Team A

Australia is a big country. Some like to celebrate its distinctive fauna and agriculture through 'Big' monuments. We have seen The Big Banana, The Big Merino, The Big Crayfish and others. It's only appropriate there should be a Big Crocodile: yet there are two, within a few kilometres of each other – one jumping in the air and the other, armed ready for a stoush in the ring. Of course.

Litchfield Council covers a large area adjoining the cities of Darwin and Palmerston, including our starting point for today's run – Humpty Doo. The name Humpty Doo is thought to have originated as an oft-used expression of one of its early inhabitants: when he would be asked how conditions were where he lived (then a remote outpost). By way of indicating that things were just fine, he would reply: "It's all humpty doo!" And so it remains...

Our Humpty Doo day commenced with Mary Walshe, President of Litchfield Council, welcoming us to her municipality at The Boxing Crocodile, where we were also joined by the Principal of nearby Girraween Primary School, Maree Bredhauer. We are most grateful to Mary for coming out to greet us so warmly after arriving on a 3 am flight this morning!

From The Boxing Crocodile it was a short jog to the refuge of St Francis of Assisi Primary School, where Deputy Principal, Shane Kidd, brought us straight to the waiting assembly of 170 children.

The children enthusiastically learned and sang the World-Harmony-Run Song, complete with choreographed actions, and eagerly lined up to hold the Torch, class by class around the oval. After the ceremony, Shane invited the runners into the staff common room for scones and drinks before continuing on our way.

Today was 'Stress Down Day' at Humpty Doo Primary School, another short jog along the road from St Francis of Assisi. Here we were greeted by the Principal, Felicity Hancock, who explained that 'Stress Down Day', an initiative of Lifeline, encourages all students and staff to engage in stress-reducing activities for the day – including wearing relaxing clothing, smiling and laughing a lot and taking calming food and drinks.

After addressing the combined assembly of around 450 children and running around the oval, we were invited to meet with the classes from year 6 and answer their questions. Our gratitude to all the Year 6 kids for hosting us so well. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and hope you will invite us again!

It was a slightly longer run of 7 km to our next school in this fast-growing urban region near the outskirts of Darwin. John Tate, the Principal of Bees Creek Primary School, personally welcomed us for afternoon tea and a chat with staff prior to meeting all the students – about 350 in total – in the large undercover assembly area. John introduced the school motto: 'Harmony through Care', which resonates well with the purpose of the World Harmony Run. After our presentation, the assembly poured out onto the oval, where the students had been invited for a '100 km run': the total distance covered when all the children completed one lap of the oval each!

Today the kids were having a good time posing for the camera.

Every Thursday evening in Darwin sees the famed Mindil Beach Market.

Our team enjoyed strolling amongst the varied stalls, getting involved in performances and sampling the extensive array of international cuisine.

Amongst all the food, attractions, crafts and performers, the show-stopper was the oldest of them all. For about 20 minutes, performers deferred as audiences slipped away, food stall queues evaporated and the hubbub hushed as the bustling foot traffic spilled gently onto the beach – and all eyes and hearts opened, momentarily, to the Beyond...

– Prachar Stegemann (Australia)

Team B

The Perth to Darwin stage of the run is drawing to a close and we welcome two new runners to our team.

Anastasia Aleksejeva from Latvia and Bernice Matthews from Canberra will be joining us for the final leg of the Australian World Harmony Run from Darwin back to Brisbane.

Meanwhile, Iva Nemcova flies home to the Czech Republic this afternoon and Nishima Knowsley will return to New Zealand tomorrow evening.

With our expanded team of seven, we set off for our first of three Darwin schools today.

Wagaman Primary is a school of 250 pupils and very inspiring from an athletic point of view.

During Cyclone Tracy the whole school was wiped out and then rebuilt. More recently it has been rebuilt in another way. Eight years ago children competing in the zone athletic sports found it difficult to compete in the various disciplines due to lack of fitness. The school started a major fitness program, organising runs in the mornings with stretches afterwards. Now the school’s athletes have improved so much that they win outright in the zone athletic sports competitions.

As the children ran with the Torch today they exuded enthusiasm and vitality. We encourage all the children to keep enjoying their fitness as it helps them follow their dreams in life.

