Kazakhstan (Aug. 23 – Aug. 26)

Very Kazakh artwork: falconing and horses

Almaty

On the morning of August 23rd, I had finally arrived in Almaty, a couple of days behind the original schedule.  I learned that Dave and Pete had not yet reached the city from China, and were due in the evening.  I secured a hotel, and began to explore the city.  I first visited the train station, as I was two days behind schedule I was contemplating leaving that evening.  However, there were no late-night trains, and I resolved to stay the night.

Central Mosque in Almaty

My first stop was yet another mosque.  Ironically located somewhat on the periphery of the center, Almaty’s Central Mosque is the largest in the country, with a capacity for 3,000 worshippers.  (I later visited the Zenkov Cathedral, interestingly much closer to the center…)  The mosque had a number of side-rooms, where people would come in and sit down as an imam said a prayer from behind a desk.  Making the amin gesture (hands in front of face w/ palms inward, and lowered as if washing face), the people would conclude the prayer and drop a small donation in the nearby box.  Acutally, the Christian word ‘amen’ comes from the same Semetic roots as amin, and both are used in the same way (in Arabic, ‘amin’ means ‘so be it’).

Zelyony Bazaar, Almaty

Continuing on foot, I finally picked up a mobile phone at the Zelyony Bazaar, also hungrily exploring the rows of fruits, nuts, and meats (Equestrian team, ignore the following onomonopia and sentence fragments):  mmmm…. horse meat… actually pretty good!  I continued on Almaty’s main pedestrian walkway, nearly getting drawn into a massive fountain water-fight among dozens of high-school students.  After stopping to admire some stunning Kazakh artwork displayed in the street (pictured above), I arrived at Panfilov Park, the centerpiece of which was the tsarist-era Zenkov Cathedral.

Zenkov Cathedral

The inside contained an overwhelming array of golden crosses, candles, and portraits of saints.  There were some colorful murals depicting the paths of the damned and the saved.  When I later visited the Cathedral with Dave and Pete, an old woman with a (Christian) headscarf sat down and began singing what sounded like a beautiful hymn, only to be quickly escorted out by security.  On the headscarf note, I had also noticed in the Caucasus as well as in the Almaty Cathedral a lot of the older generation and some of the younger generation covering their hair and shoulders when entering churches and Cathedrals.

WWII Heroines

Bad-ass Kazakh harp

Next was the World-War II monument and memorial, with soldiers from all 15 Soviet Republics bursting out of a map of the USSR.  As Pete put it, ‘the Soviest sure knew how to do monuments.’  There was also a smaller monument to the 1917-20 Civil War.  Interestingly, another park had statues of two WWII heroines:  Manshuk Mametova and Alia Moldagulova.  After the park I visited the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments, which had dozens of variations of the national instrument, the two-stringed dombra, as well as some cool horns and even Kazakh bagpipes.

After this, I ran a whole mile but still failed to make what was supposedly Kazakhstan’s best museum, the Central State Museum.  Maybe next visit to Almaty (which might be soon, as Dave, Pete, and I consider heading to China from Kazakhstan instead of Kyrgyzstan).  Passing the Parliament and Presidential Palace, I got a close-up view of Kazakhstan’s famouns ‘Golden Man’ perched atop the Monument to Independence.  The Golden Man has a lot of popular symbolic value in Kazakhstan, despite being a set of 5th-century BC Scythian war-armor that has no ethnic connection to the Kazakhs.

Golden Man atop winged snow leopard atop Monument to Independence

The last portion of the day saw me taking the cable car to the top of Kok-Tepe, a hill with great views of the city but also a small amusement park, zoo, and lovers’ garden (to explain a ‘lovers’ garden,’ in the developing world where private space and private vehicles are much rarer, young couples often try to find secluded places in parks and such to make out).

Finally, I thought it was time to meet Dave and Pete, and raced back to the hotel.  Only they weren’t there, and there was no email communication from them.  I therefore headed to the internet to rewrite the Armenia blog entry I had annoyingly lost, checking back at the hotel every hour to see if my friends had arrived.  On my last jaunt out, a young man stopped me and asked what I was doing walking back and forth every hour.  He couldn’t really speak English, and while I tried to explain in broken bits of Russian an English-speaking young woman appeared to ask similar questions of me and translate.

Sun-spoiled view of Almaty from the top of Kok-Tepe

Hearing English, soon enough youth began to come out of the woodwork to congregate around me, and before long I had a crowd of 15 people surrounding me, asking me questions on the street at midnight (one of the questions was, ‘why are you out so late?  don’t you know this area is dangerous at night?’).  They were all very nice and simply curious, though, and the original English-speaking girl who had stopped to talk turned out to study nanotechnology at the local university!  I also noticed that it was only the females who could speak, or who weren’t shy about speaking, English and translated for the men.

