The summer was hard on Buryatia. There was flooding which damaged or destroyed nearly 50 schools. Another hundred schools already were in need of major repairs and 200 schools need extensive repairs. Since the August 17th crisis with the rouble, teachers have again experienced major delays in their salaries and administrators have had almost no budgets for operations. Therefore, we outlined a plan to use USDA food aid to feed the children with cooks from the rural schools.
Fuel is scarce.
On my visit, the Ministry had to bargain with local districts to find ways to get me around. Our local partner, Ilya Fedorov, has not been able to fix his car. Many stores have shortages of goods, partly as a result of hoarding which went on in September, but foreign goods are very much in absence-which in the long run could be a plus to local farmers, but for now is causing problems. Minister Namsaraev, who is usually very optimistic, said that at the very best Buryatia and Russia are in for a very hard year, and he openly asked for what assistance we can provide. But despite this, I have to say that I remain amazed at the courage, resilience and optimism of our teachers, administrators and youth.