Ken Hensley

"Into The Unknown"

Day 2

Essentially planned as a day off/recuperation day, this ended up being quite busy! The piano was delivered to my room so I could get used to it and practise a bit and then it became lunch time and then siesta time. Thank God Monica called me at 3pm because I was in a deep sleep so, after a quick freshen up, we left for the radio station for a live interview.

I like Minsk. It's a city that was almost totally destroyed in the war and had to be completely re-built. They did a good job! The buildings look great and are lighted nicely, the boulevards are wide and smooth and the whole city is really clean.

I didn't like the interview though….

These days, bad interviews are rare but this one was very confusing and it took a lot more time than it needed to. I won't waste time and space going into details but it wasn't cool and I'll leave it at that!

What came next was great though! I was invited to visit an orphanage and planned to spend some time with the children and the staff so I was really pleasantly surprised when I walked in and they had organised a traditional Belarus reception for me with a little musical play enacted by some of the children, dressed in local costume. They presented me with a loaf of bread they had baked for me and then we went upstairs to a small room with a stage where they put on a concert for me which was wonderful. Then I sang a couple of songs for them, signed a lot of pieces of paper and arms and posed for a lot of pictures, some of which you can see here and here.

I enjoyed tea with the staff and learned that this institution is so well organised that the children (an average of 80 at any one time) enter at the age of 3 or 4 and exit at 18 into a structured college apprenticeship. Throughout their time at the orphanage they become the "children" of the staff and are encouraged to prepare for their time as young adults. The program seems to be enormously successful and is a model that many other countries could and should follow.

All in all I really enjoyed this experience and I was happy to cancel the dinner plans and order room service. The idea being that I could have an early night, enjoy a good night's sleep and wake up re-energised for tomorrow.

We shall see….