It was a treat, after yesterdays long day, to settle into the Blue Sky Motel in Longview, Alberta. Our most sincere thanks to owner Lorna Culver and her husband for providing the complimentary evening stay and the excellent service to make sure that we were comfortable and happy. With the clean rooms, free wifi, comfortable beds and their generous hospitality we had everything we needed! (We only wish we had enough time to take advantage of the huge DVD collection that they lend out for free.)

We woke up to a very peaceful Monday morning in Longview. The atmosphere was so calm and it made me realize that we are so privileged to receive nature's harmony and peace in such a tangible way.

Our first meeting was in the Longview School where enthusiastic children in their school T-shirts greeted us. They were very attentive and we have to say that they were one of our best geography guessers. They got all our countries on their first try!

All of us realized that it was our last full running day with the complete mileage to cover so we gave it our all. Moreover, the running conditions were excellent. Finally, it was not snowy, rainy, windy, hot or cold. Nothing but peace. We were passing through sweet, cute little towns and I was contemplating about the whole experience of the Western Canadian run, which I absolutely loved and am eternally grateful for. Plus, after all this running I think I will be able to improve my 2-mile race time very soon!

With this thought in mind, we arrived to Turner Valley ahead of time. To maintain the tradition, girls headed directly to one of the coffee shops. Of course, we used this opportunity to pass the torch around. We also learned from local staff the colloquial expressions for "peace and harmony" in Hindi language: " Boom Shankar".

Turner Valley School organized an excellent 3-km relay on the "Friendship trail" with several students waiting for us at various spots along the route.
We have to admit, the pace they kept was sometimes a nice challenge for us as well...

When the relay was finished, students stood around the school field and passed the torch to one another. We felt tremendous support and eagerness from them. And the paintings they prepared to welcome the WHR were amazing!

One of the students took the torch and ran out of the school with our runners.

We then continued towards Cochrane, an old ranching town at the foot of the Rockies. The landscape in Alberta changed considerably compared to British Columbia. We were running in vast prairies, our favorite part was a "Cowboy trail".

And certainly we met some local people, these ones were particularly charming.

In the city of Cochrane we were greeted by the City Councilor Jeff Toews, who is a runner himself and who was ready to join our team anytime in any gear. Other officials were inspired too!

We were also amazed by the size of the truck and the Canadian flag they prepared for us. Without any doubt, this was the largest flag we've had on our run (dimensions: 6x2.1 m or 20x7 ft).

Since the city takes out this flag very rarely, we were honored to have such a reception followed by a nice exchange of kind words which felt to be like in a family circle.

After the meeting was over, the City Communication manager made an extra effort to stop by in our hotel to bring us city badges to contribute to our collection. Thank you!

Since this was to be our last dinner together as a team on the western Canadian WHR leg, we went to celebrate at a great Indian restaurant. We also had to start packing because the following day was the last day on the run, however, I'll leave this description to somebody else who is better at farewell words... (I'm still enjoying the feeling of enthusiasm and gratitude for what's going on and am not quite ready to finish this great experience!)

Varunavi

Video Mesage from Davidson Hepburn, President (2009 - 2011) of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for 25th Anniversary of the World Harmony Run and a vision for the decade: "Toward a Oneness-World". With FRENCH subtitles

Full Text of the 25th annversary message and link to 25 language informal Translations: http://www.worldharmonyrun.org/25

• Youtube video on African experience which illustrates IYY slogan "Our Year Our Voice" International Year of Youth - Zambia World Harmony. They surprisingly mention Presidents and UN Secretary-General in a unique way!

• Listen to the World-Harmony-Run song: 2 min version // 6 min

Team Members:
Brahmata Michael (Canada), Daniel Stewart (Canada), Yatkara Aleksapolskyy (Ukraine), Sarvagata Ukrainskyi (Ukraine), Dimitriy Dudko (Ukraine), Varunavi (Slovakia), Amburoha (Ukraine), Gautami (Slovakia), Manoshri (Slovakia)

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