The Harmony Run Odyssey continues...

We, the runners of the international US team, thought we were done with our job for this year, but the World Harmony Run seems to be a never ending story. Be careful! Just like getting addicted, once you feel the spirit of the torch, you will get hooked. This is what happened to our Harmony runners. With the happiness of the successful finish and survival and with a little bitter feeling of nostalgia we tried to go back to our old life. For a runner who spent more than a month with the team, the re-entry is definitely something challenging. The Run is a very intense experience, it changes your life and your personality, it gives you something that you do not want to lose. All the runners, whom I met with in New York, went through the same emotions after the finish, and somehow it felt so good to see them and even without words to understand each other.

We thought it was over (at least for this year), and we were making plans how to go back to our countries, how to pay our debts, how to recover and rest… but obviously there were different plans made for us. We had to realize we could not blow out the torch yet, the Harmony Run Odyssey must continue.

Some of our friends are still running in Europe, New Zealand and some other runners (Sevati and myself) have brought the torch to Central America, for the first time in the history of the Harmony Run.

Thanks to Sevati’s inspiration we can continue our dream of World Harmony.

Sevati Bondanza was the member of the US team, born in El Salvador living in New York, felt inspired to share the beauty and the joy of the World Harmony Run with the citizens of her motherland. With the great help of our Guatemalan friend, Purnahuti Wagner, we will start the run in Guatemala and run into El Salvador. The “ historic event“ will take place from October 2nd to October 11th.

Many many thanks to Charita Bondanza, who is most selflessly promoting the run with her heart and money power from New York.

Our gratitude to all the generous members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, whose support is always with us.

First impressions

I have never thought that I would end up in Central America this fall. In New York Sevati asked me if I was interested in going to El Salvador. And I immediately answered as an opportunist who cannot resist the new adventure: “Sure!” “OK”, she said ” I’ll get you a ticket. Don’t worry!” Everything happened so quickly and seemed so nice that I could not believe it – until we arrived in Guatemala.

After a long journey (4 hours to L.A., 6 hours waiting at the airport and then 5 hours to Guatemala City) on September 15th, which is the Independence Day of all the Central American countries at 5 am we arrived in Guatemala, where I had never been before. I guess it was the time when I had to start believing it!

For me this place is really exotic and to add more color to the picture I do not speak Spanish, so it makes it even more mysterious.

The very first things that a traveler sees, are the people on the plane and at the airport. The Latinos are all smiling and very kind. It seems that the pace of life is slower here, the time feels to be passing more slowly. You do not feel the stress of the European and American lifestyle, so easy to relax. Even the biggest national holiday is peaceful and quiet.

Getting into this easygoing spirit we did not start with the serious work on the first day.

We met some Guatemalan friends and visited the old city Antigua. For girls, of course, there is no sightseeing without shopping.

Next day we decided to paint and decorate the home of the local marathon team, which also gave us accommodation for a few days. It was approved and sponsored by Purnahuti, the Guatemalan coordinator. So while figuring out the Harmony Run schedule we kept ourselves busy in other ways too, and it also gave us the opportunity to get to know the local team members: Silvia, her daughter, Rosita and Irma. The place is not completely finished but I hope we could inspire the locals to carry on. And thanks for the delicious complimentary ice cream in their enterprise, called “Bliss of the Heart”.

On Sunday we took off for El Salvador and measured the distance that we are supposed to run. We had to accept the fact, although the scenery is gorgeous, it has a lot of up-hills.

In the afternoon we arrived in El Salvador, where even the policemen were smiling and kind—after stopping us. Now we are accommodated at Adele’s house, she is Sevati’s aunt and most generous to us. We use her car, cell phone and we enjoy the best food every day.

The torch is lit again!

Today on September 20th we received the warmest welcome and utmost support from the El Salvadorian Athletic Federation. Since this is the first time that the run comes to the country, we do not have any connections and experience. During our marathon meeting (4 hours long) they promised to provide everything that we would need. They were very enthusiastic to receive the runners and promised to bring their local athletes. We deeply appreciated their immediate willingness, which gave us a lot of hope and encouragement about this pioneer event.

Lic. Leiba Navidad was the first person with whom we contacted. He immediately embraced the whole idea and felt inspired to make it really huge. With his friendly and cheerful manners he said that he would even try to challenge the Guatemalans and do a better program. (I hope our friends will accept the challenge.)

Carlos Baides, from the Santa Ana Triathlon Club also ensured us about his support, and wants to arrange a local meeting in Santa Ana, where his cycling team would join us.

Mauricio Ernesto Argumedo, technical manager helped a lot, too, by organizing the permissions and the police escort and we also received some very practical advice from him.

Rigoberto Medina, is a trainer from Cuba for the top athletes in El Salvador, he used to be a runner himself and will try to get some fast runners to join us. It is definitely good news, but we might need to start training harder.

Last but not least thanks to Sonia Cortez, secretary at the Federation, for her patience to arrange the details of the police escort and designing a big banner for the final event at the Jesus statue in the centre of San Salvador called Salvador del Mundo.

With all their kind help the run seems to be very promising. Although we do not dare to expect too much, since it is going to be the first Harmony Run in the area, and also for us this is our first attempt to set up such an event. Anyway we have already got a lot of joy from it, and we will try our best. Let’s see!

Linda Zay

Hungary