I work hard to get them to bring the aid. Then in a week it is all gone. Traded for vodka. Just 10 minutes away by air is another village, Nerkha, where vodka is a big problem as well. Unlike Alygdzher, though, Nerkha does not even appear picturesque from the sky.
Animals wander aimlessly.
Children and adults walk around barefoot in the filth. There are 230 residents of the village, half are Russian and an estimated 10 percent Tofalar by both parents, the rest the product of mixed marriages. In the winter, the children are shipped out to boarding school in the nearby city of Nizhnyudinsk. In the summer, there is nothing for anyone to do here. Nothing but drink.