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In the original schedule for the Asia-Pacific Peace Run, Fiji was not included and we were not reaching out to governments in advance like we did for the previous three islands.
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However….! Thanks to enthusiastic follow-up and preparations by a locally-based professor at Fiji National University (FNU), Dr. Martin Gluchman, we managed to present our Peace Run’s activities and mission in Nadi as well!
That was a very welcome self-offering by Martin who arranged the whole morning for us: he took us to Nadi Airport School, joined and led our pleasant morning run through the surroundings and offered us a slot in his mid-day lecture at the University. So at the end of our tour, our all-girl team did manage to get a male member.
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The kids at the Nadi Airport School were very disciplined and very enthusiastic to participate. They were also by far the fastest in guessing all our countries, including a very “exotic” place for them like Slovakia where Martin is from.
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We were absolutely moved by their beautiful songs which they offered to us: if only we could also include their music in the report! One of them was their own version of a multicultural peace song led by their amazing music teacher.
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The Principal, Setareki Rika, received the Certificate of Appreciation and invited us to come next year so that the younger students can participate as well.
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School class leaders were first to hold the Torch and they also ran a relay in the middle of the circle formed by all other students.
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When we stopped at the FNU campus, Martin helped us to set up our own “info” kiosk where we displayed a couple of brochures and bookmarks. They disappeared instantly: if only we had more of them left at the end of our tour…
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The pleasant 4km run was through what looked like a nice countryside, but thanks to Martin’s local knowledge, we managed to meet representatives of different offices, like Firemen, Police officers, Airport traffic managers… or just regular residents.
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Our hearts again and again melted by the sweetness and kindness of local people: you feel like being among your old friends.
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... we started to concentrate at the upcoming lecture where we featured as guest speakers (FYI: the original lecture’s topic was “Ethics and Religion”). Now this was something new and we will not hide that this was a bit out of our comfort zone.
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Although we are used to speaking in front of school children, to be part of a University lecture is something else. We all embraced this self-transcendence challenge and thanked Martin for his idea and his constant encouragement.
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The four of us spoke about different aspects of the Peace Run and our experience while on the tour and we ended our talk with Sri Chinmoy’s Peace Run Song.