Trip to Russia was educational, surprising for Kelso councilman
Saturday, November 25, 2006 11:57 PM PST
By Amy M. E. Fischer
Printable version
E-mail this articleWhen 37-year-old Kelso City Councilman Todd McDaniel was nominated to join a handful of young political leaders on a three-week trip to Russia this month, he said he'd go.
Then he started quietly freaking out.
The extent of his international travels had been visits to Tijuana and Canada. A Cowlitz County sheriff's deputy for 13 years, McDaniel is used to dealing with the unexpected -- of the American variety. In a foreign country, all bets were off.
Adding to his anxiety, he had only a week to prepare. The American Council of Young Political Leaders -- a nonprofit educational exchange program for future political leaders ages 24 to 40 -- extended its invitation to him on Halloween for the Russia trip "next month," which McDaniel took to mean December.
As it turned out, the delegation of six Americans was departing for Moscow on Nov. 10.
"I feel like I'm going to Mars," McDaniel said Nov. 7, the day before his departure to Washington, D.C. "I mean, I'm not going to know any of the language. I'm not going to know anyone there. ... I'm not the world traveler Scott is," he said, referring to his older brother, Longview police officer Scott McDaniel, who served as a police monitor with United Nations forces in Bosnia from June 1999 to June 2000.
"He'll do everything. He'll get a ticket to Morocco and just go, no plans or nothing. And I'm not that way," McDaniel said. "I have control issues, I guess."
Realizing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he swallowed his fear, grabbed the passport he'd gotten years earlier but never used, cashed in his vacation time with the sheriff's office and headed to the airport.
Cowlitz County Auditor Kris Swanson had nominated McDaniel for the Russia trip. Since visiting the Philippines herself in 2001 with the ACYPL, Swanson has sent several other eligible Washingtonians on political tours, including County Commissioner Jeff Rasmussen (Japan) and Kalama City Councilwoman Christine Fitzpatrick (Russia).
McDaniel's leadership qualities have been evident to Swanson since they were Kelso High School classmates, she said. In addition to being a deputy and a city councilman, he's a DARE officer at local elementary schools and is president of the Kelso Youth Baseball league.
"There's something bigger for him out there," Swanson said Friday.
Thursday, the married father of three returned home with a newfound confidence, a fresh appreciation of American government and a greater understanding of international affairs.
"I worried about nothing, really. ... Everything worked out fine," he said Friday.
But it wasn't a vacation, by any stretch.
McDaniel joined his traveling companions Nov. 8 in Washington, D.C., for a day-long crash course on Russian affairs at the Russian Embassy. With him were city council members from St. Louis, Mo., and Cleveland, Ohio; a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; the executive director of the Republican State Leadership Committee; the director of federal affairs for the state of Georgia; and a representative of the U.S. Department of Education.
Then they flew to Moscow, Russia's capital, a sprawling city of 12 million people. The American delegates checked into their $400-a-night hotel (which McDaniel said was comparable to Kelso's Red Lion) and soon were swept up in a flurry of meetings, tours and dinners with high-level Russian government officials, including one of President Vladimir Putin's advisors.
They took an overnight train to St. Petersburg, the old imperial capital. They did a little sight-seeing, but mostly their days were tightly regimented, often with 14 hours of scheduled activities.
"It was tough because even the lunches -- we were always meeting with someone, so you were always on your game," said McDaniel, who was a guest on a Russian radio talk show, where he discussed politics.
Although Russia is no longer under Communist rule, its democratic government is highly centralized, McDaniel noted. Judges and governors are appointed by the president, and corruption is ingrained in the culture. Police officers earn the bulk of their wages from bribes. The Russian state owns the broadcasting companies and controls the content, he said.
And if you're arrested and found not guilty -- "They'll keep trying you until you're found guilty."
"They've come a long way with their democracy, compared to where they've come from," he continued. "But they've got a long way to go."
McDaniel had trouble adjusting to some of the cultural differences, such as young children roaming the cities alone. No one he'd met had grown up in houses; apartments from the Soviet days were the standard. He found there was no such thing as a smoke-free building. Restaurants, hotels, offices -- everywhere they went was full of smoke, he said.
He also discovered that many of the restaurant bathrooms were unisex.
"There's the bathroom and I go in. ... There's a lady there combing her hair. I didn't know if I was in the right one," he said.
But his philosophy was, when in Russia, do as the Russians do. A self-described picky eater, he tried unfamiliar foods but "didn't eat anything weird." He normally doesn't drink alcohol, but in St. Petersburg, he toasted his dinner companions with shots of vodka.
He was uneasy about riding in a "gypsy cab," but got in anyway when his Russian guide flagged down a random car and negotiated with the nonprofessional driver on a price. Russian drivers were "awful," dodging other cars at top speed.
"I thought we were gonna get in wrecks all the time," McDaniel said.
It added up to an adventure he'll never forget -- and he's ready for more.
"I would travel anywhere now," he said. "That was a big step for me, personally, because I enjoyed myself."
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