SCAREDY CAT

Kids visit Feb - March 2006 (1st time hosting!)

Well the kids have been and gone already         the 4 weeks just flew by!

 Photo taken on arrival at Glasgow Airport 5/2/06

But I can honestly say it was an incredible experience & one I can’t wait to repeat again!!

Stanislau who is 8 years old (or Stas, as he preferred to be called) & Sergie, who is 7 years old, arrived with us late on Sunday 5^th Feb. It was kinda weird sitting waiting on the kids, but they finally arrived after a long & arduous journey which took them somewhere in the region of 15 hours from their home in Belarus to the meeting hall in Ayrshire.

From the group of 20 kids that visited, Stas was the first one through the door! He was all smiles on that cheeky little face of his. As the rest of the kids piled in there was one wee lost soul standing in the middle of the room not knowing quite what to do or where to look. It was our wee Sergie!

The support workers/interpreters introduced us all to our nominated kids & we were on our way home. They were pretty quiet on the drive home, but once they got indoors & a quick tour round the house & met the cats & dogs they soon settled. 1^st thing they did was to start playing with all the wee toys n’ stuff that we had been collecting for their arrival. Little did I know that it was gonna be a BIG mistake to leave the Twister on display!!

Anyway - the next day we had to stay at home & wait for the ‘home-visit’ from the charity. This is just to ensure the kids (& us) have settled in with each other ok & that there are no problems. I must admit it was still very strange having them living with us & I was really dreading the next day when my hubby would return to his work & leave me all alone with the kids!

The next day started off pretty good, but as time went on I really started to have doubts about how on earth I was going to manage with 2 wee boys who couldn’t speak much English or me Russian!!

Thankfully the oldest boy Stas, could speak a few English words but mostly we had to rely on the translations sheets, Sergie was very limited with his understanding of English so Stas would translate to him what he thought I was saying to them!

The 1^st week was pretty quiet with few organised outings, although the main thing was to take the kids along to the ’clothes day’ so they can sort their way through all the donated clothes & toys collected via the charity & take as much as they both wanted & could carry.

Clothes Day - Kids & Hosts sorting their way through piles of donated clothes & toys

By the end of the 1^st week Stas’s English was improving, can’t say as much for my Russian at this point though & Sergie was beginning to pick up the odd English word too. But by the 2nd week I was picking up the odd Russian word here & there. I must say it’s not too difficult, some of the words are fairly straight forward & some even had a resemblance to Scottish words: pokka was bag (or poke in Scots slang).

Things started to pick up the pace now with more organised days out . They had loads of great places to visit: they went swimming loads of times, had a pool party at a posh hotel, went away day trips once a week through a local school who were sponsoring their visit - they went to Glasgow Science Centre & Strathclyde Country Park, out on the Troon Lifeboat for a wee spin, 10 pin bowling, VIP treatment at a football match, met both the Provost of Ayr & Kilmarnock, visited a local Police Station etc….

Trip To Glasgow Science Centre

Lunch with The Provost of Ayr

Lifeboat Trip

We were entertained regularly at home by the boys who would put on some kind of floor show - can’t say that we knew what they were on about half the time as they would talk away in Russian but they were certainly entertaining! And after a few days we were forced to hide the twister mat cos the little cherubs had us contorted into all kinda shapes (they cheat a bit!)

There was a couple of disasters unfortunately:

1^st Stas got himself a lovely big black eye during a boisterous game of basketball come football in their bedroom, which for some reason they thought would be more fun played in the dark!

Then a couple of days after that we were walking in the town on route to an appointment with the opticians when Sergie walked into a scaffolding pole & cut his head! I felt really dreadful & totally responsible that I didn’t take more care but Stas had started to say something to me in Russian & I was trying to work out was saying when, bang! Poor Sergie!! None of us were watching where we were going! - So it was straight up to the hospital for the wee guy to get the cut cleaned up, thankfully he didn’t need stitches & a wee bit of glue was all that was needed. Such a brave wee man, not a tear in sight! Bless!

THEN - that same night my hubby was shaving his little remaining hair with the clippers when Stas took it upon himself to run away with them & proceeded to shave a baldy notch out of his hair on the front of his head!!!

Both of them went to bed in tears that night, whilst I sat worrying, waiting on the charity to come & take them away & banish us from looking after kids ever again! Thankfully the next morning all was ok & a couple of trick dog poo‘s in their bed later that night brought back the chaos we had grown to love & expect from 2 very lively young boys.

the boys enjoying their trick dog poos

As for the disasters? Well, it became a bit of a running joke with the rest of the host families & the charity that the boys were still in one piece every time we turned up for an outing! After all, kids will be kids!

Within about a week the boys were well and truly big Dickies fans! My Dickies tape practically lives in my car, it’s never out of the tape player when I‘m driving (much to my hubby’s annoyance!) Their favourite song was Eep App Ork & all you could hear was 2 wee voices singing along every time it came on. Maybe it means something in Russian? They also loved The Adicts, The Toy Dolls, Runnin Riot, King Prawn & loads of other stuff & would watch punk videos & DVD’s when they weren’t watching Tom & Jerry.

I can’t say it was all a bed of roses. About 10 days into their visit I had to give them their first telling off. Nowt serious though, just them starting to push their luck a bit. Stas was beginning think he was staying at a Butlins’ holiday camp with waitress service on tap. No chance! Lol - And because he was a wee bit older than Sergie, Stas decided that he was to become his personal slave, so would send Sergie off to get him things like a glass o juice or fetch him through his shoes & stuff. Soon put a stop to that! And he had a knack of making you feel bad for doing so! But I guess I maybe brought it on myself a wee bit, after all the kids are here to enjoy themselves so I didn’t want to be too strict. Still. Live & learn, I won’t be as soft on the next 2 kids that come to stay.

It was, as I say, an incredible experience! Even though it was our 1st time hosting I thoroughly enjoyed it & now that they are away back home I miss them loads. The kids were great! Never any problems & I guess I shouldn’t say it but it’s only natural to have your favourite & my favourite was Sergie. He was a wee sweetie. He was a great wee boy, so easily pleased & so cheery. If you gave him a dirty old stick that was lying in the garden to play with he would be delighted!

     Stas                                                       Sergie 

You could really see a difference in the boys, in all the kids that were here from when they first arrived to when they left. They were more lively, more cheery, they had rosy cheeks, they were a wee bit chubbier, they were happy.

It makes a big difference in their lives to have this experience. Not only does it flush out all the heavy metals & other crap that built up in their systems from all the radiation & associated contamination, it gives them hope.

I think it’s a great charity. One where you can really do your bit, not just financially but practically. It certainly beats just handing over your loose change to a faceless tin-shaker in the street & never really knowing what happens to your money. There is no-one at the top of the chain profiting from this charity. Yes it does employ people but they don’t get paid ridiculous amounts of money for being a chairman. They don‘t have fancy overheads & shops to maintain.

The charity relies on donations & sponsorship to keep up the good work they do. They also need more host families!

Please consider it. You Don’t have to do it full time. You can become a ‘support’ family which involves giving the full time hosts a break should they need it & take the kids away for a few hours, a night or a couple of days or just take them to an outing. You can ‘share’ the kids with another family. You have them for half of their stay, whilst the other family has them for the next half.

There is loads of ways to help. For more info check out the websites & if you need even more info then contact them. They are only too happy to help!

me & peter wi the little treasures =:o)