Yenangyaung

Slackline workshop number four. Yenangyaung, Magwe. A special one on many levels. After the hardest road to date, the Ann mountain pass, we ended up at Lei Thar Gone, "A Gentle Breeze." The profits are reinvested in the founder's school next door, Light of Love Private High School, which provides free education, uniforms, daily rations, and medical care for more than 100 children in extreme poverty, and for many others orphaned by AIDS.

Eric Trutwein, who returned to his hometown of Yenangyaung after retiring in 2002, was alarmed at the poverty among the town's children. He began taking care of thirteen orphans, housing them, feeding them, and teaching them. There were too many kids to care for that way. He opened what is now one of the only licensed private schools in Magwe, and a place that has put some of them through college.

We happened to be there on their last day of school. Every child with a summer birthday gets one massive party. We were lucky to be part of it, and happy to gift them a rig. Eric put his son in charge of the line. We taught him the setup and the take-down until he had it. The children have a new toy when they come back in three months.