- Posted by Regina on Dec 08, 2013 - Leave a Comment
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Therese brought the winds of change to Gentle Breeze Inn!
My sister’s many-faceted background as a Michelin-starred restaurant and hotel manager, followed by a seven year community work project, prepared her well for a job as challenging and varied as the people she was to work with. The fast-growing guesthouse and the Burmese employees, some of them orphans who had found shelter under Eric’s wing years ago, had reached their limits on all fronts, when her initial two month stint as a volunteer began. How do you, for example, explain and teach an ecological, hygienically acceptable and standardized method of washing dishes to six cooperative and curious, but illiterate and/or non-English speaking ladies who, more likely than not, have never had running water near their homes?
Here’s how:
OSLT (occupation-specific language training- many guests are English speaking now, in new era Myanmar)
M and I arrived in Yenangyuang five days before the very first, anxiously and eagerly awaited “Open Day” at the Light of Love High School.
Mission: Get the school in ship shape
and help launch an education fest, fueled by the children’s new-found confidence and incomparable pride in their school
Ulterior motive: Spread the word about an evolving, newly accredited private school, (and ultimately convince well-to-do families, who will be to able to pay school fees, to enroll their children here…)
Thank you Eric Trutwein, Therese, “Madame la Headmistress” Marie Christine Fievet and everyone we met, for your kind welcome, and especially for your inspiring commitment to teaching, to learning, to creating opportunities and better lives for the children and families in Myanmar’s impoverished dry zone.
Lei Thar Gone is a truly lovely oasis- in every sense….
Gentle Breeze hill early morning, paints an Impressionist canvas
while evenings are symphonies of flamboyant color
Visit Gentle Breeze!
Available soon: Ayeyarwady Cruise Mandalay – Bagan with a two night stop at the guesthouse!