Today we visited 3 schools, all very different, but all of them great!

At the English Modern School, the Assistant Head Teacher, Mr Jean Claude Chalouhi was waiting for us at the gate, ready to join us in his running outfit!

The children were eagerly expecting us and when we told them they could even run with us, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. But first, we made the teachers run! This is not always an easy task, since by this time the children are so excited, it's hard for them not to just join immediately. So when they were finally allowed to dash off, we were surrounded by little kids screaming, running, and laughing!

When we left for the next school, a teacher told us: "You have done something special today: you have put a smile on every child's face..."

Our next school, the IQRA English School, is an english-speaking Muslim school.

All the (female) teachers were dressed according to the Muslim religion and the children were neatly seated on the grass, divided into boys and girls.

This school had made a lot of special efforts for the arrival of the Harmony Run: a colourful banner welcomed us and the principal, Mrs. Michelle presented us with a school-uniform t-shirt on which a greeting message was written, and a huge gift-card, which contained several beautifully designed and decorated pages!!

On the cover it said: "Thank you for visiting us" and on the pages inside we found the World Harmony Run logo in gold, a lot of pictures by the children (boys) and three messages:

One verse from the Holy Qur'an, a poem about the 'Harmony Day' and a message from the principal and the staff of the IQRA English School:

Hello World Harmony Team, Thank you so much for visiting the Iqra English School today. Our goal is to work together as a team in peace and harmony. It was wonderful for the children and teachers to meet a whole team of visitors who share that goal and the belief that we can share this world harmoniously.

We were very touched by this living proof that people all over the world are in fact sharing and living the very ideas our run tries to promote!

And talking to the teachers, we were shown again, as we are so often shown, that there is so much more that all human beings share, than there are things that divide us!

Our last school visit for this trip was to the Qatar International School.

The Head Teacher, Mr Chris Woodhouse, introduced the Run.

The children were older than in the last two schools (up to 15 years), but the enthusiasm for running and for holding the torch was the same!

Some of us had very enjoyable conversations with the children here!

In most of the classes here in these Arabian countries, just as in the Asian countries, there are several nationalities studying together. We were talking to a group of maybe 15 girls, coming from at least 8 different countries!! To have more than 30 (!!) different nationalities in one school is quite common.

So in these countries, the children have to learn early on, how to deal with different religions, backgrounds and mentalities. A great preparation for life!

We were in Qatar for only one day and for the first time, but the experiences we had were really rewarding. Thank you Qatar, for the great time we had, and see you again next year!

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Team Members:
Dipavajan and Apaga Renner (Austria), Marjan Jauk (Slovenia), Angela Muhs (Germany), Sandro Zincarini (Italy) and Michaela Pokorna (Czech Republic).

Gallery: See more images!