Translated material
I left Russia and became a taxi driver
32-year-old Anastasia from Yekaterinburg worked in IT-but after the start of the war she left Russia. Having spent all the savings, she found herself in a situation where she had nothing to live on. Then Anastasia registered in the Bolt app and became a taxi driver. Now she is forced to work 16 hours a day and hardly makes ends meet. However, Anastasia herself does not see the problem in this: she does not regret anything and glad that the new work revealed people around her. Anastasia told the cold her story.
I used to make good money in IT, but now there is not always enough for food. But I do not regret anything
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Before the war, I worked as a FULSTEK-developer ( this is a universal specialist who is developing for sites both client and service parts.-approx. "Cold" ) on freelance. She herself searched for orders, she carried out them herself: online stores, cryptocurrencies. I earned with dignity: about four thousand dollars a month.
In late March - early April 2022, I moved to Georgia with my husband. After the start of the war, I had depression. For some time I still lived by inertia, worked with all my strength. But by January 2023, I realized that I could no longer work: I physically could not force myself to open a computer and start talking with customers.
I took antidepressants, but nevertheless I did not want anything: neither wake up or leave home. I just didn't want to live. In order not to go out the window, I gave myself time to relax and not work. For about two years I lived on a pillow.
I do not leave tips to the Turks, but they
Exactly a year ago, in February 2024, I found a suspicious knot in a thyroid gland. Then I still had medical insurance, I could afford to undergo examinations. But then the insurance was over, and by September 2024, a pillow of safety dried up. By this moment I had already broken up with my husband. I thought: “Oh. Something needs to be done. "
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Many at that moment advised me to return to Russia and continue treatment there. But, unfortunately, I could not do this: I have a risk of persecution. At the beginning of the war, having already moved to Tbilisi, I corresponded with my old acquaintance, who asked why I left Russia. It turned out in the correspondence that at that moment he fought on the side of Russia near Avdeevka. Word for the word - and I wrote to him: “Glory to Ukraine,” said that he would return from the front in a plastic bag, and the like. He told me that he wrote a denunciation on me.
Once without money, with the need to be treated and without the opportunity to go to Russia, I realized that I needed to do something. Even in the summer of 2024, I tried to return to programming. But, firstly, I lost a lot of time-and with IT with a foreign language: if not practice, then it is forgotten. I realized that my speed of work has decreased greatly, besides, I lost all customers. If I tried to look for work in hiring, I would have spent some more time on it. The process of finding orders for freelance is also not unable. And there was no money at all.
While I was resting from work, I episodically drove people to the visaran to the border with Armenia ( Russian citizens in Georgia are obliged to leave the country every 360 days to be legally in it. - approx. “Cold” ). I liked it. I love to drive. And I thought: why am I just doing the Byzarans? Maybe I should switch to a dramatically different sphere?
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Six months ago, my friend came to Georgia with her daughter. We agreed that I would take them from Tbilisi to Batumi. My personal car was broken at that moment, and I took the car for rent, as tourists do. I took them to Batumi - but since I myself was already there several times, I had nothing to watch there. I left my familiar with my daughter and think: “And I’ll register, I’m in the“ bolt ”. I’ll look, suddenly something interesting will turn out of this. ”
So I started working in a taxi. Then there was a tourist season, a lot of Turks rested in Batumi. It was very strange that I did not leave tips to the Turks, but on the contrary - they are to me. I ironized that I broke the system. On the first day, I worked for four hours - and this: “Wow. So it's not scary! "
"I thought that they would be tapped to me on the head due to the fact that I am Russian"
I was afraid that passengers would be biased to a woman while driving, especially a Russian woman. But everyone reacted adequately. Especially the girls were very happy - and any nationality - when they saw me at the wheel.
I was also afraid of Russophobia . I thought that I would be tapped the head due to the fact that I was Russian. Probably, I was afraid of this due to the fact that before work in a taxi I did not particularly communicate with the local population. But it turned out that I was afraid in vain. I have never been so that the passengers asked me where I came from, and, having heard that from Russia, they would say: "Ah, no, no, everything, we won’t go."
