Action Camp photos

Here’s an online photo gallery. Check it out…

so sad it’s all over…

…for now. I felt like crying (not so surprising for me, I know) as we watched the 2pm shuttle take off for the airport and train station. The van was packed full of some of the most wonderful people in this world heading back to their respective homes in Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, England and Scotland and for a second, I wished we could just keep them all here with us forever. But, we’ve got work to do and that’s what it’s all about. This past week was so inspiring, exhausting, maddening, crazy, humbling and completely energizing all at the same time. Participants, trainers, staff and volunteers alike plugged away each and every day to strengthen the effectiveness of our action for a free and independent Tibet. We partied like rockstars last night to celebrate eachother, our hard work and our future success. Watch out Mr. Hu Jintao, we’re Lhasa bound!

-Lhadon
from a beautiful place called Pauenhof, Germany

Pumped Up at Pauenhof

We’re heading into dinner on the fourth night of camp and I’m feeling incredibly pumped about it. The participants represent the strongest, most active leaders for Tibet that Europe has to offer. As I write this, our activists are networking together and making plans on how to work coherently to produce stronger actions. Armed with new skills in direct action planning, climbing, political theatre, non-violent resistance, and grassroots organizing, I think the prospects for the Tibetan cause in Europe look great.

I helped facilitate a workshop yesterday on Direct Action Planning and Strategy with Han and I walked away anxious to get back to the real world and do some direct action! Fortunately I think all of our participants are feeling this way. Hu Jintao is coming to the US in September and Bush is going to China…and the tiny hamster on the treadmill of ideas is spinning away in our collective minds. This camp is all about how Students for a Free Tibet makes a difference and when we leave here on Monday night, we’ll have thirty more kick-ass action organizers ready to take their efforts for Tibetan independence to a whole new level.

Matt

Drapchi 14 nuns arrive at camp…

Wow. How does one begin to explain what it is like to hear a freedom song being sung by one of the women who wrote the lyrics herself…in prison? Thupten and I were in the office at camp doing some prep for a workshop while Gyaltsen Dolkar and Namdrol Lhamo were moving into their room next door and that’s when we heard the song. We’re thinking Tendor must have asked if they would sing tonight during the evening presentation on Tibetan music and politics. This is Tendor’s first time running the show as it’s usually Techung or Danny (we miss you guys!) The nuns arrived just a couple of hours ago on the train from Belgium (Alma, Dechen Pemba and I picked them up in Dusseldorf with their friend Lhamo) . They escaped Tibet only last year and were able to make it to Europe just a couple of months ago. We’re really touched that they agreed to come and join us here. Tonight is going to be something else!

Much love to you all from a farm somewhere near Dusseldorf,
Lhadon & Thupten

Action Camp Volunteers

A good crew on the ground… some of the folks who flew in from the States:

from L to R: Pin (San Jose, CA) and Bill & Leslie (Minneapolis, MN) will be in the kitchen feeding the freedom fighters-in-training and Kathy (Santa Fe, NM) will be gettin’ them up on ropes, challenging what they think is possible.