For the past six months, I have been cooperating with the reckless driving case against the truck driver who hit and severely injured me last November. While as a victim I have appreciated having an opportunity to be heard, the process has — perhaps unsurprisingly — required me to repeatedly present my trauma for examination, documentation, and validation, often with unclear results.
Sixth Tour Bidding: Postscript
In January, while V and I were on R&R in Vietnam, I received the excellent news that my assignment following the end of my tour in Rangoon would be as consular chief in Sarajevo. I could not have been happier, as Sarajevo had been my top choice during bidding the previous fall.
After receiving the handshake, I wrote here on the blog that I would tell the story of how it went down; four months on, I am finally getting around to that.
Year in Review: 2025 Blog Stats and Recap
I have both been writing this post for months and procrastinating finishing it. I normally publish my annual recap and blog stats in January, or at least earlier in the year.
But I hesitated to relive the personal and professional difficulties I experienced in 2025. A stressful international move, a life-threatening accident, family illness, job insecurity, work-related chaos, and policy whiplash were all lowlights in 2025. It’s a lot of work to dig through it all and think about how to organize and convey the details in a way that’s interesting to people aside from me.
Upon reflection, though, in characteristic form, I decided that feels like all the more reason to write this post — even if it took me a while to find the words, and even if no one else particularly notices whether I keep up what has quietly become an annual tradition. I would notice. And as the memories slowly fade around the edges, I think in the future I would regret letting a year like this pass without summary.
Before the Tipping Point
March felt like something of an in-between point on this tour: past the halfway mark, but still before it was time to worry about another PCS move.
The weather carried the feeling of a perpetual lazy summer. I was no longer struggling with a walker or wheelchair, and spent much of my time focused on physical therapy. I was endlessly grateful to have regained some mobility and freedom.
We were done with our January and February trips to Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand, and soon it would be time for our big April R&R trip back to the United States. But for the moment, it was simply good to be at home.
A Rolling Portrait: Yangon Circular Railway
In March, the embassy’s Community Liaison Office (CLO) organized a weekend day trip to ride the Yangon Circular Railway.
Often called the “Circle Line,” the train travels on an approximately 28-mile (45 km) loop track around the city. It is supposed to be one of the most atmospheric and socially revealing railways in Southeast Asia. It’s not only a commuter railway and a relic of British colonial infrastructure, but also an informal street market, a lifeline for people who need to travel inexpensively, and a beautiful way to understand how the city is laid out.
Finally, Bangkok for Tourism
One of the amazing delights of serving a tour in Rangoon is its proximity — via a one-hour flight — to Bangkok. Similarly to how we viewed the southern Kazakh city of Shymkent (located within driving distance of my first posting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan), Bangkok offers shopping, international cuisine, real banking and medical care. It’s also a genuine reprieve from the stresses of Rangoon, such as burning garbage and electrical outages.
On our prior trips to Bangkok, we have been most interested in what it offers that isn’t otherwise available to us. With that said, Bangkok is a world city with plenty of things that make it special and worth visiting, not just in comparison to Rangoon but independently. In February we finally took that kind of trip to Bangkok.
A New Normal
As I mentioned in a previous post, February was the month where life started to slowly feel like it was getting back to normal again for us in Burma. We returned from our R&R in Vietnam and Indonesia with some fresh perspective and gratitude, ready to hit the reset button.
As we reached the halfway point of our tour and I was finally able to leave my walker and cane behind for good, we focused on making memories and ensuring my accident neither became the legacy of our time in Rangoon nor overshadowed the time we had left.
A Moment of Silence
It was a year ago today (March 28) that a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Burma (Myanmar), leveling buildings, destroying infrastructure, and killing and displacing thousands.
A few hours later, on the other side of the world, March 28 dawned in northern Virginia. I arrived at FSI early in the morning before Burmese language class and sat down to do my homework. Checking the news for any Myanmar-related stories I could do a report on, I stumbled upon news of the disaster that had happened in Sagaing, near Mandalay, while I was sleeping.
Pool Villa Life, Part II
Before too much more time elapses, I want to finish sharing my thoughts about the third part of our January R&R — in Bali, Indonesia.
On My Own Two Feet
I’m pausing my recounting of our January R&R travelogues to share an update—and a few reflections—on my recovery from my truck vs. pedestrian accident last November. Although it occurred three-and-a-half months (15 weeks) ago, the importance of rehabilitating my injuries during the remainder of my tour in Burma still looms large.
Pool Villa Life, Part I
I planned our January R&R from my hospital bed in Bangkok last December. My intention was to pack the beginning of the trip with sightseeing and activities, then gradually slow the pace into a more leisurely vacation as the days went on. After our busy four-day visit to Hanoi, we headed to our second destination in Vietnam—the coastal city of Da Nang—where a private pool villa awaited us.
Holiday in Hanoi, Part II
January found V and me on R&R in Vietnam, a country we had never visited before. Our first stop was Hanoi—the country’s vibrant capital. Its streets buzzed with the cacophony of commerce and the chaotic crush of cars and motorbikes. It felt so different from Rangoon—more optimistic, more productive, life moving in fast-forward motion. I had only been out of the hospital for a month after being hit by a truck eight weeks prior, and I was still using a walker. But I didn’t let that stop me from enjoying Hanoi as much as I could.
[This post is the second in a series. To read the post about the first half of the trip, please click on the link.]
Holiday in Hanoi, Part I
After a short work trip to Singapore in mid-January, I returned to Burma for one night to repack and reorient before V and I left on our first R&R trip. Rangoon is a hardship posting; one year of service earns two airfare-paid R&Rs. Unlike a decade ago when I served in Tashkent, we can now use 10 days of administrative leave in lieu of annual leave to take R&R. (This is especially good for entry-level officers new to government service who haven’t yet accumulated much annual leave.)
Since we were approaching the halfway point of our Rangoon tour already and hadn’t used either R&R yet, while hospitalized in Bangkok in December I’d been busily sketching out a short vacation in Vietnam and Indonesia — two countries where neither of us had ever been before. Our first stop: Hanoi.
Both/And
My truck-versus-pedestrian accident was 10.5 weeks ago — almost two and a half months. One of the most difficult aspects of my recovery, aside from the physical injuries themselves, has been holding space for very different, simultaneous thoughts and feelings about what happened and how to move forward.
Flag Day Announcement… VI
Last week, I received the exciting news I had been anticipating since last September when sixth tour bidding opened for me: the title, location, and timing of my next diplomatic assignment.
Collecting Postcards 