What Was I Doing in Kazakhstan?

Through the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program, I was partnered with a teacher in Aktobe, Kazakhstan and spent two weeks there. My teaching duties involved creating and implementing lessons for college professors, teachers, and students ranging from elementary to college levels. Besides teaching, I visited the bazaar, went to the sauna, played paintball, home-stayed in a village, and even taught hula hooping at a community center for the deaf! I met amazing people and this blog is created to share my experiences with you. Enjoy!

This is a group of dynamic village teachers that attended my three hour ESL workshop. 

Notice that personal space is quite close!

The bazaar is a place where one can shop for everything from dried fruit to socks to Drain-O!

I'm gearing up for a round of paintball!

This is the village in which I home-stayed and the location my Brooklyn school will connect to through World Wise Schools.

One of my best memories of Kazakhstan was teaching English and hula hooping at the community center for deaf people.

Culture

In Kazakhstan, there is a deep integration of different cultures. The two biggest cultural groups are Kazakhs and Russians. Kazakhs come from a once nomadic culture and are Muslim. Those of Russian decent tend to be Christan. The borders between Kazakhstan and Russia have moved many times over the years. Sometimes people changed the country they lived in without even having to move! Other groups of people, including Germans, were moved to Kazakhstan in exile when it was still part of the Soviet Union.

In Aktobe, the city that hosted me, the Mosque and the Church are very close to each other.

Here are closer shots of them both.

Here is a picture of a wedding party in front of the Mosque. Notice the wedding hat!

The government of Kazakhstan supports the integration of cultures. Anyone who discriminates against another person based on their race can be punished by law. Even the flag in Kazakhstan supports the idea of racial integration. It features a steppe eagle flying below a sun with rays of grain and the intertwining marks to the left represent the integration of races.

Langauge

How would you read the following sign?

Based on the alphabet used in Kazakhstan, it's pronounced: AN-VAR.

In Kazakhstan, many of the letters in the alphabet are found in the English alphabet but are pronounced differently.

Imagine my surprise when I was told I would be in room D and saw that my door had this letter:

Most people in Kazakhstan speak Russian and Kazakh. The two languages look similar when written, but sound very differently. Here is the name of the city that hosted me, Aktobe, written in Kazakh.

In the cities, it is more common to hear Russian. In the villages, it is more common to hear Kazakh.

The president of Kazakhstan is encouraging the people of Kazakhstan to become trilingual by adding English to their common languages. Students in Kazakhstan learn English in school. Many items feature all three languages on them. Here is a picture of my soap and shampoo from the hotel with all three languages on them.

Food

The variety of food in Kazakhstan surprised me. I ate at Russian, Ukrainian, and Turkish restaurants. I even ordered pizza! In general, people still prepare food in their homes and there is no fast food.

This table spread was prepared by my host family in the village. It includes chechel (smoked cheese), a cream sauce,  and fried bread.  The main dish was chicken and vegetables over rice. The diet in the villages is very animal based but largely organic. Unless the villagers drive to a city it is hard for them to get processed foods.

Here is my host family enjoying the meal. Everyone ate from the bowls on the main table with their hands. The main dish was served in individual bowls.

Below are some other traditional Kazakh dishes that I ate on my trip.

This is a noddle dish topped with meat, potatoes, and carrots.

This is pilaf - a rice dish with meat and carrots.

These are meat dumplings topped with sour cream.

This is the most famous of Kazakh foods. It made of noodles topped with meat, potatoes, and onions. It is traditionally eaten with your hands and then followed by drinking a cup of meat broth.

Below are some Russian foods that I enjoyed.

The first two dishes are cabbage leaves and crepe filled with minced meat. There is a carrot salad and some crusty, sweet pastries.

After the main meal is served, it's tea time. This is a spread of the after dinner tea treats served at my going away party.

This is a sweet, fried bread that is very tasty when served fresh.

Tea is served with milk, sugar, and  little grains that taste like cornflakes. If your host likes you, they only serve you a small amount at a time so that you will stay longer.

Kazakhstan had many cherry items like 100% cherry juice, cherry jams, and this cherry dessert. I wish I could have brought them all home with me. They were delicious!

Gift Giving

Giving gifts is part of the culture in Kazakhstan. Here is a picture of some of the gifts I received.

I was often blown away by people's hospitality. At my going away party, my partner teacher, Natalya, got a gift for every member of my family she knew of, including my nephews and niece.  At the party we put them on for fun.

Natalya asked me to send her a picture of my family wearing the traditional outfits. I told her that in May, we would be getting together for my Grandmother's 80th birthday party, so that would be a great time to take the picture. Her response was a panicked, "Oh no! I didn't know about your grandma!"

I assured her that I was already overwhelmed by her generosity and that grandma wouldn't be expecting a gift.

In the United States, we often give gifts to friends or family members, but almost never to entire nuclear families. This was a very nice experience for me though, because now I am able to share my experience with my family in a very concrete way.

Here is my family in our Kazakhstan threads.

Children

When I was given this gift, it came with the blessing, "We hope the next time we see you, you will be married with four children." I was surprised by the speaker's remarks and but looked up to see the entire room nodding in agreement. This the first of many times that I would be told I should have children.

When I taught a class of teachers how to write personal essays, many of them had a thesis focusing on children, including, "Children bring joy to their mothers," and "Women need to create new life."

In general, I found that women take their role as mothers very seriously and want to have many children. Sons are especially important to Kazakh families, because the girls will marry and go to another family, while the youngest son is expected to care for his parents.

Coming from a place where I can choose to have children or not, this seemed like it would put unwanted pressure on women. However, they seemed to embrace it. A lovely teacher from my school told me that her first husband had passed away many years before and her children were grown. She had just remarried and she wanted to have children for her new husband as well, so that he could have a family.

My host father told me that his wife had promised him 17 children but had gotten tired after 4. I laughed at his joke because I could tell that he was so pleased with his wife and the family they had created together.

Kazakhstan is a huge country with a very low population density. The president uses national policy to encourage parents to have more children. This includes tax breaks and paying for the hospital bills at birth. Therefore, both the culture of the country and the state encourage large families.