Macedonia is a country on the Southern Balkan Peninsula. Between January 2, 2002, and January 6, 2002, several practitioners from Canada, Sweden and Austria, spent time in the snow-covered city of Skopje, Macedonia to introduce Falun Dafa to the local people and inform them of the brutal persecution in China.

We used every opportunity to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and to hand out flyers to anyone we met--taxi drivers, police officers, store clerks or passers-by.

After we had handed out information packets to the most important government entities, we also wanted to let the Macedonian media know about Falun Gong. The first three newspaper offices were closed because of a Macedonian holiday. That did not deter us, however. We placed the information packets at their doors.

As we pondered what our next steps ought to be, another practitioner handed out flyers at the main city square. One of the flyer recipients happened to be a photographer for a weekly newspaper. When we showed him persecution pictures and photos of the peaceful protests, he immediately agreed that this would be of interest to his readers and needs to be written about. He interviewed us and took photos of Canadian practitioner Connie Chipkar, who had already been to ten countries on her SOS march in Southern Europe. The photographer also asked for further detailed information.

Encouraged by this turn of events we drove to two television stations. The state-run TV station representatives showed little interest in the persecution videos and other information. The editor at the largest privately held TV station, however, showed great interest and received us cordially. We explained the truth thoroughly to the relevant editor in charge of this type of information. He expressed his gratitude and wished us well in our future activities. While we were waiting to see him, scores of people passed by us, even in the outer waiting area. There seemed to be a celebration in progress. We handed everyone a flyer. In this way many people learned about the truth of Falun Dafa.

Wherever we walked, we handed out flyers and even demonstrated the exercises at the main city square. Several people wanted to learn the exercises. We invited them to our apartment, showed them the exercise movements and played a Falun Dafa video. One woman commented that she had cancelled all appointments for this day because she needed a day to recuperate at home. Then a friend told her about our training session, and she came without delay. Someone else had already learned the movements through the Internet and told us that he could see Faluns. Another woman explained that she can strongly feel the energy. At the conclusion of this session we gave the assembled guests the exercise cassettes and books, so that they can proceed on their own.

On our last day in Skopje we went to a Chinese restaurant. The Canadian practitioner handed the Chinese waiter a Falun Dafa brochure and told him that she had learned to know and appreciate Chinese culture through Falun Gong. He was surprised to hear that and accepted the brochure. Then the restaurant owner appeared, looked at the flyer and said, "Those three words [Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance] are the most important thing on the whole flyer. If you don't have those, you have nothing." He went on to say that "people need to hear these principles." Then he asked us to give him some more flyers, because many employees of the Chinese Embassy come to eat at this restaurant.

On our way back to Vienna, Austria we had a two to three hour layover at the Budapest Airport. We used this time to perform the exercises. When we finished, several people approached us. They came from Montenegro, and it was the first time for them to see a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises. These people were excited by the serenity and steadiness of the movements and wanted to know more about Falun Dafa.

We spoke for a long time, surrounded by seven or so people who listened attentively.