Kaisiadorys - fourth drop

Second stop today was a place in a town called Parachie. This was a contrast to the centre we visited this morning as it was very remotely located out in the countryside. When we arrived the road up to the centre itself was still being built. One of the vans ( Mick and Archie ) got stuck in sand ;-) Fortunately, the Lithuanians who were building the road used a mixtures of JCBs, road rollers and wooden planks to help out. The children were waiting to greet us at the centre with paper shaped love hearts, which was lovely. When we finally got there the children were so excited, it was amazing to see. They were all riding around on the bikes as we pulled them off the van. When we were walking up to the centre, some kids ran about 100meters to us and one jumped straight into my arms. The centre holds children who mainly have parents but ended up in the centre. This was for various reasons, parents, foster families or grandparents couldn't cope, or their parents had left to live abroad. Some had behavioral difficulties and one girl was fostered from the home aged four then we were told the foster family returned her 12 years later, after they weren't getting any money! The kids at this home were all aged up to about 18, including one who had been there since he was born. It was also nice to see the older kids looking after the younger ones! We were given some coffee and cake and then shown around the centre. After that we all played a game of football for around 30 minutes. Personally this was my favorite centre. It really amazed me how much of a family they all seemed. We then left but not before the van which was delivering (Katy and Jo) got stuck in the sand one more time. This time, Archie used some rope to tow the stuck van out (well done Archie). Then we were on our way.

I'll remember this day for a long time!