God, the place sounds like an absolute shithole - no wonder the Russians wanted to sell it, and I can understand why they sold it for such a low price.
Anyway, try to think positively; all that weird crap makes for good copy, so you should at least be able to get some good stories out of it. That's what this other guy, Jack London, did. If Alaska weren't so crap, London wouldn't have sold a copy; he'd have remained a loser ESL teacher in Yunlin County or wherever he was working.