Week Three

This past week was packed full of teaching, taking Vietnamese language classes, meetings with potential research funders and invites to dinner. Lectures included organizational behavior, writing articles for international publication and cultural differences. Eric, of course, co-taught the cultural differences workshop with me along with Hoa, our friend's niece who just returned from Lehigh University. I continue to edit papers for the conference "Women Entrepreneurs in Industrial Revolution 4.0" which will take place on October 18th at VWA. We will have presenters from Viet Nam, Indonesia, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. (me). Two of my colleagues, Katelin Maher from USAID-Vietnam, and Jennifer Kuhlman, Director of the Solidarity Center, Hanoi, will be attending and meeting separately with Dr. Kim Ahn, Vice Director of the VWA.

English Club 

 

Eric and Hoa

To celebrate the Autumn Festival, we were invited by Lan Ahn and Vinh to Tuyen Quang- a town about 2 hours north of Viet Nam- where the festival originated. Dinner that evening was quite an affair as we were joined by the Chairman of the Province and some of his staff. The next day we traveled further into the country-Lam Binh- where we stayed in an upscale stilt house followed by another big dinner/celebration with officials and friends from the local area. As customary, we all sat in circles of 6-8 people each and were served "family style". Eric was a "good" guest and made the rounds to each circle, socializing and toasting- a "must do" for men in Viet Nam.

After dinner, mattresses are laid out under the eaves of the stilt house with curtains for privacy--the sounds of the surroundings lull you to sleep. Pho Bo for breakfast at the nearby government building and then back to Hanoi for another full week of work!