Like moths to a flame, the four Pacific Island Peace Runners gathered in Brisbane on May 12 – Stacey Marsh from New Zealand, Varunavi Glabnikova from Slovakia, Uddyogini Hall from Australia and Nurari Merry from United Kingdom.
While in Brisbane for the day, our friend Aparigraha selflessly drove us around to collect last minute supplies and we were treated to a delicious meal made by Kapila, from the Brisbane Sri Chinmoy Centre. We were delighted in a tour of her flourishing vegetable garden. We paid a quick visit to the botanical gardens – a Sri Chinmoy Peace-Blossom – and at 11.30pm boarded the flight to Nauru, our first stop on the way to the idyllic islands of the Pacific.
We hopped from Honiara, to Nauru ...
... where the Peace Run made perhaps its quickest ever visit to a Nation ...
... then on to Kiribati to land after 12 hours in the Marshall Islands.
They are like emerald and white jewels in a stunning blue Pacific Ocean.
The Marshall Islands cover an area of 750,000 square miles and have a population of 60,000, which includes 29 atolls and 5 islands.
We landed on the 32-mile long 200m wide ribbon of Majuro Atoll, the Capital of the Marshall Islands.
Our arrival happily coincided with a day of rain, a blessing in their drought period.
Bleary eyed we staggered into the airport foyer ...
... to be greet by Cheryl, Rose, Gennie, Marilyn and Sashimi, who garlanded us with sweet smelling pink and white frangipani.
At the airport, from left to right, back row: Stacey, Marilyn, Gennie, Rose, Cheryl, Uddyogini, Areyochi. Front row: Nurari, Varunavi.
Next stop was a meeting to confirm the programme for the 14th, with the strong and enthusiastic Minister of Internal Affairs, Amenta Matthew (at the head of table) and Molly Helkena, the Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The Minister generously gave us the honour of meeting with her, and sweetly gave us handcrafted shell necklaces from her home Island.
Interestingly our all-female team fitted well into the substantially female Internal Affairs department. We learned that the Marshall Islands have a matriarchal system, with a clan affiliation passed along through the mother of the family.
We had a warm and friendly meeting with Milan Loeak (left) and Cheryl English, where we went over the plans of the ceremony tomorrow. These are such heart people, genuine and committed to supporting those striving to create a peaceful world where all our brothers and sisters are valued.
Rose untiringly drove us back and forth on their single road as we gathered ourselves to prepare for the next few days.
We visited a market set up by the organisation Rose works for, where the women of the different villages are able to sell fresh produce.
