Rotherham Chernobyl Children's Project

No, this isn’t a Belarusian beetroot delicacy that Oxana and Nika had introduced us to, but what they mistook for the Apple and Blackberry “English Dessert” we offered them. It took us a while looking at their incredulous faces to realise why they were so repulsed by the idea. To be fair, we had been eating the root earlier and it was the exact same colour.

It’s Chris here.  I haven’t posted for a while and even tho it’s late, I wanted to express something of the experience we’re enjoying.

Yesterday, we went to Chatsworth Adventure Playground and Farmyard with our good friends and their daughters. Thankfully, it was another sunny day and the place had that Chatsworth feel – well organised and not dud.

We made the day Nika’s “Almost Ten Day”. We picnic’d and ate birthday cake next to the biggest wooden climbing frame/ rope bridge / slide combo I’ve ever seen. We limited the candles to one as we were lighting the cake on a bed of soft but dry wood chippings that covered the play area. Publicity is good, but not the ‘Chatsworth goes up in smoke kind.’  Nika was made up and enjoyed opening her pressies.

When we mentioned fountains, we were greeted with screams and wild throwing about of limbs so we just had to return to Sheffield Peace Gardens to join all the other children enjoying the same.

Later, we went back to our friends for a BBQ and their oh so wonderful daughters entertained our girls with their trampoline, Nintendo Wii and other goodies. The Wii provided one of the funniest times of the girls stay (and there’s been a few). Two little girls, running like mad, legs and feet spinning up and down, interspersed with jumps and lots of laughter from them and us as they jumped over logs and tried to stay on top of the mountain. The adult attempts were even funnier.  On one of the “tests”, the machine pronounced Karola as unbalanced and near the edge, not a good combination!

It was getting late, but as our friends said, this is all about giving them an experience of a lifetime, so we didn’t rush home.

Today, after a lie in, Nika and Oxana undertook some culinary tasks – making Karola’s famous Fat Rascals, dipped in chocolate.  After that, a spot of blackberry picking with Oxana in particular going to great lengths to pick those almost out of reach fruit.

Then we headed back up the motorway to one of the host families’ homes for an afternoon of fun including a treasure hunt and a pretty amazing blow up water slide and pool that the girls in particular loved.  The water was straight from the tap, but the cold didn’t seem to bother them as they pushed each other off the top.

This evening, the girls made wooden spoon people and were keen for us to join in and make ours too.  Then finally (or so we thought), it was off to see the horses.

While having our romantic dinner after their departure, they came back down to “sit with us”. We think this was advanced level bed time avoidance. They were being very cute and then it was time for our purple dessert which we offered them a little of, made with the blackberries they’d picked. Initially, they seemed keen and then for some reason decided to just have the ice cream, with some hundreds and thousands of course. And hence back to the title of this post.

I have to say, this is an amazing experience. Oxana and Nika are really great kids and seem to be getting sweeter by the day. It’s non stop and its not always easy, but it really is fulfilling.  I guess all you parents out there will know all about that.

TTFN