Delays in visa bid; fewer masks; distressing times

The date for a decision on my wife's waiver request for a U.S. visa  keeps getting moved back. We hoped to find out as soon as possible after the USCIS acknowledged receiving the waiver request Oct. 28, 2021. At one point, the USCIS web site indicated a decision was possible in late June. Then the date changed to late July; now it's late September. This means our daughter may have to start first grade in Vietnam. The only all-English school in town carries a hefty price tag approaching $20,000 U.S. dollar a year. I've been homeschooling, but I've seen the importance of peers for my daughter's development. She was doing fine with swimming lessons I provided at the pool but was reluctant to put her head under water. I didn't push it. Maybe she was shook up by her fall into a fish pond at a local coffee shop. But when she saw other kids at the pool swimming under water, she lost that reluctance and went under a bunch of times. I believe a little positive peer influence and competition would be invaluable for her.
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Masks seem to be becoming a little irrelevant here, with more people exposing their faces. Perhaps the importance of selfies is playing a role in this. My daughter and I continue to wear masks whenever we go out, which is every day for several hours. We'll walk close to 3 miles round trip for swimming or fish watching at Lido or wherever. Vietnam recorded just over 1,000 Covid cases and no deaths on Sunday. By comparison, North Korea had 100,000 new 'fever' cases but only one death, which is amazing if true. I'm hoping to get a fourth Covid vaccine shot just to be safe.
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I've backed away from watching the news, which is so distressing lately. The Texas shooting upset us greatly; we have a little girl of school age. I was a substitute teacher for a day in a predominately Hispanic class of second graders in California a long time ago, and I remember how sweet the kids were; there was very little English spoken in the class. The war in Ukraine continues with death, destruction and atrocities. There's no end in sight and the repercussions can be felt throughout the world. At least Covid seems less intense except in North Korea, which keeps lobbing missiles into the sea .... Changing to a lighter topic, we've had serious rain daily for over a week. This, I assume, is what a real rainy season is like. .... I got a chilly (that's the spelling on the menu) chicken roll at Bay Leaf Restaurant on Vo Thi Sau and it was outstanding. Every dish I've ordered there has been excellent. .... My Kindle reading streak passed 900 days in a row. I'm at 905. If I get to 1,000 I may miss a day on purpose to keep things at a nice even number.
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I was hit twice in the past week by motorbikes while crossing the street with my daughter. No injuries for me and Joanna or the perpetrators either time. The first bump occured in the rain near The Coffee House. The rider must have really cut his left turn short as he came onto our street because he was in the wrong lane when he bopped me. Since we were past the center line holding umbrellas, I was looking the other way to make sure oncoming traffic didn't hit us, so I didn't see him coming. The impact was minor. I didn't get an apology. The second bump upset me a little more because the traffic light signaled for pedestrians to cross -- the little person lit up green which meant we should cross. I held up my left hand, which was holding a Bluetooth speaker I had just purchased (my right hand held my daughter's hand), just to be safe. Didn't matter because a cyclist banged into the hand and speaker as we legally and properly crossed the street in the zebra (white stripes). This impact shocked me a bit. The cyclist wouldn't make eye contact as I yelled at him about being blind and/or disrespectful, and he took off without looking back. A security guard sitting at a chicken joint on the corner thought the collision was hilarious. I'm not really sure what to do about these types of incidents. Hey, we're like the chicken and sometimes we have to get to the other side. I seemed to have fewer encounters with traffic when I carried my walking stick, but it's difficult to carry bread, pastries, fruit,  AND hold the stick AND my daughter's hand AND chew gum all at the same time. Since my back and foot are now functional, I can go without the stick. Besides, the walking stick makes me look like a fat, beardless Moses.