Bosnia 28 April: Vrgorac - Mostar
The Team crossed into Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) early in the morning mist and rain where we met our BiH country co-ordinators Amur and Dragan, and Milorad from BiH and a local marathon runner, Zlatko.
The first ceremony of the day was at a high school sports gym in Ljubuski. The Team came running in, the students applauded and the President of the Municipality of Ljubuski gave a warm welcome. The BiH national TV was there to film the whole event and interviewed Dragan and Ondrej. The President eagerly ran with the torch outside of the gym, accompanied by the runners and some students, all of which was filmed by the national TV and photographed by the local newspaper.
From Ljubuski we ran 13k to Medugorje.
The weather was warm and almost sunny and we were joined by more Bosnians, so that the team of runners now numbered 15.
Medugorje is the site of a Roman Catholic Church, where over 20 years ago the Virgin Mary appeared in a subtle form and spoke to some children up on the mountain overlooking the town. Ever since then, this town has been a place of pilgrimage for Catholics who come to pray and to experience a sense of closeness to God.
Close to the church are some well-kept gardens and a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross. There is an unusual phenomenon whereby water droplets drip down the side of the statue of Jesus. There is no internal plumbing to produce this water and people like to touch this ‘holy water’. The whole place is very serene and, of the many people here, most have a sincere wish to experience what this place has to offer. The Team passed an Irish guide who wished us a safe journey on our long trip and was aware that the World Harmony Run would be visiting Ireland in September.
The Team soon afterwards attended a school in Citluk where the Secretary for the Mayor of the town gave a speech in which he explained what a truly wonderful philosophy it is that says that if you can run together in peace and harmony, then you can live together in peace and harmony. We listened to some inspiring readings from the children and flute performances, and we all especially enjoyed the solo flute performance of the World Harmony Run song. After the performances all the children ran with us on the schoolyard.
After the first religious visit in Medugorje, the Team experienced a second spiritual place at the 16th century Orthodox monastery at Zitomislici. The monastery was destroyed during the war, but rebuilt on the original site in 2002. It had a tranquil feel about the place as the priest received the torch and invited us for refreshments where we ate hard-boiled red painted eggs, as it was the Orthodox Easter last week. The priest showed us a game where you banged your egg against another person’s to see who had the hardest egg. We all loved this game, but finally it was down to the last two - Mark, from England versus Milorad from Croatia. And the winner was … and yes you guessed it: Milorad from Croatia.
After the excitement of the egg-cracking game we accompanied the priest into the church where he blessed the torch and wished us peace and safety.
We headed to our third religious location of the day at Blagaj. But before we got that far, the heavens opened and we experienced a thunderstorm and torrential downpour. We all scampered to the shelter of the vehicles and quickly sent a brave runner towards Blagaj. Now unusual events can and do happen on the World Harmony Run. As the International Team was about to approach their van we realised we didn’t have the key, but Ondrej remembered he gave it to someone who shall remain nameless (she knows who she is) that had left in one of the support cars before we could catch her. We had to send one of our runners, in the ambulance that had accompanied us throughout the day, to catch up with her. She did return after 10 minutes rather embarrassed and ashamed with the key to find us sheltering from the torrential rain under a wicker shelter. We could all see the funny side of the situation and of course we forgave her.
At Blagaj on the River Buna, the Team witnessed some of the scars from the war, such as bullet holes on people’s homes, dilapidated buildings and churches hit by artillery and mortar fire.
This was the first reminder to the Team of what human suffering happened here.
At Blagaj, next to the River Buna which is the source of one of the largest springs in Europe, we found an interesting place.
Dwarfed by the towering and monumental karst cliffs, there is a Muslim tekke (Dervish house). The Blagaj tekke was founded in 1466, and although it belonged to various dervish orders it nowadays belongs to the Muslim Sufi order.
The order forbids any kind of violence nearby the place and the Team could really feel and experience the serenity and peacefulness as we drank our Turkish teas and coffees.
The Team ran the final 14k to Mostar in heavy rain, with the high ground, covered by low wispy clouds, rising steeply from the river valley. For many of us it was simply shocking to see the real war site - burned houses with bullet holes all over. It was really touching to meet local children who remember the war like yesterday. Not even the rain could dampen their spirits; at every 2k a new group of children cheerfully joined us. They had waited in the pouring rain and they ran with so much joy, enthusiasm and freedom. It was uplifting to run with them and laugh as we ran through puddles with our clothes and shoes drenched from the rain. As we approached the city limits of Mostar, more children joined us and the pace, dynamism and energy of the run multiplied.
It was very difficult to get the children to run slowly and behind the torch as they eagerly wanted to show us how fast they could run. They really felt the spirit of the Harmony Run and the hope for the future.
At the centre of Mostar we had a ceremony where the local city representatives welcomed us. All around the main square the constant reminder of the war was not far away in the form of ruins and half destroyed buildings yet to be pulled down and rebuilt. It made the ceremony of handing the torch to the children to pass to one another even more poignant to the runners. We will probably never forget this experience.
Distance: 71km
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