Our accommodation last night was kindly provided by the Agentia Nationala Pentru Sport of Galati. We awoke early in the morning to church bells and the yelping of the wild dogs that so commonly roam the streets of Romania. This morning we sadly said farewell to Sara from Italy, but later on in the day we warmly welcomed Valentine from Ukraine.

We ran out of Galati with Castel and Liviu, two students from the Sports Institute, who are training to be weight lifters. Before they started their running Castel gave an exhibition of his immense strength for a small guy by lifting up Petr holding the torch. Castel is such a kind-hearted person - a small young man with a huge heart and both outer and inner strength to match.

After a few kilometres they left us to run our final 15 km in Romania, along the rail tracks to the Romanian-Moldovan border. The International Team has had a fantastic time meeting some great up and coming athletes, and special thanks must go to Christian, our Romanian co-ordinator for his patience and generosity.

After a delay at the border whilst Ion, our Moldovan country co-ordinator sorted out our visas, the local people from the village of Giurgiulesti met us. They had massive national, regional and the European Union flags. We were presented with bread, salt and wine, as is the custom here in Moldova.

We ran to their village where the mayor graciously greeted us and we enjoyed our first rousing performance of traditional Moldovan dancing. Their traditional dress was so colourful and with many detailed designs.

It seemed as if the whole village had turned out for us and we felt that people here live purely in the heart, as they appreciated so much what we were trying to achieve.

People here in Moldova are very poor, but they give guests everything and will do anything possible to ensure that your visit is a joyful one.

The customary presenting of the bread was one the International Team was to experience in every village. By the end of the day we must have had about four huge, freshly baked breads in each van.

Our first day in Moldova, and the schedule was to be a busy and dynamic one. We had to cover 139 km and attend 22 meetings/ceremonies in villages and towns, and reach the city of Comrat by 19.00.

In order to achieve this the runners were split into three teams and we had the fantastic support of the Moldovan runners, who ran with us and also superbly translated for us at the ceremonies. They are our invaluable link to the local people to enable us to convey the World Harmony Run message.

From Giurgiulesti the fun began as each team headed for their scheduled destinations. In the slight rush Andrea, our Hungarian runner missed all three vans somehow, but 20 minutes later she appeared as the mayor gave her a lift in his car to the next village of Caslita Prut. It was one of those days when runners just went with the flow and enjoyed the special moments of hospitality and kindness.

By midday the weather changed and the increasing clouds brought a brief period of persistent rain followed by showers.

This did not dampen anyone's spirits, especially not the local people's, who waited for the teams' arrivals, sometimes up to an hour. All the runners were always greeted by smiles, hugs and handshakes, and, of course, food and drink, and flowers.

By the time we reached the outskirts of Comrat, the rain had once again become more constant, but we were all happy to run in the rain with the hopes and wishes of harmony from so many people of today in our hearts and in the flame of the torch.

In one of the local theatres we were entertained by some wonderful modern singing and dancing performances. It certainly re-energized us all for another busy day tomorrow.

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Distance: 154km

Team Members:
Andrea Kevei (Hungary), Dipavajan Renner (Austria), Mark Collinson (England), Martin Leitner (Austria), Mikael Vilpoux (France), Nataliya Lehonkova (Ukraine), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Petr Machacek (Czech Republic), Valentine (Ukraine)

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

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Moldova 28 May >