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January Trip Part 4

I woke up this morning to the coldest weather so far with the temperature was sitting at -20.

This day involved as trip out into the countryside to visit Deana and Princessa, the two sisters that we first met at the TB Centre back in September 2005. A huge thank you has to go out to our driver Yura who sacrificed Christmas day with his family to ensure we had transport to Kotovka, a small town about an hours drive out of Dnipropetrovsk.

Upon arrival at the Kotovka orphanage we were met by the director of the orphanage. A very kind hearted man who had been at the orphanage for many years and had worked his way through the levels to become director.

He invited us into his office for a brief chat and to explain to us what was happening at the orphanage with today being their Christmas Day. Firstly there was to be an Orthodox Christian Service and then the kids had various plays and songs that they had been rehearsing.

We had noticed upon arrival that quite a few of the children had got dressed up in traditional Ukrainian clothing so we already knew it was going to be a colourful event.

We were taken into the main hall where the Orthodox bishop was starting his service. Unfortunately I could not understand what was being said but it seemed very similar to any service you might see in the UK. A bit of singing, some preaching, a lot of bowing to each other and a bit more singing. The bit I never saw coming though, was the end of the service where the bishop keeps dipping a large brush into a bucket of water and wanders round the hall throwing the brush around and soaking everyone! Thankfully I and most of the kids were still wearing our outside coats so it could have been worse.

With the service over and excitement starting to build in the hall, the head teacher announced the start of the festivities. With the music blaring and the kids in the hall clapping loudly, the fun started.

Dancing their way into the room came a dozen children dressed up in their colourful Ukrainian outfits. They danced and spun round wildly to the music, with everyone else in the room clapping along in time to the music. The kids show was excellent and little Princessa was the star of the show in an outfit fit for a princess.

From dancing the entertainment moved to story telling. With the aid of some background music the kids stepped forward one at a time and performed a traditional Ukrainian Christmas fairytale.

And then little Princessa took centre stage to sing a solo song so beautifully that brought a tear to my eye, knowing she’d had to go through so much in her life so far ..

As soon as the show finished I dashed to a couple of sweet filled bags I’d stashed at the rear of the hall and started handing out chocolates to everyone in the hall. Unfortunately it didn’t come close to the fantastic show the kids had just put on but it widened a few of the smiles a little bit more.

As one of the main reasons for the visit was to visit Deana and Princessa, the first time I will have seen Princessa since her operation, we took the girls aside and handed them some Christmas gifts. The girls eyes lit up as they received dolls, coloured pencils, colouring books and sweets.

Ira had also purchased photo albums for the girls, complete with a selection of photos that had been taken at various points over the past 3 years., and the girls absolutely loved this. This was by far their favourite gift and the girls flicked excitedly through the pages of photos, especially excited was Princessa with all of her before and after surgery photos.

Afterwards we had another meeting with the director who wanted to thank us for coming and for the gifts for the children. He is a very friendly man really cares about the kids. He did inform us though, that they were currently processing an application for Deana and Princessa to be adopted. He told us he had mixed feelings about the adoption because it was a gypsy family that wanted to take the girls. He was hopeful that it would be good for the girls but was also aware of the poor reputation that some gypsy families had. It was indeed sad to think that this might be the last we see of two girls that made such an impression on the first ever visit to Dnipropetrovsk but hopefully they will go on to enjoy life a bit better than they had before they made such an impression on us all.

We said our goodbye's to the director, and to the girls, and headed back to Dnipropetrovsk

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

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