I saw the effects of isolation and lack of exposure in practice everyday, when I organized soccer games and recreational activities for the schoolchildren and kindergarteners.  I found that for every backwards stereotype I had about Russian people, a ten year old kid at the school would ask me to clarify a stereotype five times more ill-informed and ridiculous about American people and American life. I will never forget the first misconception that I flattened in Suzdal. On my first day of leading my group of boys in a sport camp, ten-year-old Dima would not come near me and continually avoided coming within ten feet of me in our first soccer game. Fifteen kids and I pumped up over fifty soccer balls for two hours before we split into teams for the soccer game. After hours of teamwork and getting to know each other, I saw that Dima was the last of the boys to warm up to my presence, so I asked him what was going on. He told me that he was worried that I would give him obesity. He said that he heard obesity was a plague in America and that it was violently contagious. He said that it was getting so bad that people in Canada were fleeing to Europe. After the complete shock wore off I realized that Dima’s misconception wasn’t as absurd as I initially thought. It is not unimaginable that he had heard of obesity referred to as a plague and without any exposure to Americans, I was the first that all of these kids had ever met, how would he have any way of humanizing and making sense of this use of figurative language? I am no doctor, but I was able to explain the causes of obesity in a way the boys could understand and Dima displayed relief when after my explanation of how obesity is not transmitted by germs, he asked to play on my team. Explaining the situation of poor health among many Americans with regards to obesity allowed me to reframe the situation into a great moment where I got to talk to the kids about what kinds of choices lead to poor health like obesity and drug addiction. It was these completely unplanned moments that granted the project and my presence, what I hope is, a lasting p with these kids. 

This project began as an idea to build a playground and teach kids about health. Luckily for the project, the Davis Foundation took a liking to it and helped me realize the implication that this project could be for promoting peace. I do not need to waste time explaining to you how deeply rooted the stereotypes, stigmas, and fear are between American and Russian cross-cultural understanding. Of course the ideological spitting contest that was the Cold War has left Russo-American relationships tainted and sour. Only after over ten weeks in Russia and studying Russian culture, history, politics, and language at the university level can I happily say that exposure has broken the crude and backwards stereotypes about Russian people that informed my childhood, and I live in the United States of America where free information and tolerance rank among the highest in the world. Now imagine the average Russian living in an isolated town with limited resources for education and travel abroad. Now take into consideration the fact that for the majority of their life they lived under a regime, which only presented the state of the world in the form of its motivated interests. Furthermore, consider that still to this day travel outside of the country is strictly visa warranted and Russia’s vast size and lack of proximity to western culture makes travel abroad unaffordable and a privilege only for the super elite.

Since junior high, when I would come home with questions about what the Soviet Union was, my mother would tell me the stories of performing duck and cover drills in school to be prepared for an impending Soviet attack. Of course hearing about my mother’s experience growing up transmitted a lot of fear and distrust into my understanding of the country with the world’s largest fleet of nuclear weapons. Even after years of exposure and study, this fear still informed my understanding of Russian people and Russo-American foreign policy. Then I sat at evening tea with my host-mother and heard her tell the same exact story as my mother had. At first it was eerie to hear her tell an identical version of practicing duck and cover drills for an impending American attack, but then I realized complete understanding and perspective with regards to the fear that dominates the cultural understanding of the average American or Russian citizen. It was this moment when, for me, peace was illuminated from the dark shadows of Cold War distortion and fear. Maybe harmony and community is only a cup of tea away.

In the end, my presence in Suzdal did not inform millions, it did not drastically disarm Cold War tensions, and it didn’t immediately inform Russo-American foreign policy for the better. In know way am I suggesting that SHCAB deserves anything within the same realm of a Nobel Peace Prize; however, what I am saying is that peace starts on the ground. A few powerful men in suits may execute diplomacy, but its foundation is built among the common people who grant those suits their offices. I am proud to say that the mere presence of the project knocked down stereotypes in both directions for a college student, his colleagues in SHCAB, his donors, his followers, a town mayor and staff, multiple local families, dozens of teachers, a school director, and most importantly immediately over fifty kids and thousands of kids in the future who will benefit from the new programs, facilities, and materials. This experience brought great clarity as to what the secret to peace, tolerance, and global community is: exposure.