Another great day for the delegation!  Today the Orphanage children put on their annual concert for us.  First we stopped in to see the progress on the bedroom renovation.  Our teams have been hard at work and have most of the wallpapering complete in two of the rooms.  Here Mary Whalen shows us the room she was working on.

Here is Anya in the room that she
has been completing.

The concert this year was absolutely amazing and the children managed to build in all of their various talents utilizing all of the equipment that we have provided over the years.  They took the basic Cinderella story and modified it utilizing some traditional and modern music and dancing as well as acting.  Here the 3 step-sisters put Cinderella to work

Some of the younger children provided the magic to transform Cinderella into a beautiful princess.

Last year we brought more music equipment including electric guitars and drums.  Since then a local musician has been working with  the children and the results were unbelievable!  The teacher played the guitar but the students played the bass guitar, keyboard, drums and tambourine.  The quality of the music was amazing … they played like pros!

Yana, the girl in pink, has always been a rather shy introverted girl and this year she came bounding out and got all of the Canadians up dancing and clapping.  A rather incredible transformation that seemed to begin when she found a desire to play the drums last year.

Here are Vlad and Kristina as the Prince and Cinderella.

Once the Prince had found the shoe the cast got all of the Canadians up to sing a song to help find Cinderella!  The best we could do was pull together a rousing rendition of “If you are happy and you know it”.  Fortunately the kids let us off the hook with it!

Here is Karina playing a witch who helps the Prince find Cinderella.

Of course, as we all know, the Prince does find Cinderella and they live happily ever after!

After the concert the children called up Annis Moreau and presented her with an award to thank her, and all of the Canadians, for all of the hard work she did helping to raise funds for the music program at the Orphanage.

Dave told the children how wonderful the concert was and how proud we all are of their accomplishments.  He also took a few moments to recognize Vika for her efforts to raise money to give back to the orphanage that she grew up in.  He held her up as an example to the other children of what they too could accomplish if they work hard at school and continue to follow their dreams.

Pat and Tracy Yuille along with Peggy and myself finished off this wonderful day with a very special evening.  Along with the Yuille’s summer daughter, Ira, as an interpreter, we took two sisters from the orphanage out to pizza dinner in Mogilev.  Kristina is in grade 11 and will head off to College next year and her sister, Yana is in grade 10.  These girls are very special to us and we love spending time with them at the orphanage, but this gave us an opportunity to get them out of the orphanage and spend some quality time discussing their future as well as just sitting around talking, laughing and enjoying each others company.  From left to right, Igor (our driver), Yana, Tracy, Ira, me, Kristina, Pat and Peggy.

I have known these girls since they were 9 and 10 years old and it is really incredible to see them grow up into two beautiful and talented young ladies.  I hope they carry some of these memories of their Canadian friends with them as they travel through the rest of their lives … I know they will always be in my heart!

Eric McKenzie