Vaasa

On arriving in Helsinki and finally getting our bags we drove with 2 of our friends to Vaasa in the north, where we got to stay in another friend's apartment for the night.
We had 26 schools to visit on our first WHR day in Finland, we split into 2 teams of 3 with one team visiting 17 schools that were close together and the other visiting 9 schools further apart. It was very cold and windy, but at each school we had a warm welcome. There are 2 official languages in Finland, Finnish of course and Swedish. each of the schools spoke of these. I was on the team that visited 17 schools. We ended our running in a park where we joined with the other team, some school children who came with us and some local officials, near a statue of Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the run. There was a ceremony at which a Peace tree was planted and everyone got to have their photo taken and some interviewed by a local newspaper