Work Permits in Russia

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Well, it is that time of year again to renew my work permit even though they are not renewing any work permits because they have too many legal foreigners working here, but so we could be first in line once they open the office, we proceeded with your growing list of dieases. This year we were tested for leprosies, syphillis, TB, Gonorrhea, chancroid (some sort of sexually transmitted diease 'most often found in third world developing countries'), HIV, and drugs besides my mental stableness.

We took our new CFO, who is an Italian citizen, along with Michael and I. He honestly thought we were joking when we told him we had the chicken for our TB payment and some breast meat for the vernal doctor so we did not actually have to go through the full physical. Luka hit the floor when we brought the whole birds in to the first hospital. That hospital was as bad as it was last year, but since this was not my first time, it did not bother me as much. Either my spot on my lung went away or she did not see it this year because I got the thumbs up that I was okay.

We then went to the other hospital, which has gone down hill since last year. It was not terrible, but getting there. We brought the breast meat in with us, which did not make the people standing in line very happy. They had some very choice words for us as we moved to the front of the line. The bad thing, they were blaming us moving to the front of the line because we were foreigners bringing in chicken, but Luka was right, it has nothing to do with us being foreigners but that we were working within the Russian system. In other words, had any of those people brought in something extra for the doctors/nurses, they too would have moved to the front of the line and this is the Russian system. It does not make it right that we got moved to the front, but it is the Russian way. We (the foreigners) did not create it, but working within like any of them could do.

We got our blood drawn here, but we had to get a full physical. I brought Denis in because I did not remember that from last year and did not understand "drop your pants" in Russian even though I thought I understood his justures. Denis just laughed. I got the easy question, "Do you have any skin problems?" Michael got, "Do you love Russian women?" He was afraid no matter how he answered it, it would be the wrong answer...lol so he asked Denis, "How am I suppose to answer that" in which Denis replied, "As if you were in church."

After that, we had to go for psychological soundness, but somehow we got out of that and just paid 90 rubles to the stamp of approval. Michael said that every year they add more and more to the testing. We did not tell Alan the full truth, he thinks we got swabbed as part of our physical looking for std's so he is now refusing to go. He said he is going to wait until they prove we need this all done because we are not paid from Russia so therefore we really do not need a work permit and that our HIV negative test is the only thing required. We will tell him, but I still think he is going ride the grey area on this one.

Now on to my doctor. I am still fighting a cold so I decided to go to the American Clinic in Moscow tonight after work. She was very nice but not sure she really knew what was wrong with me. She told me I did not have a cold but fu????, which is not a bacteria infection so no antibiotics; however, I am taking 6 other medications! For the next three days I have to go take part of them through an inhalor, some are sryups, others are mouth washes, some are disolved in water and taken with juice, plus regular tablets type medication. She asked if she should write it all down, and I initially was thinking one or two, I can remember them, just write the prescription in Russian for the pharmist, but as she kept going, I told her to start from the beginning and write it in English for me. I still had to repeat it with her to make sure I knew which were disolved, which were jargled, and which were taken orally!...lol

I think I could get over this on my own and with all of these medications, I am sure we will get it no matter what it is, but it did not hurt to go. I just think it is funny. I did tell her I was tired of hearing I just needed to take two shots of pepper vodka to clear everything up. That seems to the "answer" to all of this countries problems. I am not being serious and to be honest, it is a big problem here, but they really do believe it. So hopefully in the next few days I will be back to 100% of myself.


I did not post this right after I wrote it, so a few days have passed and I do feel a lot better, but still not 100%. I am going to continue with the medications and jargles until the end of the week. By that time I must be better as Ricky, Mark and Jamie arrive and we are going to be going non-stop to show them as much as I can of Russia! I can not wait until they arrive. Have a safe trip if I do not talk to you!

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