‘I think with Filipinos, you feel very comfortable. When you speak with them, they respond enthusiastically. They are a very happy people, very accommodating and very helpful.’
In 2019, Sonya Lu, a diplomat from Taiwan, arrived in Manila to assume her post as the deputy director of the Political Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines.
Since then, she has, for the most part, performed her duties at the office, while being a mother to her children and wife to her husband — and all the while enjoying the company of the Filipino people.
As she looks back, Sonya has enjoyed her Philippine assignment because "Filipinos are very warm and friendly," she shared in an interview while enjoying her halo-halo at the lobby of The Peninsula Manila. With us were DAILY TRIBUNE publisher, Willie Fernandez, who served as chairman and resident representative of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office, a sui generis organization, in Taiwan, and his wife, Chingbee, a commissioner of the Tzu Chi Foundation, the world's largest Buddhist humanitarian organization founded in Taiwan by Buddhist nun Dharma Master Cheng Yen in 1966.
"I think with Filipinos, you feel very comfortable. When you speak with them, they respond enthusiastically. They are a very happy people, very accommodating and very helpful. Today I went to the bank. After that, I was kind of in a hurry. I wanted to call a cab on the street. A security guard who was standing at the side of the road approached me. 'Do you want to call a cab?' I said, 'Yes. Okay, let me help you get one.' Filipinos are very easy to talk to."
Amazing 'yaya'
Sonya had not been going around much, partly because the pandemic kept her at home most of the time. "But I went to Siargao Island once in connection with my work, and I found the place charming. I felt very lucky to have been given the chance to see it."
After the pandemic, she learned how to play golf and would now and then play with girlfriends in what she describes as "normal courses. But I'm not a good golfer. I just enjoy the game and enjoy the company and the conversation. And after that, have dinner with friends. Very relaxing. Appreciation of good food is a value that we share with Filipinos."
Filipino food, too, has been a source of delight to Sonya, as prepared "by our yaya, who is a very good cook. I especially like her beef caldereta. She actually could cook all kinds of dishes. Her pastas are equally good. She learned international dishes when she worked abroad. What is amazing about her is I send her to the market every week and she buys the same ingredients, but she comes up with a variety of dishes, each with a different taste and flavor."
Flexible mom
The mother of two kids, 18-year-old Andrew and 11-year old Francis, Sonya is pleased where they study, the International School of Manila (Andrew has just graduated from Grade 12), "they have very good facilities and very diverse students. Teachers are very accommodating. I mean, they allow the kids to develop by themselves in their own time."
She further said, "For example, my bigger son would sometimes forget to bring certain things he needs in school and I have talked about the problem with his teacher. The teacher would say, 'You just need time for them to learn.' She was very reassuring.
"The kids are learning how to be responsible and self-organized. I asked the same teacher if there was anything I could do to help my kids, and she said, 'No. Just give them time and remind them that they need to be patient.'"
Sonya considers herself "a very flexible mom. Maybe I will remind my eldest, 'You need to study hard. You need to be responsible for what you do. And don't do drugs.' But the rest of the stuff, I think I'm pretty open. For example, after the pandemic he went back to school and there were many activities like going abroad to attend a swimming competition, the music camp or, even after graduation, going to Boracay with his friends. I said yes to all. Because, after all, they have been at home for quite a long time."
Flight attendant first
Being a mother and a diplomat melds easily for Sonya, who started out in a different career right after college. "Unlike my colleagues who took up international relations, I majored in Economics at the National Central University in Taiwan. Then, I became a flight attendant of China Airlines."
It turned out she did not like the job, after all. "While I had the opportunity to travel to many places, I somehow felt lost because I was not developing as a person and as a career woman. So, I left and joined an electronics company where I stayed for five years." She was both sales representative and project manager. For the latter, "we designed products with our clients. "I didn't have the technical background but I could communicate in English with my clients in the US. I kind of fell in love with the translation and interpretation part of the job. I did the communication aspects for our engineers. Even if I didn't know what exactly they were doing, I was able to translate their work. That's why when I took my master's degree, I decided on Translation and Interpretation."
