Dien Bien Phu : First official visit

Photo: Chi Em Co-Director Nathalie and her mother Nhu; Kat with villagers
On Monday, February 26, I returned for the second visit to Dien Bien Phu with the intention of visiting several villages and formally introducing EDM (Entrepreneurs du Monde) and our microfinance project (Chi Em) to the officials. I arrived with my co-partner Nathalie’s mother, Nhu Miller, who is Vietnamese and who serves as the PR adult face of our project. The Foreign Officials representative Mr. Phuong and the District Women’s Union Vice Chairman Ms. Yen met us at the airport with a large bouquet of flowers. After a short lunch where Nhu and I were cordially excused from drinking several rice shots due to our travels, we met with the provincial level officials. That evening, we were not so luckily excused from the rice shots and were joining many such rounds to toast the success of the project.