Cyclone Nargis

Change was a theme that kept cropping up during my visit to Myanmar earlier this year. The changes the country has seen since my grandfather lived there in the 1940s. The changes Cyclone Nargis brought in 2008 to the thousands of families it affected. And the changes that Mercy Corps is helping people make in their own lives.

This month is certainly no different. With signs of political shifts in Myanmar, as well as historic visits from U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton this week and UK International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell earlier this month — the people of Myanmar are set to see yet more change in 2012. There’s a sense of momentum building, and the words of Hla Nu, a 49-year-old grandmother I met earlier this year, seem more apt now than ever.

Hla Nu owns a tiny noodle shop in a remote village. She spoke to me between serving customers and shooing her grandchildren out of the way. When I asked her how her life had changed over the past few years, see cackled and chided me: “Things are always changing,” she said. “Sometimes for good, sometimes not. We can’t ever know what’s next. We can only look forward.”

Read more ▸