During a brief vacay in Hawaii, we rode with this Vietnamese-born cabbie twice. We
liked him because not only was his cab spacious and clean but he was also honest &
very helpful with our bags -- as in siya bumubuhat lahat (Puro self-service sa US eh).
He said he is always extra helpful to Pinoys and hoped to visit one day soon.

We chatted him up a bit on the 2nd ride and found out he was a former Vietnamese
refugee. While their life there was pretty good, his voyage out was hair-raising to the
extreme. After having lost EVERYTHING on leaving Vietnam, he said he found that their
boat was not welcome anywhere else. They wanted to head for Hawaii, he said but with
crude navigation only managed to go around Asia. Some countries merely shooed them
away while others even shot up their boat, killing many of his boat-mates and including
women and children.

He nearly had tears in his eyes (and so did we) when he said most of his boat-mates
died and their boat started leaking badly from all the bullet holes when they finally
landed in the Philippines -- the only country at the time who welcomed them and even set
aside a place for them.

He was finally processed as a refugee and that's how he ended up, finally, in Hawaii
but he said his sister, among others, decided to stay after having married locals and
peacefully raised their own families. He will never forget, he said, that in their
hour of direst need the Philippines was the only country that helped them despite all
our own troubles. Truly, one of our finest moments as a country and a people.

To this day, that cabbie leads fund-raising efforts whenever some national disaster
happens in the country -- like Ondoy. I hope he's able to finally save up to visit his
sister, whom he writes and calls often.