I wake up at 6:30 a.m. to the sound of a woman shouting her wares as she walks by my house, a basket balancing high on her head. “Eggs!” she yells, “boiled eggs!”

The Thai phrase “jai yen yen” which literally means “keep a cool heart” is very special to me and happens to be tattooed over my heart.

Sports have always been my favorite way to connect with people. Soccer, Ultimate Frisbee, Tee-ball – it never mattered what the game was; instead, what mattered was the community and confidence it inspired.

I remember precisely the time and place when I got the news that I had received an invitation to join the Peace Corps in Myanmar. 

Recently, while settling in to watch the new Avengers movie with my counterpart at our nearest movie theater, I had a thought: you haven’t really lived in a foreign country until you’ve watched a movie there. 

Kyaikhto, pronounced “Jai-toe,” is a town of simple, yet entrancing, scenery filled with locals who share a collective appetite for celebration. 

Once upon a time, I applied to be a Peace Corps Volunteer, received an invitation, traveled to Myanmar, began pre-service training, and taught fairytale mad libs. Now, you may be wondering what fairytales have to do with Peace Corps. 

Recently I had the chance to build new partnerships through which I can help promote positive change in my community.  

To give you an example of how motivated my host family is to learn English there was one Sunday I went out for couple of hours in the morning and came back to find that my host mother had learned nearly 50 new vocabulary words.