Sunday, July 1, 2012

All these special people...

So many evenings we sit late into the night in the menage after dinner chatting with our guests...exchanging views, stories and ideas and generally embracing the chance to open the window into anothers world that can often be so different to one's own. I like to think that it is of interest to others to share our experiences as we have shifted our lives from country to country gathering knowledge and wisdom as we go about what each one considers their 'normal' BUT selfishly my curiosity for hearing the tales from others and gathering their gleams of wisdom, humour and knowledge is what makes this whole experience worthwhile.

Mike and I are so often inspired by the tales shared with us by our guests as they unwind after a journey or a busy day in Champagne over a glass of wine, often basking in the glow of the BBQ embers....we are humbled, amused and enchanted by peoples life journeys and adventures that they bring to the table.

This morning I awoke early to a still house with the first rays of sun and reflected, as I often do, on the conversations of the previous evening. A quiet couple with a gentle manner and considered gestures told the story of a son, now a doctor, who went at 18 to work in an orphanage in rural Romania where children were so severely underfed and under loved that they were weighing in at 17 pounds aged five years old....it is hard to imagine this level of on going mental and physical damage to such small children on such a scale...

My lovely caring guests during one of many visits to their son at the orphanage decided to adopt one of these little boys and took him home to the UK to live as their own son. He was 4 years and 8 months old and was 'the same size as the Christmas turkey'...as the same needle was used for all of the children as they came into the orphanage Sammy had contracted polio so was unable to walk and as a result of the psychological damage done by being force fed he is still unable to swallow solid food and lives on protein drinks and small amounts of pureed food, his speech and vocabulary is limited but still increasing...

After arriving in the UK he blossomed doubling his weight in 6 months and after treatment was fitted with callipers and to his great joy finally stood upright and learnt to walk. Sammy is now 21 and loves films, music and his very special parents. This amazing couples extraordinary gesture has, undoubtably, saved Sammy from an otherwise shortened life and has given him a future.

In 2005 Mike worked on a film that was based in Bucarest in Romania and he lived there for 3 months working alongside the local crew. I went out to visit him for a short stay with baby Liliana in tow and  remember the whole experience very vividly. I found the contrast from being head down in London with a small baby such a shock. The endlessly interesting contrasting architecture...the faded beauty and glory of days gone by and the stark structures erected alongside. Funky restaurants and cafes that had a slick modern edge alongside serious poverty and visible depravation. In rural areas we saw horse and cart loaded with cabbages, potholed roads, very few cars and many wild dogs. The bright educated hard working members of Mike's art department who lived such simple lives devoid of any privilege or extravagance...the general disregard for human safety by those in charge of the local crew and the passive acceptance that this was OK...normal....a sad damaged country that intrigues me still...

After breakfast this morning as my guests headed for the south of France for a couple of weeks rest and relaxation in the sun...they left with our gracious farewells having brought to the fore memories of a place that was to one and all more than a one night stopover en route...