The Irish are a special breed (easy for me to say as one of them!). There have been many questions over the years as to why “volunteers” from Ireland would give freely of their time to travel to Belarus in support of children who are often abandoned by their own families. A former Director at the Gorodishche Orphanage wisely said to us one time – “We give the children all that we can to keep them warm and fed but you, the Irish, you give them love”. We have witnessed significant changes over the years, we see a lot of love between the mamas and the young children in Gorodishche; the Irish have left a lasting mark.
But the caring nature of the Irish, and specifically Mama Joanna, goes beyond the boundary of the orphanage.
On one of our shopping trips to the village, we were heading back down the hill with bags of food and sweets. At the top of the hill, just before the bend in the road, we heard loud squealing and barking. It sounded like a dog might have been hit by a car. But when we looked further down, there was a lady on the road and her bike was lying across the road. It was unclear as to what was going on from this distance – let’s hurry. A man, closer to the incident than we were, turns back towards the lady but once she gets up, he goes in the opposite direction and passes us as we are heading down the road.
When we reach the lady (she’s now sitting at the side of the road) we see that she has a little dog beside her that is limping. She explains that the dog ran across her and she hit it with the bike, sending her and the bike crashing to the ground. A bump on her head, some issue with her shoulder, and she is bleeding a little from her mouth. I pick the bike up and try to straighten the mudguard and the saddle (good practical “man” stuff) while Joanne hugs the lady and reaches into the bag for a cold item that can be put on the bump on her forehead. The lady is quite upset and explains that it is her dog and that she needs to get home to her invalid husband (she seems a little disorientated). We ask where she lives (God bless Google Translate) and we accompany her, and her broken bike, as far as we can towards her home. She tells us that she’s OK to walk the rest of the way and we watch her walk slowly down the country lane.
I have no doubt that this was more “Irish” care, and most especially more Joanna care, which is still being talked about in the village. To Joanne, it was a small act of kindness, but as witnessed when the local man turned away, this was not natural to the local population.
Irina is our real local hero, she’s our chef, our translator, our organiser, our local mama, and everything else in between. She’s 70 years young and is still as active and enthusiastic as when I first met her some years ago. She’s officially retired but continues to work in the Orphanage (that’s quite common as the National Law forces people to retire at a specific age even if they are willing and able to continue). We encounter many retired people who are now on monthly contracts, they clearly still have a lot to give to the State.
It’s a big week for Irina and we will be without her guidance in Gorodishche, she lives in the City that’s a 40-minute bus ride away). For the staff, that’s not a problem, they know us and we know them well enough to be able to come and go to the groups ourselves (and with Joanne’s command of the language . . . ). Irina’s grandson is going to college, he’s finished his secondary education. Not dissimilar to what we see at home, he hasn’t got his results just yet, so he’s not guaranteed his first-choice course or location (he’s looking to become an apprentice train driver at a school in Brest – a couple of hours away). They must assume that he will get the course and start looking for accommodation and planning out his startup in the new school, it’s all quite stressful (and that’s just for me!).
Irina plays a big part in her grandson’s life and is more like his mother than his granny. She has been saving for many years to get him the best education and job that he can have. And when word comes through that “he’s in”, she is so proud and happy – we may need to toast this #importanterstuff moment for Irina and Vanya.
Irina will join us again next week as we travel to the Orphanage in Chervin (more on that soon).
I’ve grown to enjoy my early morning biscuit/sweet drop to the “special ones” that are known as Group 5. For volunteers that have been to Gorodishche before, I can see the sweat on your brows when I mention that group number 😊
This is a wild bunch (although they are very well-behaved when I come to them each morning with some treats). I even get hugs and a big “SPACIBA” (that’s “thank you”) before I leave. I was clearly fooled by this nicer-than-nice response.
On my first visit to Gorodishche some years ago, I was set up by the volunteers who had been going for years. My innocence was hammered as the volunteers allowed me to “go first” into the Group 5 room. Before I knew where I was, I had three of them climbing on me (see https://www.rineanna.com/home/main-menu/july-2017 for the gory details.
Group 5 were in the gym having a disco and we decided that bringing the guitar and the musical instruments might be a great way of having some fun. What could possibly go wrong with this group of “dears”? Where do I start?
Before I can react, there are two of the “darlings” retuning the strings and there are two others that have their hands inside the sound hole (quite a feat!). I’m struggling to get the guitar off my shoulder to get it into the case when I see tambourines and shakers flying through the air – it’s complete mayhem. Joanne and I collect the remnants of what was “the music bag” and quickly retire to the safety of the Irish Kitchen, a lesson learned – or was it?
On our last day at the Orphanage, I was in the hall to see the rehearsals for the school return ceremony. There are many groups represented here, including several from Group 5. I arrive with my camera as I want to take some nice photographs of the proceedings. Well, if you haven’t already guessed, I’m set upon by the small group of 5s and before I know it there are menus on the camera that I’ve never seen before. As I move it from my right to left side, there’s one there to look at imposing maximum carnage. It’s another hasty retreat to the Kitchen, will I ever learn?
