Pre-Walk Week - July 19 - 24

We were fortunate to secure a table during His Holiness The Dalai Lama's teachings in Madison the week before our walk. The Wisconsin Tibetan Association and the North American Tibetan Association arranged the space for us outside the venue for the teaching. Before arriving in Madison, we were very uncertain how much support we would receive from both the Tibetan and non-Tibetan communities given the consistent support these groups had offered to the entire Tibet movement since the middle of March.

To our great surprise, their support far exceeded our expectations. In fact, we could not have imagined the degree of support we received. Both groups swarmed our table from early morning through the evening buying merchandise and donating funds. More importantly, many, many Tibetans and others helped staff our table including a number of current and former ITIM Board Members and previous walkers. One of our current Board Members, Ngawang Norbu, served as a crowd "barker" selling "Rangzen Water" and encouraging people to donate and purchase our merchandise.

Norbu chanted such slogans as, "Empty your pockets of change before it falls through a hole in your clothing and you lose it," "Drink Rangzen Water," and "Give us your dollar bills so you want confuse them with other bills because the size is the same." He chanted, for instance, "Rangzen chopchu chhoena," "Rangyuel bhod-la logdro," "Rangzen t-shirt gherna," and "Rangzen lhangka thongdo."

On April 23, Rinpo Tenzin arrived after riding his bicycle from Minneapolis. Rinpo rode on behalf of the Tibetans inside of Tibet who could not be present to participate in the long life prayer for His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Rinpo symbolically represented these Tibetans at the long life ceremony.

We are so appreciative of our host family, Karma, Kelsang, Sherap, and Uma for taking such good care of us.