Hayma, the oldest of three siblings, was only 21 years old when her father passed away in 2003. The event occurred shortly after a crop failure and encumbered the family with a number of her father’s unsettled debts. With her younger brothers still in school, she went, as others in her village had, to Thailand in search of work. There, her friends connected her with a job working as a nanny for a well-to-do family in Chiang Mai. Now in her mid-thirties, she has begun to doubt whether she’ll ever marry and has developed new priorities for her future. She greatly admires the business acumen of her sister-in-law, who already runs a grocery and her courage to seek repayments on loans. She works hard to save money, hoping to build enough to start a grocery within ten years. She believes this would guarantee her a healthy livelihood into old age.