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On the contrary: often passengers speak to me in English, begin to ask how long I have been here, one moved or not, if I like in Georgia. And when I tell them about my political position, they say: “Ah, that's fine, let's talk to you in Russian, you are normal.” I answer them say: "Damn, yes, all the Russians who live in Georgia are normal." Due to the fact that there are no communication with the locals, such misunderstandings arise.
When I started, I did not know the Georgian language. But it didn't scare me. They work as taxi drivers, for example, deaf -mute people. Now I have already learned to speak Georgian at the basic level: I learned the numerals, the words “forward and forth, left-right, stop here, congratulations on the New Year, Merry Christmas. I learned to read to understand which address was written. Every day I teach some new words. I know the world.
Before I had fear - so it is before diving and before working in the service sector. When I became a taxi driver, I was already without work for a long time, and the moment came when I was completely not up to career ambitions. Usually I don’t care what others will think about me, the main thing is that I myself think about myself. I perfectly understood that this is most likely a temporary work, that I would not always be a taxi driver. Therefore, I am absolutely calm in this regard. Only my financial situation bothers me.
To earn enough, I have to work a lot: 14-16 hours a day with one weekend per week. I sleep six hours a day.
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I understand that this is not far from the next burnout. But in order to have what is and what to pay for the apartment, you have to work.
Work in a taxi is morally exhausting. In Tbilisi, a specific driving manner, frequent traffic jams, many motorists do not follow the rules. You have to constantly be included in what is happening on the roads, constantly be on the alert. For the brain, this is very energy -consuming.
Many taxi drivers who work in Tbilisi do not withstand this stress and leave to work at the airport. The drivers of the Bolt have parking near the airport, where we all hang out, stand in an electronic queue and wait for the order. This is less stressful, but brings very little money. You can wait for the order for two and four hours.
Therefore, I go to the airport only sometimes, when I get tired, especially if I did not get enough sleep before the shift. I think: “Well, now I’ll come to the airport, I’ll be a little nap in the car, at least four hours.” I have a small pillow, I go to bed and sleep in my chair. I turn on sound notifications through the bluetooth in the “Bolt” application and, when the order comes, I wake up, I remove the pillow and food.
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Now my revenue is about 200 Lari per shift. This is without deduction of gasoline costs (50 Lari per day) and car rental. For this I pay 40 Lari a day - I no longer work on the car that tourists rent - I made friends with local taxi drivers, and they suggested how to find a car cheaper. Even from mandatory expenses - oil and other consumables. There is not so much left in total: about 100 Lari per day. I work 24 days a month. It turns out that my earnings are about 2400 Lari, or $ 860. About half I give for rent an apartment.
I have enough for products if you buy them in the cheapest Georgian supermarket. I allocate a budget for food for a day, I fix that I should spend no more than a specific amount per day. I buy products, and after the shift I come and cook.
I rather grieve about something else - that I can’t return to Russia. I sometimes get me from anger: what the hell, this is my country!
One of my friends, who stayed in Russia, recently said to me: “When I am sad, I remember you and I think that everything is not so bad for me.”
I had never had such a limited food budget before. My husband and I bought products in supermarkets with prices above average. I did not have the same that I definitely had to buy very tasty expensive food, but it was cool to order pizza, use delivery and not cook it yourself, order clining. I baked. Now I can’t afford the clining: it costs 200 Lary, and this is my revenue for the whole day.
But I do not suffer from losing life standard. Even working in IT, I was in such a depressive state that I was absolutely purple, how much I earn, that I eat, where I live, what I dress, what I move on. And most often I didn’t leave the house at all, I just lay and looked at the ceiling.
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I want to get out of this regime of rigid economy as soon as possible, but I can’t say that I suffer much. I rather grieve about something else - that I can’t return to Russia. I sometimes get me from anger: what the hell, this is my country!
"Everything that I earned in 27 hours, I have to give"
To be honest, now my moral condition leaves much to be desired, because a person should not work so much.
