed up to be vaccinated, I've learned to hope for the best and expect the worst in situations like this.
• • •
Our kids are sick of being locked down, especially Elijah. He's the guy who loves to run, play soccer, be outdoors, run, and play soccer. Most kids still go out a little here – some with masks and some without –  but my wife doesn't really roam outside much with Little E. That's why he's the reason I've become the stair master. Sometimes, he'll go upstairs just to practice coming back down. Talk about scary stuff. These faux marble stairs are unforgiving as my ugly toe and woeful back and knees will attest to. Joanna has handled lockdown really well. I know she doesn't super love the super hot weather here, so she'll stay indoors and color and read books. Thank goodness two thick Birds of Paradise coloring books I ordered a long time ago finally arrived. The books are well done and Joanna has been coloring in them with her cousin. She's started to help me cook as well, and loves using the big knife to cut the zucchini and eggplant. School continues and her interest waxes and wanes depending on subject matter, which is her teacher's responsibility. It's a challenge, but sometimes we'll stumble into fun lessons, like subtraction with jellybeans and a unit on butterflies.
• • •
Joanna's passport is about to expire, so we're trying to renew by mail, which makes me nervous because we have to mail in her old passport to the embassy, which is pretty limited in operation. If we went, we'd have to spend 14 days in quarantine in Ho Chi Minh City, and then another 14 days in quarantine in Bien Hoa upon our return. In email communication with the embassy, they've done everything to discourage renewing the passport by mail and have told us to either come in (and face quarantine) or wait. Too late. We need the passport to get her a new resident card, which has expired. She can't leave the country, my wife says, unless she has a resident card.  So even if my wife got a waiver for a U.S. visa, we'd be stuck.  And 'round and 'round we go.