I have just arrived from a dinner with very high-level officials from both Philippines and US.
I was seated beside Ralph Boyce, President of Boeing Southeast Asia and across the table was no less than the US Ambassador to the Philippines, His Excellency Harry K. Thomas, Jr. We spent two hours just laughing and laughing.
Amb. Thomas served as Executive Secretary of State for a few years under the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
I asked the Ambassador how he initially felt when he was being assigned to the Philippines. He said he really chose the Philippines. He’s so far been here for 14 months and he has two more years to go before he would probably be assigned back to Washington or to another country.
He said life here is good. When I complained about the many hours I sit in the traffic, he asked me “vacuum or traffic?” He meant if I live in the US, no heavy traffic but I would clean, cook, vacuum. Here in Manila, he said, we sit in the traffic and listen to music.
He has picked up some Tagalog phrases like
maraming tsismis and pogi
Harry, as he preferred to be called, was so funny and down to earth.
