Translated material
PERSONAL RAFIK OF CROCODILE GENES
FINANCE
It is much harder for small businesses to live in the capital than in other places. There are too many hungry people in Moscow - policemen, firefighters, sanitary and epidemiological supervisors, and simply brothers who are not yet extinct. In the resorts, those who want to work for themselves live ...
It is much harder for small businesses to live in the capital than in other places. There are too many hungry people in Moscow - policemen, firefighters, sanitary and epidemiological supervisors, and simply brothers who are not yet extinct. In the resorts, those who want to work for themselves have a much easier life. Buy yourself a crocodile - and earn.
On the beach of the Loo village, near Sochi, everyone can take a picture with a crocodile. The owner wears the gene along a narrow coastal strip from ten in the morning until six in the evening.
- Photo for memory, with a crocodile! shouts all day long Rafik, who has been in the green business since the end of May.
It was in May, when the first vacationers appeared in Loo, that Rafik bought his Gena. The name of the crocodile was chosen in five seconds - everyone remembers the cartoon about Cheburashka.
“It was not difficult to buy Gena, they are transported through Turkey, some of the animals then go to Moscow, and, of course, we can buy a crocodile much cheaper than Muscovites. If in Moscow such a crocodile as Gena will already cost twenty thousand rubles, then I managed to take him for seven.
Gena is quite small, a crocodile from head to tail - hardly more than a meter long. But bite can be healthy, so "at work" Rafik wraps the reptile's face with tape.
Vacationers are so calmer, children are brought to be photographed. This adhesive tape is not visible in the picture. True, at first Gena was very nervous, tried to move the tape with his paws, but then he got used to it. Moreover, several times a day I unwind it so that I can drink it.
During the day, there are about twenty people who want to be photographed with Gena. This, however, is now, in July. In June, there are fewer customers - ten people a day. And the crocodile owner has high hopes for August - the last month of summer is traditionally the most touristy.
The number of clients also depends on the time of day. In the morning, people are not yet ready for entertainment; until noon, only three or four people are filmed with Gena. In the afternoon, the beach is generally empty - no one wants to get burned under the hot sun. At this time, Rafik goes home - he rests himself, bathes Gena in the bath. And after three, the owner and the reptile go back to work.
At this time, people already want to be photographed. They are already bored ... By the evening, Gena and I are in great demand.
Rafik carries his camera with him - a rather simple film soap dish. He shoots himself if the client is not equipped with equipment. A picture costs one hundred rubles, and the photo can be picked up the next morning. If they shoot on their own, one click of a button is 50 re. But they do two or three to get it right.
Thus, Rafik reimbursed the cost of buying a crocodile for a little more than a week of work. Moreover, the maintenance of Genes is not too expensive. The crocodile is happy to eat "gifts" from Rafik's friends: the remains of raw meat that did not go to the barbecue.
Although the diet of a crocodile is not very diverse, an ordinary resident of the capital could envy him. Several times a week, Gena gets a delicious cocktail of marine reptiles - mussels, squids, rapana, shrimp, octopus ... The fact is that in Loo there are a lot of points where tourists are treated to these reptiles. But, of course, delicacies that are not sold by the end of the day are not sold the next morning. Therefore, in the evening, when both the market and beach stalls are closed, their owners sell the remaining reptiles at ridiculous prices or even distribute them to friends - so long as they do not disappear. One hundred grams of mussels in the evening in Loo can be bought for ten to twenty rubles, but again, such tariffs are valid only for our own, for the locals.
Similarly, Rafik gets a fish for the crocodile. Sometimes vegetables and fruits get into the Genin's diet, and sometimes even pita bread. In general, Rafik turned a formidable predator into an omnivorous pet.
But, whatever one may say, Rafik, of course, violates the rules for keeping an animal, and by and large, there is something to complain about, for example, sanitary and epidemiological supervision. Not only did the reptile purchased by the businessman from Loo not go through any quarantine (it is actually a smuggled animal), the crocodile is also not kept according to the rules. Rafik, of course, does not have a large swimming pool with heated water and artificial land. The entire living space of Gena does not exceed one square meter.
— No, no one ever comes to me with checks. It doesn't bother anyone here, everyone understands perfectly well that we need to survive somehow, and we earn as much as we can when the season is high. True, I have a certain relationship with the police ...
There are only two active police officers in Loo. Where the rest is unknown, but two law enforcement officers are constantly “patrolling” the beach and the cafes adjacent to it, the market, shops ... Policemen shake hands with all sellers, peddlers of stuffed animals and photographers ...
“Of course, you have to be friends with them. If you don’t make friends with them, then the sanitary inspectorate will come to me, and customs, and in general, everyone who is not lazy.
However, Rafik did not say what his friendship with the police cost him - apparently, it does not take very much.
True, the crocodile-owner counts every ruble. At first glance, it seems that Rafik's earnings are simply huge - by the evening he has one and a half to two thousand rubles in his pocket, and Rafik only needs to print photos for 2.50 apiece and feed the crocodile.
- I understand that you are surprised ... But what I earn in these four months, I have to live the whole year! In winter, Loo is a real desert, when there are no tourists, everything is completely different here. In summer, everyone can find a job - selling souvenirs, mattresses or homemade wine, renting rooms ... In winter, we have jobs - in two grocery stores and at the station at the box office. Well, you can drive a minibus. And that's it! All winter I do not work and live only on what I saved up in the summer.
The calm in Loo will begin from mid-September. By this time, Rafik wants to sell the crocodile to the same dealers from whom he bought it. And it is quite likely that already in October, Gena, who has passed the quarantine and provided with documents, will be exhibited in some metropolitan pet store.