Video of the first month in USA

Some days are so eventful we need to take notes to remember what happened in the beginning of the day which seems so remote and far away by the end of the day. Reflecting on this long and busy day filled with many unexpected surprises along with many planned meetings as well, it is difficult to know where to begin.

Perhaps a brief mention of the two schools where we met with about 50 children and adults in each. It was the first day of summer school or camp at the Hawthorne Elementary school, and the children were happy to have a more relaxed atmosphere outside.

About 40 children and teachers were delighted to see our team run in with the Torch and tell stories about our events. Shawnaucy Herron and Cindy Daly helped to organize this event in which many of the children expressed their ideas about harmony with handmade posters.

It was a colorful and inspiring sight to see all the creative effort that went in to expressing all the ideas of harmony and friendship and sharing them with us.

The highlight is always running with the Torch after we sing the World Harmony Run song with them. The teachers led the way and the children followed as the ‘Harmony Train’ made its way around the field.

After some running out of the city of Boise, we made it back to the Whitney Elementary School where again we were greeted by handmade paper torches and creative artwork on the theme of harmony and friendship.

Cindy Daly, the program coordinator who was also at the previous school, was present here as well and seemed quite enthused and supportive of our efforts.

We are very grateful to her, the children and all the teachers who came out to join in on this celebration. We also are happy when the media come to share our efforts with the larger public audiences they reach.

Our next event was to be a few hours later, but in the meantime we had to take two of our three vehicles in for repairs. Neither of them were ready on time for our meeting with the Boys and Girls Club of Ada County in Garden City, so one of our teams had to hire a taxi to meet with the children there.

The women’s team conducted a nice ceremony with over 70 children, organized by Rebecca Frazier. Just as I was arriving there with our big recreational vehicle that we use for our storage and for cooking our meals, the women’s team was coming out of the Club with the Torch. The clouds were dark and it looked like rain was imminent. Before leaving for Boise again we were going drink some lemonade we had in the R.V. But it was warm and I was looking for ice to use but there was none.

I just happened to mention that I wish we had some ice or perhaps we can get some ice somewhere because warm lemonade is not that appealing.

Believe it or not, even before we started the vehicle to leave the parking lot it started to hail, large ice cubes falling from the sky! It was not even two minutes since I mentioned that I wish we had ice cubes that they actually started falling from the sky. It is sometimes said, ‘You better be careful of what you ask for because you just may get it’. In this case it was absolutely true in the strangest sort of way. Everyone else we talked to later that day that were in different parts of the city said they had no hail there. It was just in our area!

That is a tough story to believe but it was absolutely true. I even took advantage of the situation and placed a large pot out in the parking lot to catch a few hailstones to use in our lemonade. It only lasted about five minutes and I only caught a few that unfortunately melted right away. The joy of the serendipitous experience far exceeded the disappointment of warm lemonade.

Next on our schedule was a local track team of children with Tim Severa coordinating their workout at the YMCA track by the Boise High School. We arrived a bit early so I took a walk down the street. Finding a barber shop, I stopped in to see if I could get a quick trim. Jay Thypault, the barber, was so kind as to give me a big discount and a great haircut as he listened to my stories about our harmony efforts. He was very understanding and sympathetic with our cause and I am grateful for his generosity as well.

At the track nearby, Tim and the other coaches had the children doing drills on the track for warm up and strength. It was inspiring to watch these young people working out and running at such an early age, between six and 18 years old it seemed. After their workout we introduced ourselves and our event and sang our theme song with them as usual. But they were eager to get on the track with the Torch and we all had a nice lap around the quarter mile track with coaches and children enjoying the easy Harmony Lap. We are grateful to Tim, his coaches and the parents who participated in this short but sweet harmony run.

Our last event of the day was a wonderful meeting with the Boise Quilt Project and a potluck dinner they provided for us. Lyn McCollum, one of the quilters, organized this event for us as she did last year as well. We are very grateful to her as well as Regina, Sue, Linda, Maria- Carmen, Elaine, Val and Mere Peace for sharing their amazing work and efforts with us.

Some of them have been working for years and even decades on creating elaborate and colorful quilts to support various causes and groups related to peace and harmony in the world. They displayed some of their handwork with themes of world harmony, peace, human rights, refuge services and other important and valuable efforts for a better and safer world. The food they provided for us was fantastic and we felt right at home with the hospitality and goodwill they shared with us as well.

Checking into the La Quinta Inn of Caldwell, we were quite tired from a very busy day. We also welcomed two new members of the women’s team today, Dori from New York and Divija from Russia. We are very grateful to La Quinta for providing enough rooms for our newly expanded team as we get ready to run across the large and beautiful state of Oregon.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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