Welcome to Kazakhstan

The Last Entry

2009-05-07T01:16:00.000-07:00

My semester ends soon (May 15th) and I wanted to write one last entry before I leave. My computer stopped working recently and I'm sorry that I can't post any more pictures. During the past couple of weeks I was able to do research for my masters project and visited a few schools here in Almaty, a couple of Russian schools and a Kazakh and a Uyghur school. It went well and I feel I got the information I needed. I don't have much news besides that. Thank you to those who read the blog and made comments, I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Пасха

2009-04-21T03:17:00.000-07:00

On Sunday it was the Russian Orthodox Easter so I went over to the main church in the city to see what was going on. I watched as people gathered around in a circle near the entrance of the church with decorated eggs, cakes, and other sweets. An Orthodox priest came out to walk around the circle and splash water over people, saying Хритос Воскресе. Others followed up behind him with a basket for donations of food and/or money. It was nice to see something different.

Sacred places

2009-04-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I went with the family I live with out to a village not far from Almaty as part of the Nauruz holiday. They went to pray at a few places and then to the house of a famous Kazakh writer, Zhambul. His house is a now a museum but more interesting than the exhibits inside is the nearby mausoleum where he’s buried. For many Kazakhs the burial sites of important people in their history have a religious significance equal to or perhaps even greater than that of mosques. The picture is the mausoleum of Zhambul and you can see people on their way inside to pray, make a donation, and even take a piece of bread from the stack of loaves just inside the door. The women are wearing headscarves and the men skullcaps as if they were entering a mosque. Many people here still make trips to the mosque but this is something fairly unique to this part of the world.

The bus ride

2009-04-04T23:39:00.001-07:00

About a week ago I was waiting for a bus, after wandering around the city for awhile, when #19 came screeching up and barely avoided hitting the other bus that it just swerved in front of. Oh well, I thought, it’s pretty much a daily occurrence around here. When I sat down however I could feel that something was different but couldn’t quite tell exactly what at first. Then I noticed that several people in their late teens, early 20’s were jumping around to different seats and joking around with the driver. Several minutes into the ride a couple of them got out to have a cigarette at one of the stops and chatted by the side of the bus (of course the driver waited for them to finish their fix) while older people in the back were shouting at them to get moving. The driver simply turned up the music to Metallica like concert levels in order to drown out the angry voices and the festivities continued. The older crowd stopped yelling at that point, apparently satisfied with the music choice – a song I recognized from the Caucasian Prisoner, an old Soviet movie featuring the character Shurik. Maybe the shouts did get to the driver because he sped up considerably after turning the music up. As I finally got off at my street I saw that the driver didn’t look much older than someone still in high school, leading me to believe this was either a normal ride in Almaty or a group of young people sticking it to the man. Maybe both.

On a clear day

2009-03-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

I went up to the mountains recently and was finally able to see them. Here's a few photos.

Comparisons

2009-03-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago I had a conversation with one of my instructors that left me really ticked off. I tried to forget about it but after another awful lesson with him recently I’ve decided to lash out and write about it in here. During the lesson a few weeks ago we were talking about and comparing differences in the education systems of the U.S. and Kazakhstan. My instructor is three years younger than I am and despite this age difference we both finished high school in the same year. He explained to me that many people in Kazakhstan (including him) think that the extra three years of education I received was unnecessary. While my ability to speak Russian is still a work in progress he mentioned the word лишний, which I understand to mean in this context as ‘unnecessary’. Anyone out there who speaks better Russian than me is more than welcome to correct me on the meaning of this. However, he also used a word I do know the meaning of…потерял, which meant that I had more or less lost those three years. Good thing all that money being spent for Kazakh lessons is going toward learning new vocabulary. As I write this I still have no idea what the Kazakh words are for ‘unnecessary’ and ‘to lose’ something. I went home later that night and asked the mother of the family I live with what she though about this. She is also involved in education and teaches economics at a local university. She seemed a little surprised and mentioned that she isn’t able to make a comparison without at least seeing firsthand what kind of education system the U.S. has. A fair enough answer I thought. I’ve had the opportunity to see different education systems through a few years of work in Turkmenistan and Japan and when I really think back on it making a comparison of these places with the U.S. (or any country for that matter) is quite difficult. They both have their pluses and minuses and are at very different stages of development. My instructor on the other hand hasn’t so much as traveled outside of his village near the city of Turkistan (in southern Kazakhstan) or Almaty. So it goes with the lessons I have with him. No wonder I have to play Grand Theft Auto and/or Call of Duty 4 a couple of times a week to maintain some kind of sanity level.