Thank you to all of you who have donated to the #importanterstuff fund. We have far exceeded our initial expectations, and the fund is continuing to grow. After our initial visits to the apartments in Minsk, Joanne says that we will need to try harder – we can do so much but there are so many worthy projects that we will never get to (here’s to 2024 😉).
As you will know from an earlier story, we have left Brother Liam to decide where BCP can best use the money that we’ve allocated to this project. And this week we get confirmation of some heart-warming outcomes for some who are starting their independent lives in Minsk. There are fridges, washing machines, and kettles aplenty with proud beneficiaries. And in the middle of the photographs, there’s Daniel, the boy we met on our visit to his hostel room. His ask was simple, a fridge to keep his food fresh and a kettle to make tea. He looks so proud (and thankful) to have benefited from YOUR generous donations. Daniel (and others), Joanne, and I are so thankful to all of you.
I spend an afternoon in the kitchen with Vanya (it was his birthday a couple of weeks ago – remember the photos?). As part of his gift from his Mama Tisha in Ireland, he asks if I can help him to get some games onto his PC. As a veteran of the world of IT, this will be a doddle.
He brings his laptop, or might I call it a brick! I guess that it was a donation from a travelling volunteer some years ago. A PC that had probably seen its better days before it was donated. Another few challenges – it’s Windows 7 and the Operating System is in Russian. But a poor workman blames his tools, time to get cracking at this.
My next challenge, the internet connection in Gorodishche ranges from poor (200k) to incredible (8Mb) – we’ve acclimatised to 8Mb being incredible! More excuses I hear you say – get on with it!
A couple of hours have passed, and Vanya is looking at me as if I am clueless! We’ve managed to get a couple of “baby” games, not what he wanted. We’ve also managed to load a game that neither of us can work out the controls for (see the way I’ve cleverly made it look like it’s partly his job now to load games!). I load some other baby games (I’m good at that) before he points me to what he really wants – a game that has a 2GB download size! I explained that this would take days or weeks to download, and he’s getting very used to my lame excuses.
A failed afternoon, I may have oversold my capabilities to poor Vanya. I decided that maybe I could find a DVD version of this game in Minsk and deliver it to him on the trip back later this month. Oh wait – did the machine have a DVD Drive?
Part of the joys of the visiting Irish is felt in the village of Gorodishche, not just in the Orphanage. This is where the mad Irish (for that is how I believe they really see us) spend a small fortune, relatively speaking, on bread, meat, cheese, fizzy drinks, sweets, yoghurt, and ice cream). Every visit (that’s practically every day) we load as much as we can into the two bags we carry back to the Orphanage because tomorrow there will be some sort of party or excuse to give, give, give.
There are four grocery stores in the village (a lot for such a small population). One is the “big shop” that has everything, and the others are more like corner shops at home (a sort of Texaco Shannon range but smaller in size). There is also a place we’ve come to know as the Moscow Shop, it stocks clothes and toiletries that are brought in from Moscow and sold to the locals (although I get a sense that this is more like a €2 shop at home with questionable quality goods). We consciously decide that we will share the spoils across all the shops, although the nature of the big one means that it gets more (they have stock to sell hundreds of ice creams).
We know that they are happy to see us arrive each day, and each trip sees us buy in at least two shops. Some are not shy about encouraging us to shop in their store all the time!
By the time we leave Gorodishche (close to 4 weeks after arriving), we have left the equivalent of 10 months of a single person’s wages with the shopkeepers of the village. This is partly what we are here for – the local economy thrives when the Irish are in town.
To give us a “perfect” send-off, we are without power in Gorodishche on our last night in the Orphanage. It’s candles and phone torches for the night as we sit and play cards at the kitchen table. I can’t be sure that Joanne isn’t cheating in this light, I never would!
There are things to look forward to in Minsk, our home for the next couple of weeks. Every travelling volunteer looks forward to the shower (the first proper one we will have in weeks), the bed (no longer a hospital one), and a pizza (i.e., restaurant food) – the simple pleasures! The roads to Minsk are flooded, we are seeing monsoon-style weather here after all the sunshine.
In the door, the plan is simple. Empty the bags (how have we more than we brought to Gorodishche?), have a shower, and head for a pizza. Tick 1, tick 2, and – Domino’s will have to do as Prego is now a vegetable shop.
They have an English version of the menu (how helpful but the pictures would have worked) and we are told that the order for Дон (that’s me) will take about 20 minutes – Berty Whelan would never allow an order to take that long in Newmarket-on-Fergus! The board announces Дон – готов (my order is ready) and I go to the counter. The girl is opening every box there is and seems to be a little flustered. She speaks to someone in the food preparation area before she comes back and says there’s been a mistake and that it will take a further 7 minutes to deliver my order. I worry that one has been made incorrectly and that the other pizza will sit, going cold, while the 7-minute pizza is prepared and cooked. 10 minutes later we are eating hot pizza with cold and half-cooked “wet” chips. The pizza was too salty and too bready – such an anti-climax. But there was the shower, and the bed to look forward to.