Shortly before the New Year, I found that I did not have enough money to pay for the apartment. When I do not have time to collect the desired amount for renting an apartment, the hostess swears, and this, of course, does not add mental health points. It was urgent to earn money in order to also be able to pay for the rental of the car. Everything fell one after another-and I went to a 27-hour work shift.
Having worked for 27 hours, I realized that it was time to go to bed when I handed it back in the parking lot near the shopping center and touched the parked car. I just did not see her in the rear view mirror. And at this moment I am: “Everything, of course, is good. I'm going to sleep. "
I waited for the owner of the car that I hit. He was shocked that I waited for him. And I thought that he would be very offensive if he came and sees that the car was damaged, and the culprit left. He came, quarreled, scolded me. He asked for compensation for damage to 300 Lari. And I am: “Damn. Nightmare. I have not slept for so much time, and I have to give everything that I earned in these 27 hours. ” You have to pay for the apartment, you have to pay for the car, and this one still requires money. Also repair your car. Such fatigue rolled on me. I stood and thought: "Damn, I already do not want anything else, leave me alone."
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We agreed that I would throw him this money in parts. He did not fully believe that I would translate, said: "Yes, you will boil me." And I to him: "Well, let me return your faith to humanity."
Recently, when I sent him the last tranche, he wrote to me: “Good evening, Anastasia. You are really a person of your word. " So, perhaps, I really returned his faith to humanity.
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The most joyful moments in my life are now when I have an order for a visaran. This means that I can not wander around Tbilisi, not stand in traffic jams, I can leave the city for four hours in a good company. Because the guys who need to make a visaran and who live in Georgia are most often good guys.
I rejoice when orders come in the Bolt with traveling outside the city. You go along the highway, no one talks to you, listen to the silence. When you manage to be in silence - this is directly happiness.
"The most valuable is support from Georgians"
Now, after a 14-hour shift, I usually have an hour to work out with my business. I spend this hour on the development of development courses in an online school. I want to restore the speed of work and return to IT. If until recently I could not force myself to open a laptop, now-because of a change of activity-on the contrary, I rejoice: cheers, you can sit at the computer.
I still accept antidepressants. I completed psychotherapy, because now it is impossible to allocate money for this. I have no insurance yet. Friends that I have already found in exile help me undergo examinations: they drive a handle on the doctors, throwing money away. Previously, it was quite difficult for me to make friends in everyday life, outside work and study. And in exile, socialized became easier, because I know for sure that people who moved to Georgia are adequate, with a normal political position. Therefore, it happens that I stand on the market, choose some mixer for myself, hear Russian speech-and I calmly turn and meet. Here I have many friends among Ukrainians, and Belarusians, Kazakhs and Russians too.
It’s better to misunderstand in Georgia than to be in prison
Sometimes carrier passengers are talking to me about politics. Especially against the background of protests ( in the fall of 2024, after the parliamentary elections, in which the majority received the pro -Russian Georgian Dream party, almost daily mass demonstrations of the opposition began in Tbilisi. - Approx. Cold ). I complain to the Georgians, I say: imagine what you still have a luxury - to live in your country, speak your own language without embarrassment, and at the same time say everything you think.
The most valuable thing that gave me experience in a taxi is support from Georgians. Previously, it happened that the Georgians told the Russians-Patams: go home and overthrow their power, there is nothing to sit here. And now, after the victory in the elections of the “Georgian Dream” and the dispersal of protests, they say: “Yes, now we understand you that you have nowhere to go, only to prison, so live with us, please, here.” This support is very valuable. I felt that Georgians are now looking at us a little differently.
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I stay in Russia, I probably would have been financially easier for me: I could move to relatives, would not be left without a roof over my head. But I feel that I could not live in Russia, because I can’t be silent, and it is better to lack Georgia than to be in prison.
I have no feeling that I took some step down the social ladder, I do not suffer from this, because it is important for me that I did not make a deal with a conscience that would be inevitable, I stayed in Russia. Five months after the start of the war, I went back to Yekaterinburg to pick up my cat. And I noticed how during this short period people have already learned to live with what was happening, those who do not support the war, learned to be silent, pretend that everything is fine. I could not. Therefore, I do not scold myself for the situation in which I ended up: I would not be able to.
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