Tuesday, November 16, 2010

My best VIP visitor - Justice Clarence Thomas

As loyal readers know in Jordan, the Embassy had LOTS of VIP visitors nearly all of whom were using Jordan as their layover on their way to Baghdad (a subset of VIP visitors had met King Abdullah and Queen Rania somewhere and had taken seriously their invitation"you should come visit Jordan")

Here in Trinidad, while we have had more houseguests (yay!) there are fewer VIPs coming to visit - but last month, I was the control officer for the BEST VIP visit I have ever done - Justice Thomas.

Some visitors are smart and other visitors are kind and Justice Thomas was the rare visitor who was both. I would put Senators Lieberman and Reed in the same smart+nice combination but they are now ranked second and third on my list after Justice Thomas. Justice Thomas gave motivational talks to school kids on the same day that he spoke to judges about framers' intent and the death penalty.

Here are some pictures from the visit. He has promised to come back - I hope he does.

Here is me and the Justice at the Diplomatic Center where we (and by that I mean he with me as the lackey taking notes) met with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar



Here is an actual picture of me being a notetaker. Here we are at the Tobago House of Assembly meeting with the Chief Secretary Orville London.

Here are me and Dan. The Justice took pictures and chatted with every single member of the Embassy, and as a former maintenance guy and son of a domestic worker he started with our maintenance and janitorial crews.