The women's team was first to go out early this morning with the Peace Torch.
Meanwhile, one of the men's teams was the morning team on lunch duty in our big camper we call the 'RV' (Recreational Vehicle).
Pransukh and Arpan prepare the quesadillas and Jozsef wraps them and prepares the lunch bags for our whole team.
Later this morning we were greeted at the beautiful City Hall by Mayor Tim Kent and his staff in New Albany, Mississippi.
The Mayor offered us kind words and also told us some interesting facts about the city. The original name was Albany, but many years ago most of it burned down and then rebuilt. It was then appropriately named New Albany.
All of the staff members were very welcoming and happily held the Peace Torch to offer their wishes and goodwill.
The clerks in the office were all very welcoming and explained to us some of the important jobs that are involved in running a city.
Even the main building inspector for the city shared the Peace Torch and told us of the importance of keeping the city's infrastructure safe.
Mayor Kent reads out a quote from our Certificate of Appreciation. We are so grateful for the kindness and hospitality of everyone at CIty Hall who embraced the Peace Run wholeheartedly and enthusiastically.
Mayor Kent with our Certificate of Appreciation and a colorful painting by Sri Chinmoy representing the beauty of peace and harmony.
This beautiful City Hall building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in the 1880's, this iconic building with both its classic and modern architecture, displays the beauty and charm of New Albany, which is also reflected in the people who work here.
A beautiful tapestry displaying some of the historic buildings of New Albany.
Our next event was at the Maria Montessori School in Memphis. It was Teacher Appreciation Week here at this beautiful which has welcomed the Peace Run for over 15 years,
The children offered messages to appreciate their teachers and posted them on the school walls.
The sign of happy and peaceful children. Hopscotch is a game almost every child learns growing up.
Children of all ages gathered in one of the classrooms to greet our team and enjoy some of our peace activities with us.
Salil displays a large map of our route throughout the U.S. and parts of Canada.
We introduce ourselves through a guessing game where the children try to guess our country with the help of clues and this giant map of the world.
This 7th grader guesses correctly the country of Mongolia.
Mananya as the Statue of Liberty makes it easy for the children to guess New York.
After guessing all of our countries correctly we taught the children one of our songs called the World Harmony Run song, by Sri Chinmoy, the Founder of the Peace Run.
This song also involves actions to the words: "Run, run, run, run, run, run, World Harmony Run. We are the Oneness and Fulness Of tomorrow's sun."
The children then cheerfully and sweetly offer us a song as well.
Pransukh leads us in an exercise of feeling peaceful qualities in our hearts.
We then offer short skits demonstrating either peaceful or non-peaceful behaviors which the children then have to judge.
Puroga pushes Arpan during a skit demonstrating a non-peaceful behavior which received a 'thumbs down' from all the children. These simple and amusing skits demonstrate how our day to day simple behaviors can either result in peace and happiness as opposed to having a negative and harmful effect.
Honoring the teachers and staff and all they do for the children, Maria Cole, Director of this Montessori School, leads all of the teachers and staff around the classroom with the Peace Torch while the children enthusiastically cheer for them.
Maria accepts our gifts of appreciation on behalf of the students and staff. We are extremely grateful for her hospitality and kindness for all the years she has welcomed us here to this very important and inspiring school.
Heading outside we then offered the children a chance to touch or hold the Peace Torch to make a wish or prayer for Peace for us to carry to our next destination.
Maria Cole also soulfully offers her peaceful wishes along with the children.
Finally, one of the favorite outdoor activities as the children take part in the Peace Train, following the Peace Torch around the schoolyard.
Under the bridges.
Maria kindly offers refreshments for us after this inspiring event with all the children.
Uugana from Mongolia enjoys a few precious moments with some of the youngest children before we have to leave and move on to our next destination.
We are extremely grateful to everyone from this wonderful Montessori School who helped to make this morning a very uplifting and inspiring experience for our whole team.
After leaving the school some of us run along the Mississippi River for a short while as we head out to our accommodations for the night.
Jozsef enjoys his first experience of the mighty Mississippi River.
We meet some very nice locals as we run north along the Mississippi for a short while.
This gentleman was excited to hold our Peace Torch through the fence as we did not have time to run around to the entrance of his car dealership as we passed by.
Arpan finishing his run on this beautiful day in the Memphis area. The weather was relatively hot today, and the flame of the Peace Torch always adds a few extra degrees of heat to the running experience. But running with the Peace Torch is certainly an uplifting and thrilling experience no matter what the weather.
Two more members of our team joined us this evening, Bhiksuni from New York and Rupasi from Seattle, just in time to enjoy a complimentary meal at the 'Imagine' vegan restaurant in Memphis.
We are so grateful to the owner's of this wonderful restaurant who so graciously offered our whole team the most delicious and healthy meals this evening. The men's team could not be here so the women's team brought them their meals back to the accommodations which we enjoyed tremendously. It was a perfect way to end this very busy day in Memphis.
