Waking To The Unknown
Dealing with the adjustment has begun as usual, lots of sleep. Sleeping the first two days mostly away, It seems every time I do wake, the world has slipped a little closer to chaos. This morning I awoke to a canceled NBA season, NASCAR races without spectators, NHL, NCAA, MLB, government buildings, schools, colleges and the like shuttering their doors back home in the states. It really is a good way to cause concern for a current expat as myself.
Here in Vietnam things started as usual. Lots of great food, trips to the mall and local markets, some time enjoying Diem’s company. It is great to be home with her again and it seemed things here, at least for now, would be business as usual. Then I woke up on Friday morning. I had received word that An Lao, the village my wife Diem is from and a place I always visit when in country, would only host us if we quarantined for 14 days upon our arrival.
In short, we weren’t welcome. The local authorities called my father in law Ba, it’s a small town and everyone knew I was coming, and informed him that Da Nang has been declared an infection zone and anyone arriving from there would be quarantined. There are only a couple of confirmed cases in Da Nang, all in hospital quarantine, and I wonder if this is more about public comfort than actual real concern. I will not complain, maybe things will change before I go back to the states.
A Sobering Reality
The unfortunate part of this is that my two stepdaughters Xu and Su are in An Lao with my in laws. They were rushed to the village at the beginning of the breakout in a measure of caution, but are now unable to return. If we go and get them we will be quarantined for 14 days and anyone who brings them to us can not return to An Lao barring a 14 day quarantine of their own. So for now we wait.
The baptism was still on, this is wonderful, but the girls will not be here for it. It’s a reality we must deal with in the air of these uncertain times. God always has a plan so I will not complain or stress, we will enjoy the time we have and hope the ban lifts before I leave as I do so love the countryside in An Lao. Maybe this trip it just isn’t meant to be.
So Diem and I have settled into a wonderful routine of cooking, eating, sleeping, rinsing and repeating. We are hoping to go to Hoi An tomorrow, but we are waiting for approval from the Hoi An authorities. It has been suggested to me, at least for the next week or so, to be a little low key as a stigma is beginning to develop towards westerners. As the tide has turned and it is now the western world struggling to cope.
Vin Com Plaza
We did go to the mall yesterday during my few hours of lucidness as we met up with members of the church and a bowl of chilled noodles, a glass of Vietnamese coffee and to discuss the baptism. We sat next to the ice skating rink as the youth darted and slid around, while we discussed the particulars. I will need a little help and prayers for Sunday as I thought I would just be in attendance, but was asked to actually participate and do the actual baptism.
In the church she has been attending it is customary for her to choose her baptizer and she, of course, chose me. It is an honor I only hope I can live up to. It was a very humbling realization, I just hope I can stop crying long enough to get the words out.
While at the mall we all had our temperatures taken several times as the major stores had guards posted checking for fever. It was a sobering reminder that things, at least for now, were coated with an air of universal caution. After the mall we came home and I again found myself in a sunset induced stupor as my circadian rhythm struggled to cope with strange new hours of the setting eastern sun.
Diem prepared us a delicious dinner as I sat swaying almost paralyzed by the hormonal adjustment taking place deep within my body. After dinner sleep overtook me again like the angel of death and it would be almost 14 hours before I emerged.
Today
I awoke around 10 am local time still feeling a bit of a hazy fog. Diem was getting restless in the apartment waiting for that magical moment when I normalized, but that time had not yet come. I showered and tried to wash the haze away, but it could not be cleansed. Again I fell into a dreamless slumber filled with semi lucent images of blue dragons and the eastern sun.
Around two in the afternoon I awoke to what seemed like a quasi stable state. Diem was ready to move. I donned some appropriate attire and we walked the six or ten blocks, I couldn’t be sure in my current state, down to the street market to pick up some of the bounty just coming in from the open sea. That is something that never grows old. The street sides laden with the days catch, often still squirming, for my edible delights. We procured our favorite. Fresh ocean snails clambering to escape, in addition to some clams, fresh tidal oysters and a slipper lobster.
We headed back to our apartment to prepare our feast for the evening. Fresh lemongrass, mint, garlic and chili, it was a dinner fit for a king. We ate our fill as the sunset over the mountains. As the fading light of the dying sun turned to darkness, sleep overcame me again. A few days more and the adjustment would be complete, until then sleep would come at every turn.
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