Right in the morning we met Mr. Mustafa Ayhan, the Vali representative and had a very inspiring dialog about harmony in the world and what each of us can contribute to it. "Our creator has inundated us with peace and beauty. But we have gone far away from our creator. That is why there is war in the world. Because of injustice people are poor and hungry" - he said and then continued: "I hope that this little flame will grow and grow so that we again shall come closer to our creator." Afterwards he joined us for a few steps.

After this meeting we ran to the local Özel Bursa Yeni Kültür primary school, where children and teachers welcomed us wholeheartedly and enthusiastically.

We all gathered in the schoolyard and we had a very nice ceremony with singing, games and a lot of joy.

The younger kids prepared a folk-dance performance and the elder ones sang two or three famous songs which we gladly joined.

After the ceremony we ran together "around the world", which was another game the children enjoyed very much.

Everybody could hold the torch....

We also had to face some very serious questions, like why Jewgenij´s hair is so short and what is our favourite football team in the Turkish national league :-)

After most of the children went back to their classes we discovered that they did set up a small exhibition of the beautiful paintings which they had drawn on the topic of the World Harmony Run. They presented us with these pictures so that we can take them to a Children's Art Exhibition in New York. (Follow our website for more information .)

They even prepared a wonderful meal for us which we could not refuse, although it made us thinking seriously about who is going to run first after it. Some teachers and the director joined us and we had a fruitful dialog about the World Harmony Run and the various projects in which the school was involved. It gave us much inspiration to learn about their efforts for harmonious international relationships which is also the idea of the World Harmony Run.

Afterwards we took a picture with all the teachers.

Afterwards we had a chance to present the school director with our "World Harmony Run-Appreciation-Certificate" offering our deepest gratitude for this wonderful meeting

Our todays goal was Istanbul and we took a ferry over the sea of Marmara. The ferry welcomed us with a nice smile.

We were very happy to discover that the ferry had internet access so that we could send yesterday´s report, check our e-mails and feed our curiosity about how the other team was doing in Bosnia before we saw the minarets on the hills of Istanbul.

Distance: 51km

Team Members:
Dipavajan Renner and Jewgenij Kuschnow (Austria), Banu Eres and Hüsniye Aktas (Turkey), Ondrej Vesely and Rosta Vagner (Czech Republic), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Valentin Bebik and Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Janos Derekas (Hungary) , Sahatvam Selbach (Germany)

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