Our team performed a play showing the difference between harmony and disharmony.

At our second school, Nightcliff Primary, we were welcomed by Taylor who beautifully introduced the team at very short notice.

Nightcliff students joined in the singing of the World-Harmony-Run Song with great gusto.

At the assembly, Jane Aagaard, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly joined us. She chose to come to Nightcliff Primary because of the school’s focus on harmony. Jane welcomed the World Harmony Run on behalf of the whole of the Northern Territory.

We were then invited to join the staff for morning tea, where we exchanged stories about the lifestyle in Darwin and life on the World Harmony Run.

Next, the Mayor of Palmerston, Robert Macleod and his enthusiastic team of council staff shared a delicious lunch with us in the Palmerston Council Chambers. The Mayor expressed enthusiastic support for the World Harmony Run and reflected on the Northern Territory’s rich multicultural history.

Mayor Macleod, in a lighthearted moment, indicated that some residents of Palmerston feel that Darwin is actually a northern suburb of Palmerston.

Joy, Jan and Belinda.

Linda.

Our final school for the day was Bakewell Primary School where seven classes gathered to greet the team. Students from this school were able to quickly guess the country of origin of all of our runners, including Latvia and Ukraine! While we were passing the Torch, students took the opportunity to ask many questions of us such as how we run as a team, the maximum kilometres that we run in a stretch and the speed at which we run. We explained how we share the running in a relay style, that we can run up to 20 km each at a stretch (although we usually run shorter distances), and how we run at differing speeds depending on each team member’s capacities.

– Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand)

Team C

After assisting Team B at the Wagaman and Nightcliff school ceremonies, Team C's next visit was to Ludmilla Primary School.

This suburb was of special interest to Misha Kulagin from Russia, partly because his aunt’s name is Ludmilla.

The friendly Principal, Adam Voigt, introduced the runners with enthusiasm, which was shared by the students. Indeed, you couldn’t help but notice how much they enjoyed his company, laughing and chatting with him like they would with one of their friends. You also couldn’t help but be carried away by their infectious joy. Most of the students were soon chatting, one on one, with members of the running team.

At midday, the Lord Mayor of Darwin, Mr Graeme Sawyer, accepted the Torch in the central city area of King Street Mall. Graeme was open and happy to talk, in a very laid-back and civil manner, about any number of topics. He spoke about how happy he is that Darwin is a city where the children of different races and nations live and play together, without anyone batting an eyelid.

We next visited Wanguri Primary School, happily intruding on an afternoon assembly in the library (as planned). Noivedya Juddery came first, speaking about the World Harmony Run for a minute, and then saying that the runners were on their way. On cue, the others arrived from the back door. The children gasped excitedly, as the flame brightened the room.

Of course, it was all stage-managed, with staff waving the runners in at the right moment, enjoying their role in our little exercise. We then talked to the kids about the World Harmony Run, and the crowded library floor became an energetic performance space, as we taught them our theme song – with actions.

Afterwards, with some select kids, we ran around the school oval with the Torch. Some of the students impressed and entertained us with a relay competition of their own, in which each team member ran across the oval and back. Certainly no shortage of fitness at this school!

It was a busy and exhausting (albeit highly rewarding) day, and Darwin offers so many attractions, so the cooks of the team all wanted a night off. Thanks to Mitchellis Pizza Café for giving us some excellent dinner. The manager, Pedro Bernardino, happily accepted the Torch.

– Noivedya Juddery (Australia)

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Team Members:
Noivedya Juddery (Australia), Nick File (New Zealand), Amalendu Edelsten (Australia), Anastasia Aleksejeva (Latvia), Bernice Matthews (Australia), Nigel Webber (Australia), Prabhakar Street (Canada), Elke Lindner (Germany), Dima Lehonkov (Ukraine), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Prachar Stegemann Australia), Misha Kulagin (Russia), Runar Gigja (Iceland), Prabuddha Nicol (Australia), Nishima Knowsley (New Zealand), Iva Nemcova (Czech Republic), Miro Pospisek (Czech Republic), Sandro Zincarini (Italy), Angela Muhs (Germany), Edi Serban (Romania), Standa Zubaty (Czech Republic), Veeraja Uppal (Australia)

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

Gallery: See more images!

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