Little histories

2009-03-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

I’ve attached a few pictures of a building that I found by accident a couple of weeks ago. I was on my way to meet with someone for my project and happened to walk past this. The building is currently being remodeled but you can still make out the words on the front which read “The Academy of Sciences of the Kazak SSR (Soviet Socialist Republic)”. It’s in an older neighborhood of the city and the whole area feels like it hasn’t changed since Soviet times, which coincidentally was the response I got from people here when I asked them about it. I’d like to find more of these kinds of things but haven’t gotten the greatest information when I ask around. Maybe finding them on my own is what really makes it worth it.

Traffic in Almaty

2009-02-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

It would be pretty obvious to talk about all the traffic in Almaty during rush hour and how crowded the buses are, but I was thinking more specifically about the people involved in the daily traffic commute around the city. I ride the bus at various times during the day (and try to avoid it if it’s possible to walk) and see quite a different crowd of people. The past few weeks I’ve seen more and more people hopping on at one bus stop and then begging for money from other riders as quickly as they can before they get off, or kicked off, at the next stop. Some of them are handicapped or retired while others are immigrants from other Central Asian countries. I figure they stand a better chance of getting money from those who ride the bus than those who drive on the same streets in Cadillac or Lexus SUVs, and believe me there are plenty of the latter on the streets over here.

Why I don’t run in Almaty

2009-02-04T23:30:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture I took not long ago from the window of my new host family’s apartment. It hopefully gives you an idea of how polluted the air in the city is and why I don’t go running outside. Notice the nice layer of clear sky above the layer of smog?

The First Semester

2008-12-18T01:57:00.000-08:00

The first semester is almost over with, I just have one more short class on Friday morning and then I’m officially done. Things have gone okay so far, but I am definitely looking forward to a break back in the US. How can I sum up this first semester? Well…maybe it’s a period of time I need to go through in order to get to the next step and when I figure out what that next step is I’ll let you know. In the meantime here’s a quick picture I took on the side of the local shopping center. It says “Happy New Year” in Kazakh. Notice any old Soviet cars parked near it?

Beneath the Golden Man

2008-12-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

I had a rare Wednesday off last week and decided to go over to the New Square and take some pictures of the monument to the Golden Man. In a semi-circle at the base of the monument are several sculptures depicting important moments in the history of Kazakhstan and I’ve posted a few of the pictures here. I have to admit I don’t know much about the history behind the Golden Man other than archaeologists in Kazakhstan found a gold costume buried among other riches several years ago. The monument and sculptures were certainly interesting to see, but that wasn’t the main attraction. I arrived to find around a dozen or so reporters with cameras in tow, several policemen, and a small crowd gathered behind the monument. Having no idea what was going on I decided to just take the pictures I came for and leave. While snapping away someone in the crowd started speaking for a few moments and then was lead away by the police onto a bus. A minute or so later someone else started talking, this time with a megaphone, with the same result of being put onto the bus.

I asked one of my instructors the following day if they happened to watch the news the night before and if they saw anything about this. It turns out these people had paid around $200K for a new apartment in Almaty but the construction company responsible for the apartment block left Kazakhstan with all the money. I’m guessing there won’t be any refunds.

What Kazakhs really think

2008-12-10T04:20:00.000-08:00

There was an incident on Tuesday the 18th of November during class that is worth noting in here. My instructors will keep the door locked during the lesson because students will constantly open the door and look inside. They’re not interested in what’s going on in the room, but rather they don’t know where their classes are (and to be fair to them the schedule does change every so often for no reason) so they’ll go around from room to room and open every door to find it. Not the most efficient method, but I guess it works for them. About an hour into the lesson someone started banging violently at the door so my instructor got up to find out who was there. An angry individual with a major Napoleon Complex strode in and in no uncertain terms told us the room was occupied. We reluctantly moved to another room to finish the lesson and I could see that my instructor was pretty agitated about the whole thing. When she calmed down enough she told her opinion of Kazakh people which I was quite surprised to hear. She said that Kazakhs today are lacking culture (she used the Russian word культура, which can also mean manners, respect for others, etc.) and this guy was one example of it. I asked her if it was possible that this guy was simply a jerk and that it had nothing to do with his ethnicity. She went on to say that two Kazakhs together in a room won’t greet each other and find a common bond but will instead want to know what the other can do for them. I can’t say I agree with this, since it was said in a moment of anger, but it made me think of the saying that people never say anything drunk that they don’t think about when they’re sober. Knowing the personality of this instructor (a non-drinker) this is probably as close as I’ve come to finding out if that’s true here in Kazakhstan.

