G-2 Summit

My friend Kristina had 'Facebooked' (is this term part of vernacular English now?) me to tell me that our friends, Tommaso and Monica Tabet, a lovely Swiss-Italian couple that we befriended in the small ex-pat community in Rwanda, were stationed in Hanoi because Tommaso had landed a job with the United Nations Development Programme.

I, not believing this, thought that Kristina had perhaps made a typo and that Tommi and Monica were really in Ho Chi Minh City, or in another country in a city that started with an "H". I shrugged it off. Kristina then 'Facebooked' me again to ask if I had gotten in touch with Monica in Hanoi. So, just to prove her wrong, I sent Monica an e-mail saying that I didn't believe we were stationed in Hanoi at the same time. Because honestly, what were the odds of that? Damn near impossible!

I gasped when Monica responded to me within 5 minutes of receiving my e-mail. She was indeed in Hanoi with Tommi. They had moved to Hanoi in September (a month ahead of me), and this would be such a great opportunity to meet their little 18 month old daughter...GEMMA!

In true Monica and Tommi fashion, the Tabets graciously had me over to their designer, uber cool but understated 7 bedroom colonial house near the West Lake for a fantastic home cooked meal of delicious risotto and plied me with great wine.

We reminisced about Rwanda and it felt so good to laugh at all of our inside jokes - jokes which often started with, "Well it's not like Kibuye/Kigali because...the toilets actually work/we have running water/I'm not working for Light to Pray/the egg yolks are less yellow/Safari and his electric blue basketball shoes/urabesha/namafaranga/cent francs/you don't own the only car in town/where's your sailboat?"

And in between our laughing fits, we'd all just look at each other in amazement and exclaim, "Can you believe this?", "Oh my GOD! I can't believe you're here!", "This is some kind of strange coincidence!".

The best part of the evening though, was getting to attend my first G-2 Summit. Big Gemma (that would be me in this case, but probably not for long) finally got to meet Little Gemma, and I have to admit, the kid is as cute as cute can get. And she was so well behaved and sociable! We played on the xylophone together (it takes so little to amuse me these days), she shared her Japanese soy and wasabi crackers with me (such a refined palate at such a young age) and she devoured all of my ice cream (in addition to finishing hers first). I knew immediately that we were going to be great friends. She is wonderfully sweet and thoughtful, very well adjusted to her new surroundings, and will most likely end up speaking Vietnamese better than her mom and dad and I combined.

Tommi and Monica are amazing parents who are teaching their daughter self-reliance and good manners. When Gemma fell down, she didn't cry, she just picked herself up and kept going where she had to go. When Gemma spilt her water, she picked up a napkin and began wiping the table. Not to mention how proud Gemma is of her little red croc shoes (the shoe obsession probably stems from her 1/4 Filippina heritage). She is truly a little Gem, and I am so proud to share her name. Not to mention that I consider myself really blessed to have such great friends so nearby.

P.S. - Kristina, I will never doubt you again! I really want to be here in Hanoi if/when you come visit on your way to Beijing....xo