В Беларуси я теперь бываю редко, а когда-то...

Now I rarely visit Belarus, but once I almost never got out of there, and in any case I went there. Those who have known me for a long time know my approach to any travel: it is always "exploration", whether it is a trip to nature in the suburbs, to a building, to a fest, passing through another city, etc. If I am in any region of Russia for a long time or another country (and even not for long) - I always go to the people, I travel far from places of interest and make up a holistic picture of the life of different strata of society.

Architecture is also good, I always have time. But the main thing is that if I go somewhere purposefully, before that I study the history of this place, the current data (the phone number of the local administration, the full name of all the local authorities, their party affiliation, the names of local football teams, the names of local celebrities, crime reports, funny stories, folk toponymy, festivals, places of worship, and most importantly - everything I can collect about local medicine, etc.). This methodology is very interesting.

So in Belarus, in particular, in Grodno, I like to go to the station in the morning, knowing the chygunka schedule (a piece of iron in Belarusian). And about an hour before the train, I take a seat in the waiting room where more people will gather, and I know where the old people mostly go and where the younger ones go. I listen to conversations, sometimes I turn on carefully. More often than not, I am considered local there, even though I do nothing for this.

So here is the MAIN TOPIC - SIZE OF SALARIES AND PENSIONS. One more - and here I almost start laughing: a discussion (in the spirit of either whining or discontent) of a local penny communal apartment and prices in stores that are not penny, but ... the other day I already talked about the purchasing power of the "bunny".
It's just that people cannot compare and understand that they live well, so they grieve.

With considerable surprise, when they learn that I am from Russia, and even from Moscow, they begin to envy me with each other, they turn back from the heart, because rarely when I am surrounded by so many people whom I envy more than the Russian oligarchs.

Also, those who are simultaneously against Batka and against Russia (because of gas and the excessive greed of Russian oligarchs who do not want to help Belarus develop to the detriment of the number of yachts from their daughter and son), often ask to take Lukashenko from them to Russia (yes, I with both hands FOR !!!), and others - to give them Putin (well, ONE Putin is not a problem, but not an acquisition, it makes no sense).

Some there have seen enough reports from Moscow, decorated by Sobyanin - and for them, Putin is just some kind of God, and Old Man - on the contrary, devil. Especially the parents of children who earn money in Russia (there are many locals who drive taxis Moscow-Orsha, Smolensk-Orsha, they earn a lot of European-level dough, with the Belarusian cost of living they are very wealthy, with the Russian one - just below the middle class).

But in general, the people there are very smart. And humanly good, there is some kind of integrity. Despite the fact that this is the most long-suffering part of the Russian World, no one has seen so much grief in centuries. Father gave them both work and rest at the same time, which is very easy to understand in contrasts when returning to Moscow.