Team A

In our first town Riviere-du-Loup, we were welcomed by the sporty looking mayor Michel Marin.

He was running with us into a ceremony with two different schools.

We didn’t understand that much because since we came into the province of Quebec, mainly French is spoken, but we felt that everybody enjoyed it a lot.

These were our first schools here in Canada and the children were well -prepared. They had made banners and we played our game with them.

The children had to guess  which country our team members came from. After the ceremony, we went for some refreshments with the teachers in the library. We were impressed to hear that Queen Elizabeth II had visited the town in 1988.

Our next ceremony  took place at Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, where we also had schoolchildren receiving the torch.

The children feel harmony in their hearts.

At the end we had a picture taken with the Mayor Mr. Jean-Pierre Dube. He told us about a sculpture and artworks of the region.

We went for a delicious lunch at a real French-Canadian café. Yum, so nice to have a warm food in the stomach.

Ugh !!….., so hard to run on a full stomach. But we made it.

We met some friendly locals  who took a break from their delicious ice cream long enough to greet us and hold the torch.

Our last ceremony took place in Cap-Saint-Ignace, and the Mayor Mr Marcel Catellier was already expecting us.

He brought with him a football player to run for him. His name was Jeffrey, and he was born in Belgium. His mother was Spanish.

Jeffrey sprinted downhill like on the football field and was pretty much out of breath after running about a half mile with Prapti.

We were happy to find out that the girlfriend of Jeffreys’ friend was the cousin of the World Champion Strongman Hugo Girard. A dear friend of our founder Sri Chinmoy, he held the World Harmony Run torch and appears in this year's brochure.

The morning view from our room - beautiful.

Elke Lidner and Tanuja Konecna

Team B

Today Sukhdev joined the team.

We drove to the city of Montmagny, where we met the deputy Mayor, Michel Coulomb.

We each signed the big visitors' book and received gifts, including a pen and a pin of the city.

Gabriel is amassing quite a collection of pins from different places we have visited, on his jacket. Eric led us out of town, bearing the torch.

We met with Richard Galibois, city councillor in Berthier-sur-Mer. He ran with us for some of the way out of town after the ceremony.

Next we visited some school children at École de la Ruche-de-Lanaudière. It was my first experience of a French-speaking school. Gabriel did the talking. All the children held the torch and made a wish for World Harmony. We went for a fast run around the school with all the children. That left us all gasping for breath.

Quebec has a very distinct culture. I keep thinking we must be in Europe. Charming cottages and stately villas nestle amongst trees across the verdant fertile landscape.

Whilst waiting for the runner in the early afternoon, we were parked next to a big shed. Potatoes were going in one end, unloading from a truck onto a conveyer belt. A Doritos semi-trailer was backed up to the other end of the shed. Perhaps by some alchemy potatoes were being transformed into corn chips...

Gabriel gave me a French lesson, which he regretted. He told me that if you take any English word ending in “tion” (eg: attraction, composition), and pronounce the final syllable “sion” (instead of “shon”), you have a French word! It was a long time before I tired of finding English words to Francosize.

We followed the St Lawrence River (or Seaway) all day today, south towards Quebec City. The St Lawrence is very wide, and despite being quite a ways inland, the water is still salty. The river narrows dramatically at Quebec City. I am informed that Quebec means “place where the river narrows”, in a Native American tongue.

Next we went to the city of Lévis. We met the Mayor, Mme Danielle Roy, and many councillors and staff, at Lévis City Hall. We were greeted enthusiastically. The ceremony was by the river, and Quebec City could be seen on the other shore.

We signed the visitor's book, and I was very impressed to see the delicate calligraphy at the head of the page, stating that the Harmony Run had been there.

Our team captain, Medur, later pointed out the old Quebec fortress built on a cliff, which an army led by Benedict Arnold tried to capture nearly 200 years ago (they didn't succeed.)

At the end of the day, Gabriel sang us a song by Canadian songwriter Gilles Vigneault, titled “Les Gens de Mon Pays” (The People of My Land”).

– Rathin Boultin

Distance: 123 km

Team Members:
Prapti Jensen (Canada), Antana Locs (Canada), Sevati Bondanza (El Salvador), Adarini Inke (Switzerland), Elke Lindner (Germany), Tanuja Konecna (Czech Republic), Medur Wilson (Canada), Gabriel Pelletier (Canada), Eric Langlois (Canada), Rathin Boultin (Australia), Salil Wilson (Australia)

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