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News from A Canadian Practitioner on the Southern European SOS Walk

Oct. 14, 2001

I left Portugal for Italy to attend the Fa conference there and continue to SOS walk.

I met up with a practitioner from Norway and we walked across the city together to find the conference site. Every time we asked for directions people would say, "Wow that's too far to walk from here." We told them we were walking to tell the truth about Falun Gong practitioners who were being tortured to death in China for standing up for the truth. They were very touched and asked for our fliers.

One young boy begged me for money. I said no. He then threatened in sign language to punch me in the face. I thanked him in my heart for giving me an opportunity to exercise forbearance, and I sent out my purest thoughts. He got muddle headed and ran away.

We asked directions from a lady painting her fingernails in a little car. She insisted on accompanying us and offered to drive us. After some initial hesitation regarding not walking, we decided that it was a good opportunity to talk with her about the Fa. It was a long ride and was quite dark when we arrived. We met a group of practitioners from Sweden, and many more were arriving from all over Europe.

The next day we had a beautiful two-hour March/Parade after we exercised in front of the parliament buildings all morning. The Falun Dafa SOS walkers led the parade, accompanied by a representative from Italy. Three uniformed policemen escorted the parade. They found it difficult to walk as slowly as we did at first. They seemed very tense and military like. As the parade continued through the afternoon I heard one of the officers humming our music. The police became so peaceful that their pace of walking slowed right down. A few times we almost bumped into them. It was a very solemn and peaceful event.

The next day we took a night train from Rome to Milan. We met some kind people who invited us to their home for the night. We slept on their kitchen floor on a mattress with one blanket and a pillow.

When we arrived in Monaco we took a letter to Princess Caroline and Prince Albert. We handed it to a guard. He said, "For Princess Caroline?" I said, "Yes and Prince Albert." We delivered letters and flyers to officials in Milan. They gave us a receipt and promised to read it in the assembly. Language is a problem but I think the urgency is noted. In Verona our letter was taken by someone who spoke English and accepted it on behalf of the government. In Venice we took a boat to the Municipal offices. A man upstairs said, "The day after tomorrow it will be on the table for reading." We send righteous thoughts and eliminate the evil everywhere we go.

After this I left for Greece.

I stayed with two practitioners who moved here from Sweden to help with the Fa rectification. Yesterday we exercised in front of the Chinese embassy in a tree-lined park. Then we visited the Acropolis where all the statues of the Greek gods stand. It felt like the gods had all returned to visit while we were there. We gave fliers to hundreds of people from all over the world. A busload of young students from Germany sat with us to learn the 5th exercise. It was very touching.

Last night a rowdy parade of thousands passed by. I think they were protesting for peace but they sure looked like they were angry. We took the opportunity to pass fliers to them. We use every moment to fulfill our mission.

I keep sending righteous thoughts and reading. The message from Master's new article inspires me to just keep going the best I can. Attachments are making themselves known and I am doing my best to eliminate them. I'm sure there's more to come. I must admit, if I didn't have master's guidance, I would be scared every moment-- but I'm doing ok.