A World Apart

1998

I got a thing about lepers, ever since I saw Steve McQueen film with Dustin Hoffmann and their escape from Devils Island in Papillon. So there I am in Tichilesti a very small isolated village in Romania and I got to know them. What amazing people. They lived in a world apart and were so innocent and kind. Experiencing none of these horrible influences that corrupts us in our lives. What interested me is how these great people thought and what they said. This is what fascinated me.

During Ceausescu’s time and the collectivisation of farming, there was a massive crop failure. The authorities did not bother to control the people living in Tichilesti . This meant they had their own farm animals and grew what they liked. No one told them what to do and there were no governmental restrictions. The neighbouring village under governmental control experienced catastrophic crop mismanagement. The lepers living in Tichilesti came to their rescue and cared for the starving villagers, they fed them and gave them food to take home.

The villagers knew they could be free when they went to visit their neighbours. Every Sunday during communism the villagers would ‘sneak’ into their ‘enclosure’ and worship in freedom. They still did this after Ceausescu’s demise. I heard them singing together, it was an incredibly beautiful experience.

Some of the people with leprosy had children. They prepared them for the world outside. It was not easy knowing your child will leave one day and live in the outside world. A world that made them live in isolation.

If you have time to look at the story Vaselli and Michael keep going on about their broken ambulance. It was their only way to see and experience the outside world. They could also visit the prosthetic institute in Bucharest. After the film was aired a German pensioner from Munich saw the last half of the report. Joachim told me he was in Switzerland and saw the second half of the film in his hotel room. He wanted to visit Tichilesti and he could help them get an ambulance. Next, I met Joachim in Romania and he got to know them. He found a way to get their ambulance repaired and I heard he took Michael and Vaselli fishing. After visiting his new found friends Joachim passed away. I think he knew he was dying. What a beautiful way to end your life….