After a restful night at Janek’s flat who so kindly accomodated all of the boys on the Team, we were looking forward to a more relaxed day.

For the first time in many weeks this was going to be a less hectic day for the Team - only running a total distance of 20 km and visiting three schools.

Before starting our run through the city we picked up our Ukrainian runner, Valentine who had eventually been given special permission by the authorities to rejoin us.

The day started brightly but there was still a brisk breeze that kept the temperature cool. With a police escort we headed to our first school. In the playground the children cheered and applauded our arrival. When it was time for them to run with us with the torch they ran off around the school at a cracking pace as young children generally do when over excited.

At the second school we had a meeting with teenagers who avidly listened to our message of the fact that everyone has a responsibility to do something for harmony.

After the meeting some of the teenagers ran with us part of the way to the next school.

For our third and final school, the children from the school’s handball teams ran with us about 1 km to their school.

We had a great police escort, who even asked us for signatures!

In the school playground they intently listened and when the time came for them to guess the languages of our International Team runners, they were very quick to recognise the foreign languages and knew which country each was from. They also run fast.

Once the children were in a long line, they passed the torch along the line, each making a wish into the flame for harmony.

One boy held the torch aloft and sincerely said, “Peace in the world!” Young children so often set the example for adults to follow.

We had a late lunch at a restaurant and enjoyed some great food. We took advantage of a fairly early finish and visited some of the sights of Warsaw.

We also had to do many chores, which included sorting out our visas for Belarus for our border crossing in a few days time, buying essential items, and taking the van for a much needed service.

It was a great day, but a few of us though were feeling the ill affects of a virus the Team had recently picked up - flu like symptoms and stomach upsets. Janek kindly made us hot mugs of milk and our beds beckoned for an early night. We will hopefully soon feel like lions again.

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Distance: 20km

Team Members:
Ivana Bauernoplova (Czech Republic), Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Mikael Vilpoux (France), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pawel Szymanski (Poland), Stepanka Sarvaicova (Czech Republic), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine).

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.

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