It all started with a question about a Team Alpha Male MMA t-shirt in a gym locker room and turned into a life-long friendship. Alex, Helen, & Max (last name withheld for privacy reasons) endured more in their 70-day journey from St Petersburg, Russia to Sacramento, California than most can ever imagine.
After a workout at a Planet Fitness in Sacramento, California, I was in the locker room when Alex walked in wearing Team Alpha Male MMA t-shirt, which is a legendary MMA gym founded by UFC Hall of Famer Urijah Faber. I asked if he trained there and when he said he didn’t, but a friend gave it to him, he followed up by asking me a few workout and nutrition questions. This led to a 20-minute conversation on investing, working out, nutrition, and eventually we got on the topic of how it took 70 days to get to America.
The following day, Alex invited us to his home, a 35-foot RV parked behind a church, for dinner and to tell us his inspirational and incredible journey to America in more detail. This night turned into one of the most unforgettable nights of our lives. Alex and Helen showed us amazing hospitality and graciously shared with us their story over several hours.
Both graduates of St Petersburg University in St Petersburg, Russia, Alex and Helen met at University and soon after married and started practicing as architects. A few years later, they had their son Max, who is now 9-years old. Alex and his family always had ambitions of leaving Russia to live elsewhere, but on Thursday, February 24th, 2022, this goal became a necessity because Russia invaded Ukraine.
Alex and his family do not support the war and knew that he would be drafted to fight many innocent people so they decided to leave Russia. This would start a 70-day journey through 4 countries, cost 10 years of life savings, involve the help and generosity of strangers, and rely on a cartel to smuggle to them to the United States to begin the asylum process.
A few days after the war began, Alex, Helen, and Max said goodbye to their family members forever because they did not think they would ever see them in person again and started the trip by heading to St Petersburg. After calling every bus operator in the area, Alex finally was able to get three tickets to the airport – only to be dropped off a mile from the entrance. After walking the mile in the blistering cold (-20 degrees), they then spent 4 hours at the ticket counter pleading with the ticket agent to get any possible flight our of the country. All flights on Russian airlines were halted by the government when the war started so this was nearly impossible but the ticket agent was finally compassionate and found 3 seats on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. However, there were four issues;
- The flights cost Alex and his family 30% of their life savings
- This flight left from Moscow, which was an 8 hour drive from St Petersburg, which meant they had to purchase another flight from St Petersburg to Moscow – which would cost equivalent to several months of salary for both Alex & Helen
- Russia was no longer accepting USD and Alex had just transferred all his Russian Rubles to USD, so he had to charge it to his Russian credit card. However, Russians are not allowed to leave Russia with any debt, so Alex had to leave the airport to go pay off his debt and hurry back to make the flight to Moscow.
- In order to board the flight, they had to pass through Security who asked them many questions about why they were trying to leave Russia.
Thankfully Alex, Helen, and Max all put on Oscar-worthy performances and said they were going to Istanbul for vacation. They all held their breaths on both flights to Moscow and Istanbul. Once they arrived in Istanbul, they did not know speak or understand the language and could not afford any of the food or water in the airport because it was so expensive & they knew they needed to save as much as possible for further legs of their journey. For 5 days they stayed in the Istanbul airport and lived off of soup in the airport and very little water while the tried to figure out where to go & tried to find a flight as close to the US as possible. They finally were able to get a flight to Mexico City and before boarding & upon arrive, they once again questioned by customs and had to explain that they were going on vacation and hoped they would be given a 180- day visitor visa. Thankfully this once again worked and they were now in North America, but still had a long journey ahead of them.
They eventually made their way closer to the US border by flying to Tijuana, Mexico where a friend from their church in Russia (who now lives in Sacramento) had found a church that would welcome Alex, Helen, and Max because their church/community was funded by Scandinavian people. They spent almost a month there and on 4 different occasions Alex went with a small group of others to the border asking border patrol for asylum, but they were turned away every time. Alex and his family were dejected and losing hope until someone told him that they could get them across the US border. They told them to call a number and that for a fee of $1,200 USD each ($3,600 USD total) they could help him cross the border. This would reduce their savings to only $12 USD and Alex also found out that this would be facilitated by the Mexican cartels. The pastor at the church that they were staying with told him that if they went with the cartel, they would have a 50% chance of actually getting across the border and the risk was that the there was also a 50% chance they would never make it and would be forced to serve the cartel the rest of their lives or even worse end up dead. Although it was a difficult decision, they were running out of money and options so they decided to take the chance.
Shortly after paying the fee, they were picked up by 2 individuals and were in the back of a car with 6 others on their way to the border. The 2 individuals that were driving were playing loud music and being very loud so Mexican police pulled over the car and it appeared they paid off the police officers. After 2 hours of driving, the car stopped and everyone was told to get out and begin walking in a specific direction. They were told that they would have to walk through the bushes, a river, and walk along the border fence until it ended, at that point, they would have finally reached the US and would need to get on their knees with their hands up and ask the US border patrol to allow them to apply for asylum.
They were about ~300 people attempting to cross the border with them and all had to trek through bushes that tore their clothes and walk through waist-high water that had small alligators in it. They eventually reached the fence and began running along the side of it through fine-grain sand even though it was 100+ degrees. There was also a 10-minute stretch where they trampled over piles of clothes from people who had made the same journey and discarded it in the desert to try to keep cool while running. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the end of the fence and took a step onto US soil, they were immediately met by several caravans of US border patrol officers with automatic weapons. Alex, Helen, and Max immediately went to their knees and Alex told the border patrol agents that he was so happy to see them even with their weapons pointed at them.
Alex, Helen, and Max were taken to a detention center, which were large white tents the size of 12 football fields with clear plastic separating different groups of people. There was light 24/7 and Alex was separated from Helen and Max because it was based on gender. After 5 days, they began to lose hope that they would be released anytime soon, but thankfully on the 5th day, they were released, reunited, and taken to the Phoenix airport. Alex, Helen, and Max had finally made it to the US, but had nowhere to go and no money. How they ended up living in a 35-foot RV behind a church in Sacramento, working odds and ends jobs like cleaning toilets, landscaping, and freelancing for 2 very successful architects – all while waiting for asylum will be a story for a different post.
Alex, Helen, and Max’s story is an incredible one that highlights how powerful the human spirit can be. It also shows people, especially immigrants what’s possible with perseverance and resilience and puts the vast majority of American’s lives into perspective and shows how fortunate we truly are.
Alex, Helen, and Max have dreams to find land in the hills of LA near Griffith Park or Hollywood with views of skyscrapers. With their incredible architecture skills, they plan to design and build a home there. They hope that Max will have modeling and acting opportunities and Alex and Helen plan to open their own architecture design studio. It’s clear that Alex and Helen are very skilled and motivated and given what they’ve endured to get to the US, we have no doubt they will accomplish all of their dreams. We’re extremely grateful and thankful for Alex, Helen, and Max’s friendship.
If anyone has resources in the Sacramento, California area that could help Alex, Helen, and Max or would like to help them in any way, please do not hesitate to reach out to us and we can put you in contact with them.