As mentioned in a previous blog, we purchased a shower, hot water heater and clothes washer for the Dream Mountains Crisis Centre.  Today we stopped by for a tour and they already have them installed.

Afterwards we stopped by a small store that sells children’s clothing as some of the delegates host families have had babies or grandchildren over the past few years.  The store is brand new in Chausy and is owned by one of our drivers (Sergei) and his wife.  This guy is a real entrepreneur and it is nice to see some of the locals taking a chance on developing a business in this region.

The real highlight today was the concert put on by the children of the Chausy Orphanage for the Canadians.  Every year it seems to get better and better and really shows the value in the programs that we have established.  The self confidence is amazing!  Some of these children have been competing and have now made it to the semi-final level, this is an awesome achievement as the next step is the Nationals!  Here three of the girls, Katya, Kristina and Karina perform one of their numbers.

They even included my daughter Maggie and brought her on-stage to play the “air guitar” during one of their songs.

They managed to get a lot of the Canadians up dancing, and in this case, join in a conga line!

Here they brought up one of our musicians, David Hutchinson, gave him a hat and an accordion and Karina sang to him!

Some of the gymnasts performed as well.  Here Stass performs a back flip during a fast paced routine of flips, jumps and rolls.  In the background you can see Dave with a rabbit!  They brought him up and sang and danced to him and this rabbit popped up out of a large package.

Kristina performed a very moving song that talked about the darkness of the past and opportunity in their future thanks to these programs and the direction given to them at this orphanage.  It had a slideshow to accompany the song and ended with this slide which says “Just Believe in Yourself”

One of our delegates and board members, Annis Moreau, was presented with a gift and a bouquet to thank her for a donation of music equipment to the orphanage in memory of her husband Greg who passed away last year.  The children sang a song for her and then made the presentation with the help of Oleg, the orphanage director.

It is wonderful to see the interaction between the children, you quickly realize that they are each others family!

After the concert the Canadians handed out candy and had an opportunity to interact with the children.

Lots of pictures were taken, the children love to have their pictures taken with the Canadians.

The evening ended with a dinner hosted by the orphanage director at the Malcomson House for Family Living.  The food and company was excellent and we were thanked for all of the work that we have done and continue to do to support the orphanage and the children.

A wonderful day was had by all of the delegates.

We are now anxiously waiting for the containers as we are running out of time to get the deliveries complete.  Right now it looks like the earliest we will see them will be Thursday afternoon … keep your fingers crossed!

Eric McKenzie