Trying to update

2008-12-10T04:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve been asked to update the blog more often and continue adding pictures and I will try to do it more often in the future. I’m adding a few entries that I hadn’t finished yet until now, one from last week and one from mid-November. You might wonder why I waited a few weeks to post the latter but there is a fairly good explanation. The day after I wrote it I fell violently ill (most likely food poisoning) after dinner and my host family found me unconscious on the floor of my room. It was all over with pretty quickly and as soon as I woke up I could stand and walk around on my own. The family had called an ambulance but when they arrived the paramedics couldn’t find anything wrong. So it goes…but since then I have felt drained of energy and ready for a break.

A lesson in different mentalities

2008-11-29T20:31:00.000-08:00

I’ve mentioned before that every Friday I go to a cultural center in the city to speak English with local university students who want more speaking practice. I found out about this club sometime in early October and I’ve gone every Friday except for one night about a month ago. I missed that night because I decided to go to a lecture given by a professor from the U.S. who had done research here about the history of education in Kazakhstan. It was a topic relevant to my own research project about education in Kazakhstan and it was definitely worth going to. A few people have asked me why I go to the English club and give speaking practice for free when a native English speaker in Almaty can earn around $30 an hour for such a lesson. Well, I think back to what it was like being a Peace Corps Volunteer and doing lessons like this without a salary. I still have some of that mentality and I try to show people that Americans aren’t all self absorbed and that we’re willing to give help to people in other countries. I also want to try and show them that we are interested in what other people in the world think and have to say. Despite my best intentions in trying to accomplish this, I think I’ve gone to my last session with these students. The majority of the time is spent discussing how bad of a president Bush has been, but I also can’t help but think that from the way they talk about things they’re glad the U.S. economy is hurting right now. They are certainly entitled to their own opinions but I found that I have a limit of how much I can listen to and I think that was it. It’s very interesting (to say the least) that they spend so much time and effort talking about the faults and problems of a country not their own.

There’s culture and there’s culture

2008-11-22T20:46:00.000-08:00

Every so often I get out around the city and see something cultural. Yesterday afternoon I went to the central mosque in Almaty and walked around for a little bit. I arrived in time to hear the call to prayer and found most of the exterior area deserted except for the sound of prayers being conducted inside the mosque. I snapped a few pictures before quietly making my exit. It’s hard to explain but things such as visiting the mosque on Saturday help me learn more about culture than I would have originally thought. I’m sorry to say but if any of you want more of an explanation than this you will have to email me personally.

2008-11-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but a few of you asked for a photo of where I live so here is a picture of my room and the birthday gift my host family got me. The gift is a bowl that is used for drinking kumis, which is horse's milk that is slightly fermented. It comes from when Kazakhs were more nomadic, but is still somewhat popular today. I haven't tried it but I have had camel's milk while here.

The things that make Kazakhstan unique

2008-10-21T03:26:00.000-07:00

These might seem like random topics for this entry but they’re a sampling of things from the past week or two…

I’ve posted a picture that I hope has turned out okay, it’s of a bag of these bread snacks that I’ve loved since I first had them in Turkmenistan. They’re similar to the texture of a crouton and come in less than average flavors like red or black caviar, horseradish, smoked salmon, and in this case Kazi which is a traditional Kazak dish of horse meat.

The past couple of Fridays I’ve gone to an English club at a local cultural center. The center is an outreach project of the Spanish Embassy here. I was invited by a local university student to come and talk with him and a group of his friends who want to improve their English, and they already speak very well. They also started a debate club this past Saturday and talked about the issue of the many other nationalities not speaking Kazakh. The debate is in Russian so I can follow along fairly well but have a harder time adding my own thoughts. This is a nice chance to meet local students and it served as a reminder of how different Kazakhstan is from the other Central Asian republics. To put it simply, such a center wouldn’t exist elsewhere and students might not be allowed to go to it.

My lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays with Kunduz apai could never be complete without at least a half hour break (we do study 4 hours so it’s probably necessary) and conversations about anything and everything. Often enough we talk about things related to Kazakhstan and the other day we were talking about what Kazakhs thought about the Soviet Union. From one of my summer courses in St. Petersburg I read that many in Russia think that the era of Brezhnev was one of the better periods for the Soviet Union. I asked Kunduz if she felt this was true and she agreed that it wasn’t far off. Later that night I had a similar conversation with Saule (the mother of the family I live with) and she doesn’t exactly share that opinion. She mentioned something about bribes starting to become a real problem during those years and from the tone of her voice I decided not to pursue the topic any further.

some more...

2008-10-12T00:50:00.000-07:00

I walked around Panfilov the other day and A number of parks in the former Soviet Union have memorials of the Second World War. From what I’ve heard the block is roughly the same shape as the Soviet Union and there are 15 heads, one for each of the republics.

