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January Trip Part 1

Now that I have had a chance to catch up with things following my Christmas trip to Dnipropetrovsk I will provide sponsors updates of the events during the trip.

Before I get started though, I’d like to pass on the good news that the packages of baby clothing and toys (along with the donation of tops from Hibernian Football Club) that were sent out at the start of December have finally arrived. It was hoped that they would reach Dnipropetrovsk before the end of December but it seems that the December/January period can add weeks onto expected delivery dates.

Ira and Natalie will spend the rest of the week sorting through the boxes to separate the baby clothing out into sizes, ready to pass on to the mothers and their children.

As there were quite a few things happening during the trip I will provide the updates by way of separate emails for each of the events over the next couple of days.

As always, the first day of the trip involves nothing but travel. I left Edinburgh at 6am on Saturday the 3rd of January and arrived in Dnipropetrovsk at around 11pm that night. I will spare you the tedious details of 18 hours spent checking in, flight time but mostly sitting around airport lounges waiting for connections.

Temperature in Edinburgh at departure .. one degree Celsius .. temperature in Dnipropetrovsk upon arrival .. minus sixteen degrees Celsius!

It was the early hours of Sunday morning before I finally got settled down in the spare room in the Dnipro Kids Baby Centre, thankfully Ira had taken this into account and informed me that she would afford me the luxury of a short lie in till 10am on the Sunday. Unfortunately for me this was to prove to be the only day I was afforded such a luxury!

Sunday - Tabachnaya Orphans Trip To Ice Show

The day started with Ira picking me up from the Baby Centre and us heading up to the Tabachnaya orphanage. For the duration of the visit Ira had organised the services of a local taxi driver by the name of Yura, who had agreed to give up his holidays to ferry us around the Dnipropetrovsk region during the Ukrainian Christmas period. The taxi was already loaded with the Christmas presents for the children at the orphanage so we headed straight up.

Upon arrival at Tabachnaya the director ushered us through to the main hall and rounded up all the kids. It didn’t take too long to do this as they already knew they were going on a Christmas trip and were all pretty excited. Each of the Tabachnaya children were given a large box of chocolates and a small gift and then allowed to head off to their rooms to “stash” their gifts.

It wasn’t long before everyone was heading down to the front gate where the pre-booked bus was waiting to take them all to the Meteor Centre (adjacent to the football stadium Hibs and Aberdeen had played in) for the Christmas Cinderella Ice Show. Most of the skaters were actually children, who were all very good skaters, and I think this added to the appeal of the show for the children that were there.

Afterwards the children were ushered back on to the bus to return to Tabachnaya. To be honest, it was total chaos trying to keep an eye on so many children running around excited at the Meteor Centre and it was nothing short of miracle that none of the children got lost, although I suppose this is a testament to the closeness of the kids that they all looked out for each other.

From the second that we arrived at the Tabachnaya orphanage you could see how excited the kids were and I don’t think any were disappointed with the Christmas gifts and the trip to the Cinderella Ice Show. There were still excited smiles all round as we parted company so I am pretty sure it was a Christmas trip that will be remembered for a while to come.

Yours,
Steven Carr,
Dnipro Appeal Committee.
www.dniprokids.com

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