It's A Small World

Have you ever had a week were tremendous coincidences abound. You know, those moments that find you slackjawed and wondering, "what's the chances of that?!"
I've had one of those weeks.
And seriously, this post isn't the half of it. I've got a real goodie coming your way in the next posting... I'm just waiting, and hoping, for a bit more info before I share it with you.

(yeah I know, don't you hate it when people leave ya hangin' like that?)

But for now, check out this picture...


Right there in the middle is my uber-crush, Ralph Fiennes! That alone, makes it an awesome picture. But look closer. He is standing with Tatiana and the other staff members AT BECK'S ORPHANAGE IN TOKMOK! WHAT?!
Hilary sent me the link to his diary detailing his trip to Kyrgyzstan, and specifically about his visit to the Tokmok Orphanage.
He writes:

This was probably the most distressing place I’d seen, I think. Very young children from a few months old to maybe two or three years old. I get a sense of, well, of the palpable love of the women and the lady who ran it, Tatyana.

Tatyana has been looking after children with disabilities for 11 years. But it was the faces of these tiny children (many of whom were clearly undernourished or psychiatrically disadvantaged) that impressed me the most. When we arrived, we sat down with Tatyana who talked about the principles of the centre. Most of the children have been abandoned because they have some deformity, either physical or mental, or because their parents just can’t cope. Trying to advance them in terms of their disabilities.


They deserve better facilities, better buildings, more equipment. Some of the children were very ill. They had serious mental and motor skill problems and they were housed in a very old building that I recognised as being probably from Tsarist times, which was quite rare. Very old floorboards, woodwork and old windows. Again, the western visitor is stumped for an adequate response in the face of what the women at the centre were trying to achieve, were trying to hold together. They were trying to give these children a life.

It was sobering seeing these tiny faces looking up at us. We must have seemed like weird, strange giants coming in with our camera equipment and books and backpacks and things. And these children reaching out. One little girl grabbed my hand and tried to pull me into the room, and I wondered how long they would be here and what their memories would be of this place when they were older. Will all of them have memories of institutions throughout their life and who would be the ones who would find a home?

Of all the places in the world, how amazing that he came to be at the very same little orphanage, in a tiny relatively unknown country (He admits he knew NOTHING about the country prior to his travel) that Beck came from.

*swoon* It's like we have a cosmic connection. OK, I wish.
So let's see, that makes me, what 1 degree of separation? Or is that 2? Me-Tatiana-Ralph. Hmmm, not sure how that works. But regardless, I think it's super cool.