I also found this monument to those who from Kazakhstan who were killed in Afghanistan.

more pictures

2008-10-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

The view outside my bedroom window looking down at the ‘creative’ graffiti.

Some of the famous local apples that the city is supposedly named after. From Almaty is the Kazakh word for apple – alma, and I have to admit they were some of the best apples I’ve had.

Finally some pictures

2008-10-12T00:40:00.000-07:00

This is a view from Koktobe, a mountain top viewpoint with restaurants, souvenir stands, and a small amusement park of sorts. You can take the cable car but it costs around several dollars each way.

And here is a couple blocks up from where I live, they were having Bauersok day (bauersok is type of fried snack) with a small concert. There were also a bunch of food and produce stands lining the streets.

The Classroom and the Комендант (Commandant)

2008-10-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

As I’ve mentioned before I’m also studying a fair amount of Russian while trying to get basics of Kazakh down. I learned a new word in Russian the other day and how I learned it is worth writing in here about. I have class at a local university but we just use a classroom there, I’m not affiliated with them in any other way. During every lesson some local students will open the door to the room for some reason and then quickly shut it. I think it’s some kind of strange hobby they have, but it means that my instructors will lock the door and leave the key in the lock. One day this past week someone tried a few times to open the door with each instance becoming progressively violent. A few minutes later the rattling continued but this time we could here them trying to use the key on the other side and cussing when they realized our key was still in the lock on the other side. This caused Kunduz apai to get up and open the door revealing a very ticked off and dangerously excited Russian woman. The woman quickly went into an adjoining room, apparently it can only be reached through our room, to get a few things. After she had gone I asked Kunduz apai who she was and she told me that it was the комендант/commandant. I thought at first she was joking, and who wouldn’t given the demeanor of this woman, but it turned that commandant in Russian can also mean someone who looks after classrooms and sees that everything in them is in order.

The First Entry

2008-09-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

September 22, 2008

Well, some of you have asked for a blog on my time in Kazakhstan so here it is…On September 8, 2008 I went to Washington DC for a one day orientation with American Councils. I flew out on the 9th for Almaty via Frankfurt. In my experiences of traveling Lufthansa is one of the nicer airlines to fly with, so I arrived about as refreshed as anyone could hope. I’m privileged to live with a very intellectual family. The father works in the city of Chymkent (about a day’s trip from here) as a professor and comes to Almaty every so often. I’ve only met him once when he was back this last weekend. The mother works as a math professor at a local university. Both children in the family are FLEX alumni but the daughter is currently studying in Japan on a masters program. They’ve also got quite a book collection in Russian and Kazakh (including Что Делать?) You were right Dr. Comer every family in the Soviet Union probably had a copy of this book.
My host family’s apartment is practically in the center of the city so walking to anywhere is not a problem. Some of you who I’ve talked to this summer right before I left knew that I had been mentally preparing myself for what might be another type of Peace Corps experience, where I would be roughing it somewhere out on the distant Eurasian Steppe, but this is a far cry from that picture. About two blocks down is a place called ‘Silk Way City’, which has an internet café and a decent sized grocery store, the latter of which seems to be geared toward the upper class of Almaty (they have flipping marshmallows and sundae toppings, what in the world?) I’ve also noticed that on any given street in the city at practically any time of day you can find a traffic jam. I was talking with a friend here who said that the Soviets didn’t build big enough streets. I reminded him that the Soviets didn’t envision vast amounts of modern larger sized cars (SUVs, luxury sedans, etc.) that now congest streets like Gogol and Lenin. Where have all the Ladas and Volgas gone to?
I’m on my own in class since I’m the only student in Kazakhstan this year with American Councils. There are two instructors who teach me every other day and they’ve both taught foreign students Kazakh in the past. Being alone means I get to really develop my language skills, but it also means that after about 2-2 ½ hours my mind is fried and I can’t think or speak in any language. Both instructors can see this and let up a little for the last hour. It isn’t just that Kazakh is difficult it’s also that I’m learning it while being taught in Russian. Kazakh is a little similar to Turkmen so I can understand a few things, but there are still a number of different words and pronunciations that throw me off.
I have a peer tutor that I meet with once a week, but so far we’ve only been able to meet once. Last Saturday we went to the national museum of Kazakhstan which housed a few exhibits on ancient, Soviet, and the recent history of the country. Pretty nice place but we were a little rushed to get through everything, so I would love to go back sometime soon. Last weekend also included meeting up with Beksultan, who took classes last year at the Applied English Center, and in true Kazakh hospitality he took me out for a nice dinner. That’s about all the news I have for the moment. I hope you’re all doing well and I will try and update this as soon as I can.