My
Russian Experience
I was minding my own business, passing through the Denver airport catching a
transfer flight when I met an old family friend. He will remain forever in
my mind as a con artist. He somehow talked me into joining the Peace
Corps, to join an initial effort to bring Russia into an private economy based
society. God, what a snow job he did on me.
I remember my first day there in October, 1992. We landed at the international airport in Moscow, and the first Russian I saw was some young kid soldier holding a AK-47, standing there looking lost (and probably not even having bullets) in the gangway leading to Customs. Standing in line to pass through this portal of Every Man's Dream, The Worker's Paradise, was long, boring, and totally unending. Evidently, the Customs people suspected we were smuggling in something terribly subversive to their society, like a Western newspaper. Eventually, numerous people had to go to the restrooms. Golly, Sorry, folks, only one restroom, and that was inoperative. Welcome to Russia.
For
the first three months, I participated in an intensive language course at a
sanitarium in Saratov. The Peace Corps had rented the entire place and
hired many language teachers, drivers, and support staff. They tried very diligently to teach us the
Russian language. In addition to the teachers I met at the school, I also
had throughout my two-year stay in Russia, numerous language
tutors. The Peace Corps paid for my tutors at the rate of
$50/month. When you consider that foreign language teachers in Russia, at that
time, were only paid about $12/month, there was no shortage of applicants.
I could be very choosy, and I am now embarrassed to say, I only hired the most
beautiful and obliging ones.
I was based out of and lived for two years in Arzamas,
Russia. about 250 miles
east of Moscow and about
90k south of Nizhny Novgorad (Gorki for you old folks).
I enjoyed myself immensely and found
the inhabitants interesting and friendly, and to my surprise and delight, there
were the most
beautiful, capable, and sexual women I had yet met in my
life. A brief history and
facts about Arzamas (in Russian).
Russia, though, outside of
Moscow or St. Petersburg, is not for the faint of heart or those needing such luxuries
as hot water or a working telephone. I was fortunate, though.
Disregarding the Peace Corps edict to live like the natives (some moronic
feel-good philosophy left over from the flower children who usually were the
Volunteers in the past), I instead spent my own personal money and ended up with
the best digs in town. I won't bore you with
the mundane life I lived in Arzamas. Suffice it to say, it was a
boring, little provincial town. I spent as much time
as possible
traveling throughout
Russia that I could! I did, however, find time to 
participate in the Grand
Opening of the Moscow
Country Club. (during the golfing season there). The in-country Peace Corps Director damn near had a
coronary when I told her I had signed up the Peace Corps as charter members
(with 16 memberships) at only $185,000. She was not an avid golfer,
evidently, as she became rather abusive. She certainly had no sense of
humor.
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