This morning we had a wonderful time with Dustin as our tour guide in downtown Petropavlovsk. The plan was to be back to the hotel by 1 PM so that we could accomplish the other tasks that needed to be done before our departure tomorrow. As we sat together as a group at the hotel things began to unravel. Tanya was supposed to be there to take part of the group for wood boards and other errands that are integral to the project. She was held up and running very late. With the time running out Greg realized that he had to come up with a new plan of attack. Basically, it was divide and conquer.
So, everyone got a task and then we set out. Dustin and I had to go the bank to exchange money that had just arrived with Rebecca from Buffalo, New York. With $11,000 in his pocket we headed out to complete this task. Now, I don't know about you but if I ever had that kind of money on my person, I think I would keep a pretty low profile. We arrive at the bank and check the exchange rate. It seems good so we get in line at the window. We are quickly berated by some women who are sitting in various chairs, because apparently they are in line. Russians have a very different definition of a line than Americans. They think of it more like being in the vicinity of something with no real arrangement or order. So, naturally we have no idea what is going on and we gesture that they should get in front of us. I believe they had a lengthy conversation with each other about how stupid we were. But, I cannot be sure.
Anyway, we finally get to the front of the window and Dustin inconspicuously slides the money into through the slot and the cashier takes it out. She spends about ten minutes counting it and bringing it from one window to another until our low profile is blown. Then the questions begin. You need a passport to exchange money. Dustin surrenders his of course and she reads it carefully. Speaking in Russian, she needs to know the name of the hotel we are staying in, we have no idea. She asks what street it is on, again no idea. She needs the phone number of the woman who is listed on the passport as our host, no idea. We are using our available resources and coming up empty. The cashier is clearly disgusted with the difficult situation and spends a lot of time holding her head and shaking it from side to side. Finally, she decides we are too pathetic to continue interrogating. I am trying to help protect our cover as the woman counts the rubles. That's 333,300 rubles. Which is passed to us in the drawer in fat piles. Dustin is desperately trying to stuff it into his travel wallet around his waist. This slim guy now has a beer gut that causes his jacket to stick out with this giant wad of cash. Concerned about having all this money on him, we head back to the hotel. Reviewing the situation Dustin realizes that he has exchanged $20,000 in two days at two different banks with sketchy at best information and now we are making our way down the street with it, and everyone at the bank knows this. The Russian version of this is either two rich but stupid Americans came to the bank today or the close relatives of Bonnie and Clyde just rode through town.
The mayhem continues. We arrive back at the hotel and take care of the money issues. Now, we need to collect a lot of materials of various origins to take with us. Everything from wooden boards to an adjustable wrench needs to be purchased for our departure tomorrow. Again, we divide and conquer. Greg, Dustin and Florin hire a taxi and set out on their quest. Dan, Rebecca and I are given a list of completely unrelated things to purchase. Now the thing about Russia is that there are no Super Wal-Marts here. No one stop shopping in sight and you can't always tell what is inside a store by what is outside a store. So we decide that the only way to get this done is to go into each store and work our way down the main street to basically complete a scavenger hunt for materials. Post office first stop, postcards mailed –check. Next stop, pharmacy – Dan needs shampoo. Three women are trying to help him and want him to have the best shampoo they have. We say no, we want the bad shampoo, the cheap shampoo. That was easy – check. A few stores down we get AA batteries. We are feeling pretty good about ourselves right about now. We have the ability to basically gesture and string together simple Russian words to get from place to place. But, the remaining articles are bamboo skewers, butane fuel, an adjustable wrench, a glasses case and a contact case (since I left those two things on the plane in my post landing stupor). We piece together information about where they might be a super market. We find it at successfully get some bamboo skewers.
We then decide, for reasons we cannot explain, to ask the kid who is in charge of lining up the shopping carts and hand baskets where we might find an adjustable wrench. We draw it, gesture tightening screws on a shopping cart, draw a hex nut, you name it, minus the black and white costume we are pantomiming like Marcel Marceau. We leave with a lot of hand gestures in general directions and basically no clue what to do next. I realize that I forgot to look for the contact case and glasses case so I reenter the store. At this moment, the shopping cart guy runs across the store and speaks to a young woman who is shopping there. He directs her to me. She asks in perfect English "What do you need?" I tell her and she agrees to help me find these things after she pays for her goods. We wait and once she walks out the store the three of us, grasping at our last desperate hope, look to her for advice. She offers to walk us to the stores we need to find our last four items. This is unbelievable – a complete stranger stops her entire day to help us – we are beginning to see the dark cloud of failure rise from over us and disappear.
We begin walking and after about 100 yards she asks, "Why do you need these things?" A wrench, butane and contact case. We explain that we are going on an archeological dig and we need them for the field. She then asks, "Where are you from?" America – easy one. Then I turn to her and ask, "What do you do here in Russia?" She says, "I am a teacher." With great enthusiasm I look at her and say, "Me too!" The obvious next question to her is "What do you teach?" Her reply "English!" Holy cow! Seriously, we are completely amazed that in this city where we have been completely stumped and have worked so hard just to understand things that a 2 year old would know we find the company of an English teacher. What are the chances?
From there we complete our errands through back alleys to stores we never would have visited and in record time we are on our way back to the hotel. We thank her profusely and are immensely grateful for having met her. As we round the corner we see the guys are back and piles of wood are on the ground. They were also sent an angel and were completely successful. So, after covering some serious kilometers we are pretty beat and the better part of the day is behind us. This is a true story and none of the names were changed to protect the ignorant. And quite frankly – you just can't make this stuff up.