Most of our team started our day at Sage Cafe in Rhode Island, where we were treated to a free gourmet crepe each for breakfast. We were so happy to be joined by some of our local Rhode Island Peace Run Coordinators and supporters. Pictured centre are Vijali, Sharika, Virangini and Sharani.
We are enormously grateful to Sage Cafe owner, Jill Ingham, and co-worker, George, for hosting our team so early in the morning!
Sage Cafe is presently exhibiting a large display of Jharna-Kala artwork by Peace Run Founder, Sri Chinmoy, in honour of the Peace Run.
It gave us all much joy to see Sri Chinmoy's brightly coloured inspirational paintings on the walls.
Jill was so busy making the crepes that Harita had to go behind the counter to give her our certificate! Sage Cafe was recently voted best cafe in Rhode Island, and we can understand why, our breakfast was delicious!
The next stop for the womens team was to visit the Peace Tree planted by Sri Chinmoy in 1982. It is not totally obvious, but there was a torrential downpour occuring during this photo shoot!
We also visited the beautiful statue of Sri Chinmoy holding the Peace Torch.
Meanwhile the first mens team were out running from the Connecticut State Border.
Yes, it was definitely raining!
Arpan and Yatkara were thrilled to be joined by longtime Mohegan Striders Runner and friend of the Peace Run, Tim Smith.
Tim helped to run us to our first Ceremony, at the Norwich Montessori Discovery School.
The school is in a beautiful natural wood building.
School is out of session, but still used for the summer camp children.
These children were incredibly confident and animated.
We always ask the children to guess which country we are from. This girl had the idea to have us guess where they are from, which was a lot of fun.
Bill Champagne is our long time friend and local coordinator, and runs the Discovery School with his wife, Patrice, (pictured later).
We presented one of Sri Chinmoy's bird drawings to the school.
Thank you for another wonderful experience at the Norwich Discovery School!
Pictured with the torch are Bill Champagne and his wife, Patrice, the director of the School. Beside Patrice is our friend, Paul, who helped run the torch to our next Ceremony at the Norwich Rotary Club.
Bill Champange warmly introduced the team to the meeting.
We played the country guessing game with the Rotarians. They were really smart!
The Mayor of Norwich, Deb Hinchey, came to the Rotary meeting and welcomed the Peace Run team on behalf of the town of Norwich.
The President of the Rotary Club, Andy Nollman, received our Certificate of Appreciation on behalf of the Club.
Passing the torch...
The Club presented us all with a Rotary Club cup.
A local Rotarian holds the torch beside the Rotarian Four-Way Test banner.
Spare torches in the back of the RV.
It was finally time for the girls to get out on the road. While waiting for the runner our International team enjoyed the beautiful roadside scenery of Connecticut.
Kanyaka from Bali runs with Tavishi from Australia.
We were very happy to make a new friend, Donna Clark, who stopped to meet the runners and hold the torch.
The rain subsided for the afternoon, which left beautiful cool and peaceful conditions.
Harita met quite a few peace lovers running in to New Haven...
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in New Haven, which was one of the original colonial cities of America, and home of the prestigious Yale University. The architecture is beautiful!
At the end of the day we all met for dinner at Claires Vegetarian Restaurant.
Yum!!
Sweta from Nepal and Kanyaka from Bali have been trying a lot of food they have never eaten before!
A big thank you to our local Connecticut Coordinator, Sutushti, for sponsoring this dinner for the team! As you can see, we were very happy!
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What does peace do? Peace blossoms. What else? Peace spreads. What else? Peace illumines. What else? Peace fulfils.
-Sri Chinmoy
