DAY ONE: THE FIRST STEPS OF 400,000

The Walk for Darfur team, sleeping soundly in their accomodations for the night, were all jostled out of their bed violently when the alarm of the building went of at 12:01am. All 25 of the bleary eyed team members eyed the clock, silenced the alarm, and went to bed knowing that today was the day they had been waiting for. The alarm just served to reinforce that fact. Eight months of planning have finally led to eight days of action.

We made our way to the Calgary Olympic Plaza, and amidst friends, family and Darfur supporters alike, the kickoff to the walk was given. As one walker put it, "we thought that we would only have to walk once. That once... would be enough. But that does not deter us from doing it again, and again, until the atrocities end.” With the speeches inspiring, the sun lighting our path, and nothing but 298 kilometers between us and home, the Second Walk for Darfur team began it’s eight day trek from Calgary to Edmonton. Within the first two hours, something amazing happened.

The Calgary City Police pulled us over (nothing new there), and asked us if we wanted an official escort out of the city, free of charge. Awed by our good fortune, we continued on the path to Airdrie, Alberta, our first stop for the night. With supporters in cars honking their horns, and our team hollering chants and words of encouragements the entire day, we blazed through the 35 kilometer day in a mere 7 hours.

Albeit, we had accumulated our fair share of injuries. The exhaustion near the end of the day proved to cause some team members to wobble dangerously close to the white line of the shoulder, also known as the point of no return. As I was leaving to write this blog, I heard one of the medics say they were “having a blister popping party in the corner,” if anyone was interested.

The amusing day behind us, many focus their thoughts on the situation in Darfur. We know that each step we take to Edmonton (400,000) is to represent one life lost in the conflict. We can only hope that through enough movements like this around the world, each step will also represent one life saved. Freshly bolstered with an arsenal of bandages, and adorning a scent oddly resembling A-535, the team continues with their biggest day tomorrow (48 kilometers) to the town of Didsbury.

We walk for peace. We walk for action. We walk for the people of Darfur.

*A special and heartfelt thank you goes out to the Calgary City Police for their provided escort today. They provided us protection that was both well appreciated and needed on that skinny highway*