Kiwi Christmas Dinner Ho Chi Minh

I received a generic email invitation last week to join the New Zealand Consulate General and his wife, Graeme and Libby Sims, and the New Zealand Chamber of Commerce for a Kiwi Christmas Dinner on Saturday afternoon evening. The venue was a villa in a gated community at Springs, a newer part, out on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. I decided to accept the invitation, pay the 500,000 Dong and enjoy Kiwi company and conversation. Graeme, the consular hails from Featherston so we were able to talk about the Wairarapa and rugby. As well as meeting 2 parents from British International School I made two interesting connections. Fonterra has a large presence in Asia and an office here in HCMC staffed by Kiwis, whose children attend our school. I also met Jane a Vietnamese doctor, married to a Kiwi, who works for the medical centre our company uses. So now I officially have a doctor. The New Zealand Consulate hosts a number of functions during the year including a food festival in March, designed to bring together the expat Kiwi population in HCMC. The time passed quickly, sipping New Zealand wine as the sun set, eating pavlova, jaffas and pineapple lumps. Suddenly the world got smaller. The villa setting, food and company were very much New Zealand, and you could be forgiven for thinking one was home. Once you stepped out of the geographic warp and through the gates of the community you were 9,000 k back in Vietnam. The paddy fields, the motorbikes, the tooting and the language. Almost Alice in Wonderland stuff, Gods own recreated. Such a nice way to acknowledge being Kiwi.