School Days in Burma: Stories from the Heart

School Days in Burma is about an American teacher’s working life in Burma, a country that had kept itself isolated from the international community for sixty years. The book describes the wonderment, frustration, and joys of living in a strange land while working in an institution in which he had no prior experiences. His adventure is in trying to survive with dignity while learning the nuances of being an English educator and at the same time striving to grow, learn, and cope in one of the world’s poorest and most backward nations. The experience was a personal transition to better understanding the lives of a downtrodden people. Outside of the classroom, the author traveled on trains, planes, boats, buses, and motorbikes to better understand and appreciate Burma’s ancient past and current culture. Nothing short of fascinating as it would be in any such country, the stories that come alive in this book are compelling. It could be that those who possess the least have the biggest hearts, which is what we learn about the Burmese in the author’s unique view of life in what is now Myanmar.