Our days involve many other responsibilities besides running the miles to carry the Harmony. Meeting with local people who want to share with us their efforts for harmony in their community is a crucial experience as we run from town to town with the Torch aglow.

Arpan gives Jose Hernandez a certificate of appreciation.

Today we met with Jose Hernandez of the YWCA of Trenton, N.J. who so kindly invited us to share our experiences with the ESL (English as a second language) Group there. The group consisted of Spanish speaking adults of various ages from Guatemala and other countries. Our Spanish speaking Bangshidhar was able to communicate with them in both languages and inspire them to learn about our event.

The team pauses for a group photo.

Maheeshi, one of our women runners from Slovakia, had visited Guatemala and was thrilled to communicate with three of the women in the group. The rest of us tried our best with the little Spanish we knew to interact in both languages with the wonderful people who had come to greet us.

The smiles on the road are contagious.

At the end of our presentation, we all went out to be greeted by Michael Mancuso (aka Jimi Hendrix) of the Trenton Times and Andricka Doane of WPVI TV in Trenton. Both gentleman were so kind and enthusiastic as they recorded this special occasion of all of us running down one of Trenton’s main streets with our recently acquainted friends. We are so grateful to those who come out to greet us and share in the concept of World Harmony beginning within each person. Even if they do not run, to offer any form of participation including filming, taking photos or writing is deeply appreciated and essential in our own efforts to spread the concept of harmony throughout the world.

The children were very excited to run with us.

By 11:00 that same morning we went to meet with the principle and other administrators of the Marie McLeod-Bethune Elementary School in Philadelphia. It was a highly charged atmosphere as the children were ready and eager to run after our presentation and song.

Lisa Zeiger of the Physical Education Dept. as well as the Vice Principal and other administrators were fantastic in helping us to organize the children for a run around the block.

Bonds were formed between the runners and the track team.

The energy and enthusiasm generated by the children and adults alike have energized us and allowed us to muster up enough energy to get the through the rest of the long day running through Philadelphia and on to Newark, Delaware.

At one point my team of Bangshidar, Ulugbek and Francesco ran past Harmony Road on our way to our daily goal.

I was quite grateful as I thought of all my team members who take time off of work and offer their efforts to be part of this international team. Not only was I thinking of those who have recently join us, but all those who have been involved is this event recently, especially as runners. Last year those runners who helped us in the beginning to carry the Harmony Torch in this area came into my grateful mind. Maria, Elke, Archee, Mahesh, Homagni, Hayden and others were traveling in this part of the country with us as we began our long and successful trek around the 48 contiguous United States of America. I hope as they read these reports that they will be uplifted and inspired to join us once again or spread the Harmony and goodwill of the Torch to other lands.

Arpan and Team Harmony

Having been on the WHR a couple of times in the past, I understand that we, as teammates must manifest and display a level of harmony that enables 11 individuals from around the world to navigate through some complex and stressful situation on a near daily basis. Additionally, there is much “together” time as we share accommodations in the evening after spending all day in the car and on the road with our team. I was feeling today that this event, like no other, allows me to see areas in myself that I would like to transform. I say this not as a complaint but with genuine gratitude for the inner opportunities with which this run provides me.

Today I was extremely grateful for wonderful teammates who inspire me to be a more selfless and poised person. My legs were tired and sore from the beginning because I had just completed a long race 2 days before we began. My teammates enthusiastically ran additional miles to take the load off of me. Also, I am struck by how cheerfully they handled being in the car for over 8 hours today, nearly half of it lost and running on the complete wrong road and much of the remainder stuck in traffic around Philadelphia. At the very end of our run we were waiting for Linda and across the street was a produce stand. Anja ran over to have a look and returned with big, beautiful and perfectly ripe avocados for everyone (and spoons too!) This is a wonderful women’s team with every person thinking not of how to make their individual day smoother but rather of how to accommodate the needs of others while sharing some joy.

Wendy

San Diego

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