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January Trip Part 5

My last full day in Dnipropetrovsk before heading back to Scotland.

Today we have a trip to the City Ice Rink organised for the Odinkovka orphans for their Christmas trip. Because we did the same at this time last year and it had been a fantastic hit with the kids, who thoroughly enjoyed themselves, we decided to repeat the trip this year.

The kids had been transported into the city centre by bus and we met up with them in the main shopping centre. As always the kids (especially the older ones) were all over the shopping centre checking out all the fancy shops, which made a proper group photo almost impossible.

I think some of the kids may have been practising on the frozen Dneipr river, because quite a few of them were flying round the rink faster than I certainly would have dared. The improvement in their skating abilities since last year was certainly visible to me this year, mainly because there weren't as many of the kids trying to grab onto me as I passed.

I’m not sure how the kids get on with each other during the rest of their time together, but they certainly seem to bond really well during their Dnipro Kids days out. You can see from the photo above that the older kids were helping the younger ones on the ice and there was a lot of hand holding as they flew around the ice.

Afterwards it was downstairs for their Happy Meals. Ira had gone on ahead to order the meals whilst everyone else was getting their shoes and coats back on. By the time everyone arrived at McDonalds, Ira had pretty much reserved half of the seating area with meals and drinks already sitting waiting for the arrival of the kids.

After the kids had finished their McDonalds meals, and had a last wander round the shopping centre, it was back to Odinkovka to hand out the Christmas gifts.

Before handing out the gifts though, Ira made a visit to the orphanage doctor who had put in a request for additional medicines. Ira had purchased them the previous week but this was the first opportunity to get them delivered. Whilst she was speaking with the doctor the assistant director had asked if it would be possible to provide the orphanage with some toothpaste, sanitory items for the girls and some light bulbs for the bedrooms. These are all items we'd helped with in the past so we agreed to organise this and get them delivered the next week.

We assembled the kids in the main hall to present them with sweets and gifts. Some of the kids had also received gifts from their sponsors and these were presented separately, with additional photos taken for the benefit of the sponsors. The kids were still excited from their trip to the skating but we did eventually manage to get them sitting still for 10 minutes in the main hall so we could hand the gifts out. The kids were all really grateful for their gifts and said huge a thank you to everyone in Scotland that is thinking of them.

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

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