Left: Ricardo Allicock has Mexican Ambassador Leonora Rueda (centre) and her daughter Valentina Gonzalez in stitches. Right: Cuban Ambassador Gisela Garcia talks business with ODPEM Director General Ronald Jackson.
It must be something about the month of July that sees so many National Day receptions.
The latest foreign nationals to celebrate with their Jamaican colleagues were the French, as they celebrated the 220th anniversary of the fall of the Bastille on Tuesday. This celebration, held at the chic residence of French Ambassador Marc-Olivier Gendry on Hillcrest Avenue, was special for him as it was his first since being posted here. And Ambassador Gendry said he was delighted to play host. He said the celebration was a good opportunity to look at the relationship between the two countries and pointed out some of the latest developments in the continued cooperative efforts.
Among those out were Cuban Ambassador Gisela Garcia and husband Jorge Crespo, St Kitts High Commissioner Cedric Harper, European Union Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi-Alemanni, Canadian High Commissioner Denis Kingsley and wife Jo-Ann, Colombian Ambassador Emilio Ventura Diaz-Mejia, Japanese Ambassador Masahiro Obata and wife Hiroko, Dominican Republic Ambassador Filomena Navarro, Indian High Commissioner Mohinder Singh Grover, Lloyd Moss, Anton and Maria Boerger, Ramon and Deidre Corvera, Marcelo Muņoz and Madai Hernandez, Susan Alexander, Jennifer Lim, Robert MacMillan and Candy DePass, Colonel Trevor MacMillan and wife Dr Olivia McDonald, Dhiru and Laura Tanna, Jean Small, Annette Insanally, Mike and Thalia Lyn, Bruce and Suzanne Bowen, Paul and Oriente Issa, Nicole Hoo-Fatt, Dr Michelle Cromwell, Richard and Diana Stewart, Chris and Michelle Bovell, Sir Roy Augier, Roy and Sylvia Collister, Ian Levy, Anthony and Jeanne Watson and Martha Corbett-Baugh.
French Ambassador Marc-Olivier Gendry toasts the continued good relations between France and Jamaica with Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne at the French National Day reception held at the ambassador's residence on Hillcrest Avenue on Tuesday.
Gordon Craig and wife, Lee, of the Total gas station chain enjoy some wine at the French National Day reception.
We caught Marie-Jose Nzengou-Tayo (left) of the University of the West Indies looking as royal as Senegalese Ambassador Nafissatou Diagne at the French French National Day reception.
The inseparable Omar and Lezanne Azan stop by to celebrate with the French. - photos by Colin Hamilton/freelance photograper