The Dnipro Trip - Day 2 of Mark's Tale - The Kids are Alright....

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Day 2 – The Hibees are Back!

We are abruptly ‘chapped up’ by the Carriage Attendant at 06.30, giving us a couple minutes in the manky lavvies to get a wash and brush up. It should be noted that the ‘clever’ wee on/ off button on the underside of taps means both Alix and Mark fail to get a real wash, using a bottle of fizzy water and some wet wipes from Czech Airlines to keep us going.

Ira, Pam and her kids, who were sleeping in another area of the train, meets us as we get off the carriage with a mini luggage truck and trailer. Ira scoots off with the cases on the wee truck as we all head out to the car park to meet Wes, who will drive us around the rest of the day. As we head off towards what we thought was the hotel, we first of all stop off at the local market, where I escort Ira and Pam on a mission to buy plastic sandals for the Orphans. I am led through a market of pig sides, plucked chickens, polly bag stands, fruits and vegetables at one hundred miles an hour in the hunt for slippers. After rapid negotiations and faster payment, we are back at the van with 20 pairs of sandals and we head off to drop Pam and the kids at her place, along with the three cases of clothes donated by the Hibs fans to Pam’s Bear Child Clinic. We manage to lug all six cases to Pam’s via a lift that makes more moaning noises than a full Tynecastle, where they will stay until we finish the checking in at the hotel and shopping.

We drop Ira off at her place and head for the hotel to check in and have a quick shower before the long day ahead. Suitably washed and brushed up, Stevie blags a take away brekky from the Hotel whilst Alix and I opt for the healthy option of a Big Mac and Fries.

Supermarket Sweep, Ukrainian Style

Its 11.00am on Friday morning when we finally reach Ira’s apartment to collect her and start the shopping in earnest. Before we pop round to Ira’s local store to collect the 200 pairs of pants, vests and socks, towels, bed sheets, winter coats, slippers and various toys, Alix and myself are introduced to Ira’s oldest Daughter Nats (short for Natalie/ Natasha), who will over the next few days become a good friend to us all. Nats works with Pam at the Bear Child Clinic and holds the long shopping list of items we are required to purchase of the babies and their mums. Tagging along with Nats is her little girl Karina who is very shy and wants nothing to do with three slightly bedraggled and tired Scottish Strangers.

After loading the van with the initial purchase we head off to Metro where the majority of the donated funds are spent. We split up into groups, with Stevie and Nats heading off to purchase the Bear Child Supplies whilst Alix, Ira and me head off to look at the 50 chairs required at the sanatorium reception hall, the hundreds of school supplies for both the orphanage and sanatorium, the new TV set for the isolation unit of the sanatorium (not forgetting that the Sanatorium is for children with Tuberculosis), a new chair for the Sanatorium Director, a Bidet and lots of sweets and chocolate for the kids. An hour or so later everything is purchased bar the seating and bidet which Ira has ordered and will be sent onto the facility when they are available. Other items will be collected the next morning.

We head back to the van where it is clear that we are overloaded, we decided that we will have to drop the Orphanage and Sanatorium purchases back at Ira’s apartment before delivering the Bear Child goodies and collecting the three cases we left there earlier that morning. Alix and Ira volunteer for the ten minute walk back whilst Stevie, Wes, Nats, little Karina and me head back by van and unload. Karina gets an afternoon nap as we all get ready for the next stage. I am sneakily envious as I feeling cream crackered.

Bear Child Restocked

After some more groaning lift adventures, its time for phase 3 of the day, the trip to Bear Child where after yet more creaking elevators, we manage to present the bags of nappies, baby milk, rusks, soap, baby oils and other baby sundries, along with some Black Watch Tartan Scarves and Edinburgh Rock for the staff. Group hugs all round, a few photos with the guys and we pick up the three cases of stuff for the Orphanage and Sanatorium and Mark chooses to walk down the nine flights of stairs, not knowing the Russian for ‘Git me oot o’ this lift, am stuck!’.

The kids are alright….

The van now packed up with cases full of trainers and Hibernian shirts, the next part of the day involves us getting our first look at the new orphanage the Dnipro Appeal recently decided to take on. This facility is again set on the east side of the Dnepr River, away from the city in a country side made up of a mix of heavy industry and power facilities and thick forest and woods. It takes around forty five minutes to get there and as we trundle along the pot holed roads in Mike’s van, driven a la Stevie Carr style by Wes, we agree the best thing to do on arrival is head for the main hall where we can sort the shirts and trainers into sizes. We are very conscious that the new facility caters for older kids, may in there early teens and we expect a different welcome from the little kids of the Sanatorium.

Arrival at the front gates we are immediately aware of how different the orphanage is, set in small grounds surrounded by a small village made up of bungalows and prefabs not unlike the mining villages of the Lothian’s and Fife.

One wee lad of about 12 immediately takes to us, helping us in with the bags, for which he is rewarded with a pair of Hibs Trakky bottoms, the only pair we had packed. The kids have been having an afternoon nap and snack and they drift sleepily into the room. The team consisting of Stevie, Mark, Alix, Ira, Nats and Wes have by this time managed to get the trainers into a semblance of boy/ girl and size order and have the Hibs shirts in four bags of rough sizes. We also have a bundle of baseball caps and full pencil cases donated the year previous by fellow Hibby Fraser who runs Frankenstein’s Bar in Aberdeen.

Looking impressively organised we start the process of calling out the kids names, presenting them with their new trainers, a suitably sized Hibernian shirt, baseball cap and pencil case. When we say impressively organised, it was until the kids decided that the shirts are pretty cool, with Girls preferring the yellow, white and purple away shirts, the younger lads preferring the Green Home Shirts and the older laddies insisting on long sleeved home and Goalies tops, ideally with a name and number on the back. One particularly brazen lad insisted he wanted a long sleeve top with a name and the number 10 on the back. We look at him as if he is taking the mick, I delve into the pile and low and behold, pull out a home shirt, long sleeved with 10 on the back, we dinnae have the heart to tell him about the name Riordan ;o)

After an hour of swaps, changes and general messing about with the kids, we finally ascertain that we are short of two pairs of trainers, one wee lad getting stuck with a pair of lassies ones, much to the derision of his mates and we promise to sort it out the next day.

Leaving them to fight over the box of lollipops we have left behind, we say our goodbyes as one particular young lad opens the gate to let us out we note he has changed shirts with a mate already. Looks like the Hibees have made an immediate impression with the kids already.

Forty Five minutes later we get back to the hotel, where we say goodbye to Ira, Nats and Wes for the evening, as we plan to have a wash and get ourselves ready for the next part of the day that seemed to never end, the meeting with the supporters of FC Dnipro.