Tuesday, September 11th, 2001:
Happy memories of distributing flyers the previous day lingered on. So many people's eyes lit up as we offered them those small flyers with all that precious information about the principles of Falun Dafa. We also took the opportunity to explain about how the practice has been brutally suppressed in China.
From the hotel, we made our way to the President's Palace on the outskirts of Talinn. The timing was very good, because the President and his staff had just returned from their state visit to France. Therefore, we were able to meet with his Foreign Affairs Consultant who had written the original invitation to come to Estonia.
Wednesday, September 12th, Latvia
Our meeting room was in the newly renovated Reval Hotel Latviya and somehow, it had been organized that the group meeting in the room next to us was a collection of documentary film makers having a very important seminar: The European Documentary Filmmakers Symposium! I spoke with the Deputy Director of the National Film Centre of Latvia, and told him that the group I was with was making some excellent documentary films and would appreciate being in touch with him and his colleagues. He was very kind, and gave me his business card.
The next thing I knew, one of the other practitioners was having a long conversation with the same man! She gave him a complete package, including a videotape and came back with an enormous smile on her face: the filmmaker said they would make copies of our video and distribute it to all the people at their Seminar. (We felt things had been very well arranged for us during our trip!) The video contained the self-immolation deconstruction, the SOS Video, Falun Gong: The Real Story Parts 1 & 2. We were very grateful.
Our meeting room was set up for 16 people. Just the right number of practitioners came so that, if I remember correctly either 15 or 16 of the seats were filled! It was the first time that we had a good translator present and were able to really communicate with the practitioners there. It was wonderful. And they decided to meet in the evening and continue with our experience-sharing meeting.
At 2:00 p.m. the main Latvian contact person had arranged a meeting for us with the Foreign Policy Advisor to the State President. He was a fairly young man, and a truly noble and beautiful human being whose heart and mind were totally sympathetic to our SOS rescue mission. His father had been the Ambassador to China, so he was very familiar with the human rights violations there.
He assured us that Madame President was firmly committed to human rights and that, in fact, she had just returned from the human rights meeting in Durban, South Africa. When he looked at the route for the SOS Walk through the Baltic countries, he said that it reminded him of the time, ten years ago when people stood side-by-side for 600 kilometers, holding hands and singing, to show the Russian government that they were peacefully committed to freedom for their countries. He said that he knew we would find that the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would understand our situation and would be very sympathetic. And he was right.
We presented him with a copy each of Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong, as well as the music CD and some other background information, including the report from the United Nations.
Because of our appearance on Estonian Breakfast Television, we were one day late arriving in Ryga. It was decided that I would go on to Vilnius by myself, and the others would stay in Ryga until Friday, when they would return to Talinn and take the ferry to Stockholm.
And so, at 6:40 p.m. on Thursday, September 13th, I was on the bus to Vilnius.
On to Vilnius!
My seat number was 37. Next to me was a fair-haired young man with a very pleasant face. We shook hands and introduced ourselves. He seemed almost familiar to me and we quickly had an excellent conversation. He was very sympathetic to the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China, and asked what I hoped to do in Vilnius. I said that my biggest hope was to meet with a high government official, but that it seemed very difficult because I had no contacts in Vilnius to arrange anything.
Once again, things had already been arranged for me: He smiled and told me that his father is a member of the Lithuanian Parliament and immediately sent an email message on his cellphone. His father replied within ten minutes and said that we could meet on Monday, September 17th.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the largest newspaper, but could only leave a package. The Foreign Editor was too busy to come down to see us. And so we headed out with our bags full of flyers and on one of the main streets, we stopped at a busy corner where people were waiting for buses. Again, they were happy to take our information.
There was a young Greek boy with large sympathetic eyes who was very familiar. And then a young couple came over, big smiles on their faces! They had been practicing Falun Dafa in England for the last six months and had just returned home to Vilnius. We exchanged email addresses and promised to keep in touch.
There was also a rather tall, quiet man who asked if we would be doing the exercises anywhere. I said "Yes!" -- and on the spot decided that we would be in the Cathedral Square the next day at noon. He promised to come.
Saturday, September 15th
After breakfast, I went to the library to donate our Falun Dafa books (in both English and Russian) as well as a CD of the music. Here, I had a very long and good conversation with the librarian.
The tall young man telephoned our contact practitioner to make sure we would be doing the exercises at noon. Again things had been arranged: he is a journalist for the second largest newspaper in Lithuania! And this newspaper is the only one that has a Lifestyle section. He was very interested in the practice, so he interviewed us and said he would arrange to have his photographer come to take photos before we left Vilnius. When I asked, he promised to send me a copy of the article, even though it will be in Lithuanian.
[Authors note: There is a large community of Lithuanian people in Toronto, so perhaps we can arrange a meeting with them to show them our photographs and the article.]
Because of a meeting on Monday, my return travel needed to be rearranged and I then went off by myself to look for a travel agent who could book a flight, because there wouldn't be enough time to catch the ferry. When I asked a young couple if they knew of a travel agent, they drove me there! Tickets were organized. Lunch was had (at 5pm!) and then I realized that there was an Internet Café just around the corner. So... here we are! Saturday night. Just one and a half days left in Vilnius. The time has flown by -- and yet it seems lifetimes since I left Toronto just a little less than two weeks ago.
Heshi,
A western practitioner in Canada