Dragon Diaries #17 – 7=3+10

The last time I left you in the series, we were preparing for a seven-day shut-in. The shut-in was extended by three days. The extension ends tomorrow at 8 AM. We received notice today that the order may be extended for an additional ten days. Besides getting almost daily tests, we haven’t left our roughly 175 square foot apartment in 10 days. And now it could be another 10, for now. But I believe I expressed a hunch that would be the case in the last post. I hope I’m not right this time.

It’s just gotten so out of hand, and there seems to be no end in sight. We had less than 100 deaths four weeks ago. Now we are flirting with 10,000. And cases, in general, have increased so rapidly we are on track to break 400,000 in the coming days. With all but a few thousand coming in the same period. The military has been mobilized across Vietnam. Mainly to the current epicenter of HCMC, or Saigon. Where Essentially Martial Law was enacted Monday. It is the first time military troops have mobilized in Saigon since its fall in 1975. All hopes of us getting out anytime soon are gone.

Images from across the country

Below are images coming in from across Vietnam. Troops gather in the major airports around Vietnam for deployment to Saigon. Armored troop carriers roll in with other military vehicles to enforce strict lockdown measures and help secure and deliver food for needy families across the city.

Supply Issues

Food too is becoming scarce. With the city organizing vegetable donations to neighborhoods, a neighborhood office has been established to order groceries at the end of the street. But often, supplies are limited. In addition, the shortages are causing price spikes, and we prepaid about 50 dollars U.S. for some chicken and a little pork, and a few groceries. The office returned most of our money with a bag of green beans, lettuce, some pudding packs, and a couple of packs of shelf stable sausage that has become Fozzie’s meals. No fresh meat. The pet stores have been closed for over a month, and grocery stores don’t sell dog food here.

Every few days, we get a call to come to the street office a few doors down to pick up produce. It is usually a few potatoes, half a cabbage, and maybe a carrot. But we haven’t received one of those calls in several days. I don’t mean to make anyone panic. We have plenty of eggs and rice. And some meat left in the freezer. Plenty of dry goods and are in no danger of starving. But if supplies continue to dwindle, it could get very desperate for many. In addition, all nonhealthcare essential workers have been ordered to operate at 30% employee capacity. It is straining the food supply chain to its limits.

The Greatest of these is Charity

A lady and her very young daughter that lives next to the salon, and hasn’t worked for months, had not received milk or protein of any kind in days. Kevin, my brother-in-law, reached out to us. Diem asked if we could help. I never heard a question. We bought all the milk the little store had next door and anything else we could get. They do open a few hours every day, to significant risk, I’m sure. Every other local store in the area is a chain and closed. But they are a couple who are independent and quietly open daily for water and very basic items. They keep their front door mostly shuttered and only let one or two people in at a time.

They usually carry a little produce too. But lately, the shelves have been bare. So we worked out a deal to get the street administrator to take the supplies for the family’s street and get the supplies to the lady and her daughter. I check the store a few times a day. They are getting resupplied, but sparingly. For example, they had been out of flour for days, and noodles were almost gone. But yesterday, they had received some flour, tomatoes, a few potatoes, limes, and other vegetables. So I quickly scooped some supplies up. As long as I have flour, I can make noodles and bread. And fresh produce goes a long way to good nutrition.

Massive Testing Program

Diem and I are getting tested at a rate of about every other day. We have to walk about a mile to the testing facility set up in the nearby elementary school. Neither one of us mind the walk. My last test yesterday morning was the worst one I’ve ever had. She really went in there, twisted several times, and then began spinning it against the edge of my nostril around several times with the pivot point about halfway in my sinus cavity. I could feel the swab move from the roof of my mouth to God knows what in the top. I think I lost some I.Q. Points on that one. We take Fozzie with us when we go. It’s the only time we can take him out.

He’s had it the worst. The first few days, he was very depressed. You can’t sit down and explain such a change in routine to a dog. So I bought a bunch of flying insect incense sticks and mosquito coils before the lockdown so we could keep the apartment open. It’s hot, but the sun, warm air, open windows, and balcony make it feel less cooped up. We also open our front door and the front door to the apartment building. It just gives us some space and excellent airflow. Fozzie gets some extra room to run around, and it just improves everyone’s mood. Then, of course, we shut everything up just before dusk and turn on the A.C. I can’t sleep well in the heat.

Testing, testing, testing.

Some minor difficulties

After they announced the first three-day extension, I had a minor issue. I was getting low on my blood pressure medicine. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just walked to the office and explained the situation. The pharmacy closest to us was also closed, as well as most. But there was one open in the district, and they did have a protocol in place. The neighborhood had a designated driver, and I was told to wait at the booth set up at the entrance. A few minutes later, an older man pulled up on a motorbike. He handed me a helmet, and I hopped on back.

