Having again a rather busy schedule for the day, we left the unusual smells in the air of Balti early in the morning. The day started with heavy rain and throughout the day the wet weather was to persist.

One part of the team ran with the children from yesterday that had eagerly returned for more, while the other team headed to Pelenia, some 20 km ahead. The children there were also fantastic - they simply did not want to stop running with us.

They joyfully held the torch, passed from hand to hand, for some amazing 8 km until the next village called Sofia.

The children of Sofia warmly welcomed us by singing a few songs for us. So we had to thank them by singing a song for them also, the World Harmony Run song. Unfortunately, we had to make our meeting short because we were already late. Our van even went away without half of the team, who had to run about 2 km with flowers or the traditional bread in their hands!

The other part of the team had to negotiate the potholed and muddy roads to the small villages of Dobrogea Veche, Hasnasenii Noi and Pelinia.

Despite the pouring rain the children of these villages waited for us and warmly welcomed the runners. In might have been raining, but the sunshine was certainly radiating from their hearts and brightening up the day.

In Drochia there were about 150 people to warmly welcome us. They had set up a big concert for the occasion, including some very nice folk dancing.

Children were dancing even in the puddles of water.

In Tarnova the children ran 2 km with us. The TV and radio were there also to report the passing of the World Harmony Run in the region. We also had to regularly remind the driver of the local team not to drive away before retrieving the runner who was running behind and put them on the bus.

We were treated to lunch in the city hall of Donduseni, or maybe I should call it a feast! We were served an enormous meal of Moldovan specialties, including cabbage salad, potatoes cooked with carrots, beetroot with dried apricots (an excellent mix), cream-filled pancakes, the usual pies stuffed with cheese, potatoes or cabbage, the traditional borsch soup…. and I don’t even remember everything that was on the table! Gargantuesque, as they say in my country. In the meantime we enjoyed great folk dancing, superb singing (certainly due to the oneness of these beautiful voices), Mozart piece of music on piano by a young student and finally some local modern singing.

Upon our departure, we gladly welcomed back local runner Tina who had been away for a few days. She enthusiastically ran every time there was an opportunity to do so in the afternoon. Later on we stopped to refill our bottles at one of many wells along the road. It needs some skills to do it!

A few kilometres before Edinet, Mikael had a close encounter of the animal kind: a wild dog in the middle of the road. We still don’t know which one was the more scared of the two.

In Edinet, very young children most nicely sang and danced for us before running with us. The whole thing was very cute.

We were delighted by such a break. We kindly refused to eat a second lunch (the people here in Moldova have such a fantastic sense of hospitality and sharing).

In Halahora de Sus, we simply passed through lines of clapping children standing along the road. On the way we even had an ambulance car escorting us - luckily we didn't need it.

Arriving in Briceni was quite an experience. The rain which had been blessing us for the whole day more or less, was intensely now pouring down. Nevertheless long lines of children greeted us again on either side of the road: either by clapping or offering us a flower they helped us close this long day. The finish point was in front of the local theatre, which we quickly entered given the weather conditions. The hall was soon full of children and a few adults.

The performances started quickly to our delight: a diversified programme of dancing, folk singing, gipsy dancing, some children singing famous Moldovan melodies like “listen to the voice of your consciousness” or “song of the souls”. I also had the opportunity to see Dipavajan gently pull a young girl’s ponytail from behind and then innocently show his finger towards the mayor to point him as the culprit. Quite funny!

After the ceremony, the mayor of Briceni, whom some of us already knew from last year, did not want the occasion to end. He invited us to dinner with his work team, including the head of sports for the region of Briceni (famous for its football and boxing).

It was very nice to finish the day remembering good memories from last year, getting to know each other better and jokingly sharing our World Harmony Run experiences.

Distance: 142km

Team Members:
Dipavajan Renner (Austria), Mark Collinson (England), Mikael Vilpoux (France), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic),Valentine Bebik (Ukraine)

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