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.