Many thanks to Fletcher Hotel "Het Witte Huis" in Soest for hosting 4 of our runners.
Our gratitude also to the Stay Okay hotel in Soest for hosting the Peace Run boys.
We had our first meeting at children's camp "Into the Woods" in Leusden.
21 refugee children spent their holiday there and listened to our presentation.
These children have endured hardships in their own countries and fled to Holland with their parents to seek asylum here.
They liked our skits about situations with and without peace.
Josef gets hit with the flag: no peace!
Then Abhinabha gets hit: again no peace!
The Torch is passed round for peace wishes.
The camp leaders made wishes for peace.
There were children from Syria, Eritrea, Azerbeidzjan, among other countries.
We hope and pray for a bright future for these beautiful children.
Running to Den Haag.
Lots of little towns and villages.
The skyline of Den Haag (The English term is 'The Hague')
We ran to the parliament buildings...
...to meet with our great politician-runner friend Michiel van Nispen.
Michiel has received the Peace Run now for the third time.
He is a member of parliament for the socialist party.
Plus an excellent runner with personal bests of 1:09 in the half marathon. He also ran the 5000 metres under 15 minutes.
Hot dogs. (27 degrees today)
Michiel is a true friend of the Peace Run.
He accompanied us for a run around the parliament buildings.
Despite his busy job, he still finds time to train.
The Dutch parliament.
Thank you Michiel, for your enthusiastic participation and good will!
We met Olivier van Loo, who organizes the Week of Respect, educating children about the values if tolerance and respect.
More dogs.
With our friends from the Madal Bal health food store.
In the evening we hosted the Torch Bearer Awards ceremony.
Abhinabha was the MC of the evening.
Vapushtara played beautiful pieces on the piano.
Jennifer Hagens received a Torch Bearer Awards for her selfless dedication to save the habitat of the Dutch house sparrow, a beautiful bird that is on the red list of endangered species since 2004.
Bibian Mentel is three times Paralympic champion snowboarding and has her own foundation to encourage physically handicapped children to play sports. She has been diagnosed with cancer nine times and lost her right leg to the disease.
Two very special women working hard to make our world a better, happier and more fulfilling place.
It was an extremely moving event.
