Tet Party at the Consulate

Last evening I went to my first ever Tet (Lunar New Year) Party, which was combined with the Awards Ceremony at The US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. This picture is part of our team (PEPFAR) getting an award from Ambassador Michalak and Consulate General Ken Fairfax. The team was awarded for the extraordinary work in prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Ho Chi Minh City. Also they were awarded for their hospitality of Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC director. Chau (middle) actually picked her up from the airport and I think took her shopping. A lot of the visitor like to go shopping in HCMC!


Jeanine Ambrosio is my boss/mentor for my year as an ASPH fellow. She is wearing a traditional dress and I especially enjoyed the headdress!! She said it was really heavy though and after trying it on she wasn't kidding! I'm looking forward to learning a lot this year as we both try to navigate the system (purposefully ambiguous).


The little children are leading the water buffalo into the party. I think it is symbolic of bringing in the new year since next year is the year of the buffalo. This was quite dramatic with the music and everyone parting the way for the buffalo to make it to the stage!



Our fearless ambassador dressed up in a traditional costume and proceeded to smoke his cigar while the kitchen god reported on all the happenings of the last year. The best part was the report was done in a Vietnamese rap! But apparently the amassador got a little ahead of the process because he asked that the money be distributed to the children before he released the kitchen god to heaven!! So everyone was kinda scrambling to get the red envelops stuffed with 10,000VND to give to the children! The rest of the evening was filled with little sketches, songs and dances. The Vietnamese take their entertainment seriously!

One of the better dances was the bamboo dance. Everyone eventually got involved as we navagated and danced over the moving bamboo sticks! I also enjoyed that many of the officers dressed up in the traditional Vietnamese dress. This was truly a Vietnamese cultural event complete with the very traditional loud music. The evening was beautiful and I was just overwhelmed by the excitement of being part of the US government celebrating the Vietnamese culture. The consulate is situated on the same land as the old American Embassy before the war and there are still trees that look like they have survived it all. I had to stop and realize the significance of the history here.