Bunk Mates

We had five hours to contemplate who our Russian bunk mates would be. We had a 19-hour train ride from Taychet in a 4-bunk cabin. We dreaded the thought of rooming with two Vodka weilding Ruskies.

But, the only bottle to be found in the compartment was water. Hanging on a peg was a military uniform and soon after we boarded, it's owner came in (head-to-toe in camoflage). Once it was determined that neither of us understood the other, the young man reached into this duffle bag and produced a clear cassette case and pushed it at us. It had three live scorpions squirming inside. "Yeah, real nice," John said. "Does that mean, watch your step buddy?" The man put the scorpions back then reached back into his duffle, checked every zippered comparment, shock his head and came up empty handed. He shrugged and threw the pack back on the bed and left. We could only imagine what must have gotten away.

We were realived to discover that our other bunk mate was a woman, Elena, 43-years-old traveling back home after being on business. She seemed to know everyone in our train car and as it turned out lived only 200 meters from Rashit, the man in Severobaikalsk that we were going to see.

One of the young girls from another cabin came in and she and I, realizing we both spoke some Spanish, asked questions of eachother and then translated to the others. The military man was 19 years old and was serving near Grozny Chechyna (fortunately where there was no fighting). He had been on a train for six days in an effort to get home. The young girl was attending University in Irkutsk.

The questions that were asked of us were these: "Are we shocked at what Russia looks like? what do we like the best? The least? How much does a flat in America cost? A TV? How much for a liter of milk? A kilogram of apples?" "We have three TV stations," the girl said. "How many do you have?"

The answer that shocked them the most was the cost of a loaf of bread. "More than three rubles (12 cents) for a loaf of bread?" the boy said. "I do not think I want to go to America."

It was late when we went to bed. We had learned the price of a new Russian Lada car ($4000), the monthly rent on a 4-room flat ($24), the average salary of someone in Severobaikalsk ($20 a month) and that bunk mates in a second-class train cabin can make a bumpy, sometimes dull journey, very interesting.