He drove me a few miles away to an open pharmacy, and I could get what I needed. The streets were utterly empty. Not a person in sight. It was like a post-apocalyptic scene. Not a soul did we see or encounter except the couple who ran the pharmacy. Heavy equipment on construction sites, trucks, you name it, left as it was as if everyone had vanished. Just disappeared. It was genuinely unnerving and a bizarre scene. Fozzie finally got back to his rambunctious self after about four days, and now we wait. I have no idea what comes next, but I will, of course, let my regular readers know.

Community

The community as a whole is doing its best to help each other as best we can. It’s a real sense of community in a city of 1.2 million people. It just never seems that big. It always feels intimate and small. We have, of course, hired an attorney to help expedite our exit, but right now, it is just not an option. Senator Warnock’s office even allowed us to get our case expedited. But with everything shuttered, exit is currently an impossibility. So we have discussed moving our case to Hanoi, as it is now being processed in Saigon, the current epicenter.

It has been suggested that as soon as any restrictions are lifted, we move immediately to Hanoi, close to the airport. So if we do get our case moved to the Embassy in Hanoi, and since it is expedited, we will be there. Every opportunity we have had since the expedition, something is always an obstacle. Saigon is open. We are on lockdown. We are open, but Saigon is on lockdown. There always seems to be something in the way. Of course, all direct flights out of Da Nang have been halted for almost 18 months, so we will have to go through either Saigon or Hanoi anyway.

An impossible Situation

I fear Diem will not get to say goodbyes to her family. If we move to Hanoi on the next possible opportunity, there will be no coming back. And as things stand with borders closed coming in, I don’t know when we may return. But right now, that isn’t even our biggest problem. Our oldest, Su, was visiting her grandparents when the current outbreak occurred, and they had cases on their street early on, some four weeks ago or more. And their road has been on total lockdown since. So before we go anywhere, we have to get to Su, which is also currently an impossibility. It’s just an overall impossible situation, it seems. But we are trying to hold it together.

Waking up to unfortunate news

I woke up this morning to finalize some pictures and publish this article. As I began to hit the local ex-pat groups and the news to see if there was an update, I knew that cases had not much improved before I even looked. So the proposition of the ten-day extension was high. But I was hoping. Unfortunately, the news was not good. Ten additional days have been added to the shut-in. This means the total lockdown of the city could be well over a month or more from completion. Vaccinations are slow, if at all. A little disheartened, I went to the store next door. They had a few packs of noodles come in, coffee, and flour. We had run out of coffee yesterday, and it was a pleasant sight to see a bag on the shelf.

The food situation

I went to the office at the end of the street again to order food. We will see if it shows up today. I have the makings for a pizza in the freezer I’ve been holding out on. I think today might be the day. It will probably go a long way to lifting my spirits to shovel down a greasy slice of loaded pizza with a cold beer. The recent decree did say, however, that the city was lifting restrictions on food supply workers. As I had mentioned, they had only been working at 30% capacity when everyone in Da Nang went on delivery only—explaining the food shortages. It is not a shortage per se, more of a logistics issue. As of this morning food delivery, and suppliers will be allowed to operate at 100%.

However, there is one caveat. Only if the employees have been vaccinated and tested negative could that detail keep things hampered for a few more days. But that news is positive. As far as cases, yesterday’s totals were just under 20% higher than the previous day. Making, I think, six record-breaking days in a row for new cases nationwide. In addition, we added 355 more deaths. Bringing our death to infection ratio to 2.5%, joining the ranks of some of recent history’s deadliest killers, including measles, smallpox, and cholera.

What’s next?

I’ve got one Constant E. article left in the chamber that will be published in the coming days. Then my stories will have run their course. So it will be Dragon Diaries only for a while. But that’s okay. Maybe I’ll find some more creative things for the website. So this, too, shall pass. So until we meet again. Hopefully, next time I’ll have better news.

Oh, and on a side note. The Vice President of the U.S. is in Hanoi moving around freely while every major city in the country is on complete lockdown. They tightened an already challenging situation just for her visit. The secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, was here a few weeks ago. Again while most of the country was in lockdown, back in October, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Vietnam when thousands of Americans were having their flights canceled and couldn’t get essential embassy services. Just an observation.

A last minute update just before publication

In addition to the extension of the shut-in for ten more days, the city has said it will continue to evaluate areas around the city and begin setting up containment zones designated red, yellow, and green. As the testing data is analyzed, places with no infections will get green status. They may go to standard social distancing measures, with grocery stores and pharmacies at total capacity, and maybe even restaurants opening for pick up only. Yellow zones will have grocery stores with limited entry requirements, and red zones remain as they are now. I pray for at least a yellow.

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