The night of July 9 we went to a safe-house in Thailand where several former political prisoners under Burma's regime were living after they had fled the country. A guitar was passed around for over an hour and quite a variety of people took turns singing songs. It was amazing to see music once again bridging cultures. Also, it was incredibly moving to see how passionately all the former political prisoners sang. They had spent anywhere from 7-15 years in Burmese prison, and many were tortured regularly and severely. They were imprisoned for doing things as simple as attending a pro-democracy rally, handing out information about human rights, or even writing a freedom song.