PARTING SHOTS. US Ambassador Kristie Kenney says it is ‘heartbreaking to think of leaving the Philippines, where she has endeared herself to many people with her down-to-earth and charming ways.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, an English playwright once wrote.

Well, Kristie A. Kenney, the US Ambassador to the Philippines, doesn’t fancy herself as Shakespearean, and she’s as wiry as Justine Henin, traipses with the grace of Chris Evert, and slashes a backhand return as wickedly as Andre Agassi.

But Filipinos, especially those whose lives she touched with her effervescence and refreshing candidness for the past three years, will find it bittersweet to say goodbye once Ms. Kenney departs from her post a few months from now.

Flashing a megawatt smile when she took on the assignment in March 2006, she’ll be leaving behind a long trail of sad admirers who roared with delight when she danced the “Papaya” on television, wept with gratitude as she led relief operations during typhoon Ondoy, and applauded when she brought indigent children to the Philippine Basketball Association to watch the games.

“Heartbroken to think of leaving the Philippines,” Ms. Kenney writes in her Facebook account, about the same day US President Barack Obama named an African-American as her replacement. “But now it’s time for me to plan to be with my family.”

She then makes a heartfelt appeal to “my FB friends to help me not be sad but to enjoy and savor my remaining months in this lovely country.”

That shouldn’t be difficult for her legion of online friends, now numbering in the tens of thousands and still growing.

“I’m a career diplomat so I work for whoever is president…and with great pride, if I may add,” she said in the middle of a US Embassy tennis tournament where she plays doubles.

“But I want to rest for a while. My family needs me; my mom is 86 and I’ll probably spend three to four months with her before I go to my next assignment.”

Appointed as the country’s first female ambassador during the term of US President George W. Bush, Ms. Kenney set the stage for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s two-day official visit last week.

“It’s an honor, this job,” she said.

A month before her fourth, and last, Christmas here, Ms. Kenney has been spending her free time decorating her Forbes Park home, she wrote on Facebook.

She is also determined to win yet another tennis championship.

“We’re playing just for the honor and the fun of it, and a little medal,” she said. “Doubles (singles take too long – Ms. Kenney adds) encourages people in the embassy who are either too shy or we don’t know they play.”

An unabashed Agassi fan – ‘His backhand where he hit it so high is the best’ – Ms. Kenney isn’t shy about admitting trying to copy her tennis idol’s moves.

“Mine never looks like that, of course,” she said, laughing. “And whenever you see me make big mistakes, you’ll know I’m trying to do the Agassi shot.”

One move she easily waltzed through copying is the “Papaya” dance, an ‘80s disco hit brought back to live by game show host Edu Manzano.

Recalling how Manzano taught her the steps during a commercial break when she made a guest appearance in “Game Ka Na Ba?”, Ms. Kenney remembered telling herself, “the worst thing that could happen is I’d look silly. But I could laugh at myself and it’s not such a big tragedy.”

And what has been the reaction to her TV dance debut?

“Well, no one has offered me a job as a dancer, but people were very kind,” she said, again laughing.

Truly, she does that a lot, breaking into a nervous, little girl laugh that is at once endearing and disarming.

But it has not always been all mirth and fun. The disaster wrought by typhoon Ondoy two months ago came as a shock to her.

“It was extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Ms. Kenney, who dispatched US soldiers engaged in military exercises in the south, army helicopters and medical teams to the affected areas.
She also threads carefully when talks veer to politics.

“I don’t have a lot to say. Filipinos vote, not me,” she said.

Attending the funeral of former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino last August, said Ms. Kenney, was her way of showing respect for a person of “great compassion” and who “I like her personally.”

“It’s not politics,” she said. “Everybody knows we’re not gonna endorse (any candidate). We don’t intrude.”

Married to U.S. Ambassador to Columbia William R. Brownfield, Ms. Kenney said she is looking forward to also spending more time with her husband.

“It’s 36 hours flying to Columbia,” she said. “So meeting halfway is what we do.”

But not anymore, Madam Ambassador, and a grateful nation wishes you the best in your next assignment.

And in your Andre Agassi backhand, too.