As I mentioned before, the old Dima was replaced by a new Dima. He worked as a server in a small home-style restaurant owned by a former Soviet citizen. The entire staff consisted of 3 people: Dima the waiter, Sergey the cook, and the owner himself, along with his wife. I used to go there once or twice a week to help with the dishes. For 3 hours of work, I would get between 30 and 50 dollars, plus I'd eat enough to last me for days =) Sergey cooked absolutely amazingly; his plov was the best I've ever tasted. His cooking won over many customers who, after trying it once, couldn't eat at other restaurants anymore.

Later on, when I had only 9 days left in Miami and my hotel rent had run out, he let me stay at the restaurant for the last 2 days completely free of charge, saying: "The restaurant is yours for the night, take and eat whatever you want. My money is right here in the drawer, but I trust you. You can tell a good person from a bad one just by looking into their eyes." There are people like that out there =)

During that time, I also picked up various odd jobs like "mover" or "I'm in a hurry, grab the boxes, we need to rush to the post office!" In the end, after 40 days of work, I managed to cover the program costs and even earn a little extra!