This is the sixth post in a series about Five Talents' Business As Mission (BAM) program, which develops training materials that professionals use on short-term mission trips to teach micro-entrepreneurs. Click here to read parts one, two, three, four and five of this series.

In recent months, Myanmar (also known as Burma) has become a focal point of US diplomacy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country in November, and, in January, the US moved to restore formal ties in response to Myanmar's ongoing social and political reforms.

Five Talents, which launched its Myanmar program in 2011 and partners there with The Mothers' Union, is excited to have a front-row seat during this historic era.

Here, we talk with Anne Ni, a native Burmese and a member of the Business As Mission team that Five Talents sent to the country in July of 2011. Ni and her family moved to the US in 1992. She now works as an accountant in Seattle, Washington.

How often do you go back to Myanmar?
Since 2008, I have been back every year. And last year, because of Five Talents, I went back twice.

How do you feel when you return to your homeland?
Personally, I feel a little like a foreigner because a lot of the things that I saw when I was growing up are no longer there. ...A lot of the things I remember seeing are in my memory only. I cannot see them with my eyes now. And there's no sense of belonging there. All of my immediate family are here in the States.

We've been reading a lot of optimistic reports coming out of Myanmar. Do you feel that the country is indeed becoming more open after years of authoritarian rule?
I see a little bit of tolerance as far as the way you dress. When I was growing up, a girl could not go out in public wearing pants. Everyone -- men and woman -- wore a traditional long-gyi. That's what I grew up wearing. I see a lot of girls now on the street, especially young girls, even including middle-aged women, wearing pants and nobody even pays attention. What I wear in American I wear in Burma -- I wear jeans, it doesn't really matter.

You had an Anglican upbringing, and many members of your family have served in the church. How would you describe the life of believers in Myanmar today? What are their primary concerns?
My experience may not be broad, and my opinion may not be what other people think, but based on my experience over the last two years speaking with women, the main concern is for their children to have a good education. When I grew up there, passing high school was a big deal – and it still is, because when women came to me for prayer they prayed that their kids would pass high school. It's a kind of standard for whether a child is going to succeed in life or not. If you don't pass high school, it's very hard for children to find jobs. That's one of the main prayer requests of the women who come to me...

Has the government softened its stance towards Christianity?
I think the government has become more flexible. I was surprised to see in Yangon in December that in front of a big hotel there was a nativity scene. I cannot see that in the US [sometimes], but in Yangon they had a big nativity scene in front of a hotel. So, yeah, I celebrate that, I praise the Lord for that, to see in a Buddhist country this kind of display at the Christmas season.

What subject did you teach during Five Talents' business training workshops in July?
Record-keeping, which was my field. Basic accounting.

Can you tell us a story from your experience of leading the workshops?
We were teaching in a church compound but we didn't have a microphone or sound system. We came to find out that the priest didn't get the permission from the authority to use the sound system, so we didn't use the sound system. I don't know how the word spread, but [a lot of] people came [anyway]. They heard that there was good teaching about business going on in that church and wanted to come and visit. Even though they were not believers, they wanted to go listen to the business teaching. On the first day we ran out of books and handouts. And on the second day more people came because they heard there was good teaching there.

Could you please close with a couple of examples of the sort of businesses that Burmese women are running?
When we visited [one] village, the priest came and talked to me. He had attended our business training in Yangon and said he had a parishioner who runs a grocery store but who does not keep her personal and business expenses separate. 'I am going to tell her not to do that,' he said. So it was eye-opening for them when, in the business training, we talked about managing business and personal expenses separately. If you want to run a grocery store, you should buy [your necessities] from the grocery store – you don't just grab what you need for your own house. If people do not worry about profit then eventually many stores are put out of business.

I also heard from one of The Mothers' Union leaders that women who live in [rural] areas have lots of fruit trees in the garden but don't know what to do with all of it. Lots of fruit goes rotten and gets wasted. She went and taught them how to preserve them, dry them, or turn them into a jam or some kind of a snack so they will not go to waste and so they can sell them to a neighbor. I don't know how many people are doing [this kind of small business] but the rep from the Mothers' Union is doing a lot of training to teach people in the area so that they can use any resources they have from the land and turn it into a business.