TRIP REPORT - SEPTEMBER 1998

The economic and political situations in Russia are continuing to worsen. The companies
in Moscow and surrounding areas are beginning to release employees because they can no
longer afford to pay them (I understand that some companies have released 50-70% of
their employees) and winter is just around the comer! And the government is still having
difficulty paying its employees and the military (although many of them continue to work).
I understand that the potato and wheat crops have not been good this year, which
exacerbates the problems there because these two crops are staples for most people. My
interpreter, who lives in Moscow and is an artist, had trouble finding materials to paint on,
so she painted on pages from calendars and on the back of some of her old works. She
struggles to find a job that will support her family. The cooperative where I purchase
Russian lacquer boxes has fired some of its employees - people who had worked there for
many years - due to the economic crisis which has slowed business tremendously. Friends
in Fedoskino have the same problems and they have reevaluated selling the home they are
building and moving to the city where their children would get a better education.
Fedoskino is a beautiful area to rear children, but sometimes the children go to school and
sometimes they don't. Sometimes they have teachers, and other times the teachers are
gone because they have found a better job and moved to better take care of their families.
The life span of the people is much lower there than in many other parts of the world. In
Zhostovo, I visited a lady who paints the beautiful metal trays and she had lost her Mother
and her husband in the early part of the summer. Her husband was a man in his fifties, but
the infrastructure to take care of people with medical problems in a small village is just not
there and the facilities in the cities are overburdened.

I also buy some hand made teapot covers from a lady in Belarus, near Minsk. She brings
the covers to Moscow because she can make a little money. She is a home economics
teacher in the school system in her town and her monthly pay is equivalent to $30.00. Her
husband is a joumalist and now the newspaper where he was working hasclosed. He was
bringing home the equivalent of $30.00 each month also. Fortunately he has found
another job to help support their life style and their son, who is now at the university.

Life continues for the Russians, but it is still a struggle.