Áåëîðóññêèé äåòñêèé õîñïèñ

On May, 8 Yulya who is under our care celebrated her 21st Birthday…

We asked Mark Thomas who is are our volunteer from GB to share his impressions about this event.

When I arrived at Ulyas flat, the party was already in full swing. Food was being eaten accompanied by champagne and wine. Ulya had a big smile on her face, it was her 21^st Birthday and we had thrown a party, volunteers Katya, Natasha and myself were there along with a few others who had visited her in the last weeks. After the presents had been given, we sang happy birthday first in English, then Welsh, German, Belarusian and Russian, then ate a little more. We played a couple of games including «I never» where we take it in turns to say something we had not done then if someone else had done it, they lost a life, the first person to lose 10 lives, had to do a forfeit. In the first game I lost, so I was told to do a famous Rugby dance which involved slapping myself a lot and shouting, Sebastian lost the second so had to dress up and sing a song for Ulya which he did amazingly! Cake and tea followed, which was eaten very quickly and greedily. Before we left, Ulyas' mother turned on the Karaoke so we all sang together a few traditional Russian songs. Ulya was drifting in and out of sleep at this time so we said our goodbyes and left the newly 21 year old to get some sleep after an exciting, active and enjoyable party.