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On the 19th of November
2007 , we left Canada planning to start our USA
trip.
We arrived at the US border office late evening
when it was getting dark. We had to go into the
office and fill the questioner forms and let
them get our finger prints. This process took
about 2 hours while the locals would briefly
show (flash) their passport to the agent in the
kiosk and drive through. We requested a year
Visa which is a max for tourist and willing to
negotiate for 9 months, but we received the 6
months visa which is the minimum available (I
think) and were told to ask for extension while
in US. Our plan was to get a long enough Visa
that would have given us sufficient time to get
down to South of the country (Florida), then
across US to California, and finally heading up
North to Vancouver Canada through Oregon and
Washington State.
One of our stops on the way down to New York
City was Albany , the capital of New York State
. We are hoping to plant many Peace Trees
especially in New York City and Washington , DC
; for that, we are hoping the local Iranian
residence and non Iranians help us so we can
plant trees in the city they live in.
The weather in this part of the USA is COLD, and
we need to hurry up and go south toward warmer
climate, where we can enjoy cycling.
We will stay in Washington DC until 7th of
January 2008 and after passing through Richmond,
Virginia our next stop will be Virginia Beach,
Virginia.
Fortunately, up to now we have been able to
plant 6 peace trees in the US (Albany,
Amsterdam, Kingston, Nyack, Princeton and
Philadelphia). We have had some events and
workshops in different educational centers like
Columbia University in New York City, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute, RPI in the city of Troy,
NY. State University of New York, “SUNY”
University in City of Albany, NY. High schools
in New York city and ....
Joining Peace and interfaith communities is one
of our activities. We joined them in peace
walks, vigils and gatherings. For more
information click here.
Our project in the US is supported by FOR (The
Fellowship of Reconciliation) organization, if
you are interested in helping us for planting
trees and having more events, you can contact us
or contact our friends at FOR organization.
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