Last night we said bon voyage to Pedja who returns to Belgrade, and Marton who goes back to Germany to join the run there. Their time in Iceland has flown by and they have been fantastic members of the International Team. So for our final days in Iceland the International Team is down to three. Today we were to visit three schools and it was to be one of the best days for bringing the message of the World Harmony Run to the children of Reykjavik. We can feel that the momentum is gradually building and having an amazing impact in Iceland.

At our first school of Grandaskóli we entered the school assembly hall to the applause of the whole school – over 300 children.

We got a wonderful reaction from the children and after talking to them the whole school ran with us with the torch in a loop around the school grounds.

The children came up and chatted to us, and wanted to know everything about each of us, and of course we obliged. Curiously children tend to always want to know how old we are!

At the end of their running they assembled in the playground and passed the torch to one another.

At the next school, Háteigsskóli, we met some children in their classroom. They enjoyed guessing the nationality of each runner. As we are a small International Team, Pierre spoke to them not only in French, but also Spanish and Portuguese. Ondrej also spoke to them in other languages – German, Russian and Japanese. They found the manner that Ondrej spoke Japanese highly amusing.

At our final school, Austurbæjarskóli, there were many children of different backgrounds.

There were children whose parents originated from mainland Europe, Africa, North America and Asia.

It truly had an international flavour and illustrated how so many different nationalities can create that sense of oneness, like one big world family.

From their school we ran with the children to the nearby church called Hallgrímskirkja Church.

The impressive and monumental design of the church dominates the Reykjavík skyline. There the national media photographed the children running with the torch. The next day the World Harmony Run made the front page of the national newspaper ‘Fréttablaðið’ with a short article and the photograph of the children holding the torch in front of the church.

With a police escort we ran with the children down the street to cheers of the people of Reykjavík. We ran down the main street to the city hall where we met Þorbjörg Helga Vigfúsdóttir, a member of Reykjavík City Council.

After the meeting we explored Iceland further, and headed to the Þingvellir National Park. We passed many hot springs with plumes of smoke dotting the horizon.

An unfortunate incident occurred when the exhaust pipe of Rúnar’s car fell off. Ondrej made temporary repairs and tied the exhaust pipe with some string. We drove off with the car sounding like a Formula 1 car. We pulled into the National Park’s service centre and a lady Guðrún Kristinsdóttir kindly let us use the garage and gave us some wire to tie the exhaust pipe more securely than string.

Confident now that the exhaust pipe wouldn’t fall off we visited the old Parliament site of Iceland called Þingvellir that originated from 930 AD.

Nearby we visited an amazing waterfall.

We continued our journey and drove to Hveragerði where we visited Rúnar’s mother and stepfather. His mother cooked us some delicious soup, and it was great to meet the rest of Rúnar’s family. Ondrej showed them the slideshow of the European World Harmony Run, which they thoroughly enjoyed. Looking at the pictures brought back so many fantastic memories. Outside Rúnar’s mother’s and stepfather’s house we had a group photograph.

With a full moon in the night sky and fully contented we had a pleasant drive back to Reykjavík.

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Team Members:
Mark Collinson (England), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pierre Lantuas Monfouga (France), Rúnar P. Gígja (Iceland).

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

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