One surprise of the Burma trip was the number of people who would ask where we were from and, once they heard we were from the US, would give us a thumbs up or peace sign and enthusiastically say, “Obama!”

It happened several times a day, and even the children did this.

Of course Obama’s recent visit to Burma in November 2012 – the first ever by a sitting US president – helped create this enthusiasm, but we had the same experience in our seven days in Cambodia so I believe this enthusiasm was about more than just his Burmese visit.

I’m not straying into politics here; I mention this because the impression I got was that an American president who is not white and was not born into a privileged family is symbolically important here in Burma as well as, possibly, many other countries with non-white populations.