During one of the Covid lockdowns in Ireland, I volunteered with a Belarusian language school. I found Online Class through another voluntary organisation that I was friends with on Facebook. The heads of the school are Mel Rogers (he’s from Wales) and Irina (his Belarusian wife), and I volunteered my services as a teacher of “conversational English with a native speaker”.
I call it volunteering but it was more of a barter arrangement as I swapped my time for free English lessons for Kirill (my boy in Gorodishche). My Irish accent went down well (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it) as I met many adult students in one-to-one or small-group online classes. I have kept contact with some of the students, most of whom are now living and working in other countries. One student that I had some contact with was Carina, she told me, at one of the classes, that she had been to see Martin McDonagh’s “The Cripple of Inismann” in Minsk (in Belarussian).
I made contact with Carina before we left for Belarus and told her that Joanne and I would be in Minsk and that we might meet up . . . and meet we did (I love when these connections from years ago come to life).
Carina is now working for UNHCR in Belarus and one of her colleagues is Donna – from Cork (there’s an Irish person in every corner of the world). Carina’s English is close to perfect (I can’t claim the credit entirely 😊) and we spent a lovely evening chatting of holidays, and volunteering, whilst having some food and a few drinks.
Despite the warm days we’ve recently experienced, it’s a cool evening in Minsk and people are reaching for jackets and blankets, but not us hardy Irish.
There’s great excitement at home, DJ is releasing his new single – “Lead The Way” under the band title XIII Doors. He’s been working on this for quite some time and has written a full album of material that is in various stages of development. But September 1st is the launch date for the first of the tracks. Joanne and I have heard a sneaky preview to see what we think of it, it’s feckin’ brilliant!
Being in Minsk means that we can be involved more in the excitement that is developing on Friday morning. We are frantically pushing out messages through all possible platforms, even resorting to good old email to get to the radio stations. Before we know it, the song is charting on iTunes (one of the only places that you can buy music these days). We first see it as a NEW entry at #25 in the charts, time to send more messages to encourage people to listen and buy.
At 12:34 local time (that’s 10:34 at home) I refresh the chart page – it updates at 34 past the hour, every hour. And where is the song – well it’s only gone to #1 in the iTunes Chart in Ireland. Woo-hoo – and just before DJ takes to the airwaves on Clare FM to promote the track.
We may not have been at home, but we certainly felt part of the buzz that was surrounding the release. Here’s to the imminent release of the Video for “Lead The Way” and the release of the rest of the album tracks.
The family record has been broken, but I’m not disappointed! With DJ’s help, our song for Burren Chernobyl Project (The Wonder Of You) reached #2 on iTunes back in 2017. Here’s to a #1 album soon from XIII Doors.
To buy the track – and I encourage ALL of you to do this – go to THIS SITE
They say that a great artist is never recognised in his own time!
There are three arts and crafts classes here in Gorodishche, each catering to different levels of ability. From beautiful paintings, jewellery, cards, and woven goods to . . . simply being there. Everyone in these classes plays a role and it means that they are occupied for large parts of each weekday.
I didn’t actively participate in the class (I helped with some cutting and glueing every now and again) but I was summoned to Tanya on one of our evening visits. She had a gift for “mom” and I was to help her to complete it (little did I know that Tanya had just outsourced the job and I was not completing it but doing the whole thing!). It was quite simple, follow the instructions on the box, and the paints and brush were supplied. That was partly true, how do you get brown when that’s not one of the paints in the box – thank you Google. The masterpiece produced was appreciated by all (at least that’s what they said), apparently, I’m not just the best cook but also the best artist.
For those who think it looks like the work of a child (that’s what my wife says) just remember – even Picasso was misunderstood at first!
September 1st (Knowledge Day it’s called) is a big day in the Belarusian calendar, it’s back to school for all students (young and old). And there would be no event without all the pomp and ceremony, and a song, and dance. We attended the rehearsal for the opening ceremony but left before the full reveal was done. The photos and videos are spectacular, all the students of Gorodishche (even those who attend arts and crafts) were decked in traditional costumes and were perfectly rehearsed to present to local dignitaries. I regret not staying for the event as I believe there may have been a special “Artist of the Year” award that I may have been presented with on the day. Perhaps another time (sigh).
Do you remember Irina Rogers from the Online Class story earlier (the link to the Carina story)? I read a Facebook post that she had put up during the week and it is screaming at me – those words say exactly what #importanterstuff is all about. I’ve edited a longer version of the quotation that comes from the book Fahrenheit 451 (I’ve also downloaded the book for reading next week), I think you will like it!
Joanne’s Reflection/Poem Of The Week
Week five has arrived hastily. Tick tock, tick tock, Tempus Fugit.. My heart aches for those completely unaware of time, as each second unravels another day, each day another week, etc…a kind of groundhog Day. Yet this week with children going back to school the majority of feeds were asking time to slow down, where have the years gone, in the blink of an eye etc.
This week’s poem has been born from knowing that everything passes, treasure each gifted day and don’t take tomorrow for granted.(Ps photo taken by Don in Gorodische of the Super Blue Moon last week) xx
A Random Selection Of Week 5 Photos
Importanter Stuff 
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