...and unspoilt view of what lay on the other side of the mountain

One of the group escorted me back to my hotel.  I had given up that Dave and Pete might make it that night, and was literally about to head out the door for a night on the town when they finally showed!  They promptly iced me with a Smirnoff Ice that was actually half vodka, kicking off a night that saw us return to the hotel just as the sun was rising.

A Moving Charity Experience in Shymkent

Pete, Dave, Me, Aileena, Cynthia, and Roza

Beshbarmak!

The next day we got up predictably late, and I showed Dave and Pete around some of the sights I had seen.  I received a call from the Peace Corps Volunteer helping me with the Kazakh charity, Bereke in Shymkent, and learned that I needed to find a way to make it to Shymkent by the following day.  Thus, we all hopped an overnight bus to Shymkent, arriving to meet Cynthia, the Peace Corps Volunteer.

Cynthia was a Youth Development Volunteer one year in to her service, and was super-kind enough to host three grubby travelers at her house.  We cleaned up a bit, and headed to meet the staff of Bereke, which works on a variety of community projects but had recently begun to open preschools in disadvantaged communities on the outskirts of Shymkent, which our donation would help support.

Kymyz (left) and kamron (right)

We met Roza, the hard-working founder and director of Bereke as well as friendly fellow staffers Aliya and Aileena.  They all generously treated Dave, Pete, and I to a real Kazakh meal of beshbarmak, the national dish of noodles and horse sausage.  We also had manty, or steamed dumplings, and Dave and Pete got their first taste of kymyz and kamron (if I remember, Dave favored kymyz and Pete kamron).

Bereke's Staff: Roza top row, second from right; Cynthia front and center

Then it was time to visit the communities in which our donation would help open ECD centers!  For more details on the use of funds, see the Charity Recipients page, but essentially the $500 will be used to purchase printer/scanner/copiers and furniture for the new ECD centers.  First, we visited the majority-Kazakh community of Dostyk, where we entered a house full of children, parents, and those helping with the center in some way.  A local government official, journalist, and cameraman were also there for the reception!  It had been Roza’s brilliant idea to format the donation as a big presentation in order to exemplify the spirit of charity – which she hoped would inspire further charitable acts.

Children from the Dostyk community

Roza said some words to introduce us to the community members, and I gave a short speech explaining the purpose of my visit to Kazakhstan, the multiple reasons for the donation, and the sentiment and people behind it back in America (and four other countries).  One by one, parents and those involved in the project gave moving short speeches about the meaningful difference they had noticed in their children after just a couple of months attending the Bereke preschool program, how happy they were that someone had come all the way from America to their community, and how they hoped their children would one day have the education and drive to come to America to help how they could.

Listening to poems and songs from the children of Dostyk

The children tuned in too:  a young girl and boy recited some Kazakh poetry and song for us.  We then sat down to some sweets and fruit the community had kindly prepared, simultaneously playing with the kids and teaching them how to work a digital camera (this turned out to not be such a good idea in Uzbekistan, but I’ll save that for the next post).

Passing off the list of donors to the teacher who would do the true hard work for the Dostyk ECD center

We were all a bit overwhelmed at how touching the experience was, but we still had one more community to visit!  We drove to the majority-Russian community of Kainar-bulak, where a facility for the new ECD center was already in place.  We met the owner of the grounds, who had donated the room for the center, and were again sat down at a table filled with delicious treats of all sorts, this time supplemented with samsas (samosas).

The Kainar-bulak children and their artwork

The woman who donated the room for the new preschool (front left), who had a large number of children herself

The grounds owner gave a very enthusiastic and heartfelt thank-you and was obviously excited to be hosting us.  I returned the thanks, as I have always tried to emphasize it is the inpiring people I meet who are doing the truly hard but inspiring work on the ground.  We then watched the children perform a traditional Kazakh dance for us, which they did very well!  After the snacks (we were thoroughly stuffed by this point and I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat dinner that night), we were given a tour of the new ECD center room, and introduced to the parents and teachers.  Most importantly, we got to meet the children, and I briefly learned how to say ‘good job!’ in Russian to those who had performed the dance.  I again presented the list of donors to the teacher, and through the translator gave her a special thank-you:  I’ve been a teacher, I know how challenging it is, but she is the one making the greatest difference of all in the lives of the children.

Presenting the list of donors to the teacher of the Kainar-bulak ECD center

We said our good-byes and headed back to Bereke’s offices, where Roza and I signed the donation contract (a copy of which can be found on the Charity Recipients page, along with more information on Bereke).  Bereke was impressive not only in their intelligent approach for presenting the donation, but also in the professionalism with which they handled all of their business.  Another local organization rockstar!

Signing the contract you can find on the Charity Recipients page

It was then time for drinks with some of the staff, and a night out on the town with Cynthia and her friend Katie (another volunteer).  Shymkent’s Thursday night scene wasn’t as lively as we had hoped, but we still had a fun evening.  Too fun, in fact, to attempt to fast the following day.