It was foreseeable she would look next for a job where she would be able to practice her specialization, but more importantly, "I wanted to explore new things and take on new challenges because that was my personality. I thought I'd probably become a diplomat."
She next took a national exam to qualify for work in Taiwan's foreign service and passed it in 2008. She received a training for six months in Taiwan and further training in the USA.
Dream post
"My first assignment was the Department of North American Affairs, which is in charge of Canada and the United States. Not Mexico. I worked in the department for about two years in our Taiwan headquarters. Then, I left for the Monterey Institute for International Studies in the West Coast for language training."
She was then assigned to Washington, which she describes as "the political capital of the world." By then, she had already married. Her husband went with her. She gave birth to their first-born in the US.
"It was my first foreign posting and it was a dream post for me," she said. She was first counsellor and was in charge of documentation, which involved issuing passports and authenticating documents. Her husband, meanwhile, took care of their home. "He had to resign from his work in Taiwan so we could be together."
While she experienced culture shock having grown up in a conservative culture that was Taiwan's "where our family values are very strong, we enjoyed the changing of the seasons. So, in the spring we enjoyed cherry blossom. In fall we would go to a place called Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to see the foliage and the change of color. Sometimes we would go hiking. But, most of the time, we were just home because we had a new-born baby. We also managed to go to some places like Niagara Falls in the North. And before I came back to Taiwan, the whole family went to Disney World in Florida. My kids still talk about it."
After a brief stay in Taiwan, "where I enjoyed the company of my parents and performed basic chores like doing grocery," she was sent to the Philippines.
A few months after her arrival, the pandemic happened. "Actually, I still went to work," she recalls. "Our house is very close to the office. We took turns to work. But a part of my job portfolio was health, so I would update our headquarters on the Philippine pandemic situation.
"Thankfully, I didn't get sick. I consider myself pretty healthy because I eat well, sleep well and then take the appropriate amount of water every day."
Besides, with a home gym, she works out every day and follows instructions on YouTube where "there are many work out videos. So, I choose. Today, I want to have aerobics, the next exercise to improve my abs or the upper body. I also take lessons in yoga."
Sonya listens to classical music as well as pop, counting among her favorites Taylor Swift, One Direction and Westlife. So, I don't have a communication gap with my son."
Always slim, she carries her dresses well and just buys reasonably priced off-the-rack outfits because "I use most of my salary to pay tuition in IS. I don't have money left for shopping."
Philippine coffee lover
As of the time of our interview at The Peninsula Manila, Sonya was getting ready to return to Taiwan where she will resume work with her mother agency — the Department of North American Affairs of the Taiwan foreign service.
She was excited about being together with her family. Eldest son, Andrew, had returned earlier to Taiwan after he graduated. "I will hear him play his violin again," shared Sonya proudly. "When he was in Taiwan, he also joined the Youth Orchestra in Taipei."
Of her younger son, she said, "Oh, he loves to play his videogames and I let him enjoy after he has done his school work. I have no problem with my sons. I am very lucky."
Her affection for her boys is palpable. Chingbee Fernandez has observed of her good friend, Sonya, "she is the epitome of a modern woman, one who is excellent in her career, one who is efficient, thorough and firm, and yet, she is soft inside when she talks about her family, especially her sons."
It is the friendship that she has nurtured in the Philippines that, Sonya said, she will bring home with her. "I will always have fond memories of this country especially the Filipinos who have been warm and caring."
Of the few things or pasalubong she will bring home from the Philippines, number one on her list is coffee. "We have a friend whose family brews coffee, including his mother and son. I love their roasted coffee. He has coffee beans that are locally produced. I love Philippine coffee," she declared.
When asked what else she would miss of this country, she teasingly replied, "The traffic," but taking back her word, she said, "eating with friends…"
"…And especially eating halo-halo with them."
Shifting into a pensive mood, she said, "I think I would miss the comfort of the environment. Because my husband said, and I kind of feel the same thing, living in a western country, you still feel you don't fit in 100 percent. And also, just deep down, there's still the social discrimination.
"But here in the Philippines, I feel very comfortable. Probably because it's an Asian country. One just feels so at home in the Philippines."
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