A TASTE OF KAZAKH CULTURE

When is the last time you heard about a group of students giving their teacher a birthday party during class? I’d never heard of that happening before, but today I had a little taste (the cake was good too) of Kazakh hospitality to go along with a great surprise from my students.

It all started about two nights ago in class when I was just finishing up my lesson…one of the students asked me something I never thought I’d hear a student say to a teacher. She asked me if I would leave the classroom for a few minutes. At first I was a little taken aback and asked what her reason was for this odd request. She mumbled something about some things that the students needed to talk about. Of course they were all talking in Russian and so I couldn’t really understand what they were saying anyway, but I guess they just wanted to be safe in case I heard my name in the conversation or something. So I left the classroom and when I came back in a few minutes later, the mastermind behind the operation sheepishly smiled and said, “We were just talking about products Mr. Kersey”. It was the only thing she could think of that related to the topic of Marketing that we had just been discussing that day. I laughed and said, “Products huh? Okay well if you insist.”

Tonight I walked into the school and up the stairs to the second floor where my classroom is located. As I was checking out some audio equipment to use for the class, one of my students comes into room holding a party hat in his hand. He told me that I needed to hurry up and that they were waiting for me. It didn’t take long for me to guess what was up, but of course I didn’t really know what they were planning. As I turned and headed for my classroom, one of the other teachers smiled at me and said, “I don’t think you’ll be doing much teaching today”. I had a feeling he was right and as I entered the classroom I was greeted by all my students standing around my desk, and sitting on my desk was a cake with 24 candles waiting to be blown out. They all shouted surprise and began to sing happy birthday (which I was told later that all the other classes could hear in their rooms). It was a great feeling and I really appreciated their thoughtfulness in putting it all together. As I looked around the room I saw that that had decorated it with balloons and they had all contributed to writing a birthday message on my chalkboard.

After the song, they presented me with a gift, we ate cake and had some other snacks to eat and then two of the girls who organized the party proceeded to lead the entire class in some games that they had prepared. I could see that they put a lot of thought into all of this, so I mentally through my lesson plan out the window and decided I would just enjoy what they had planned for the class. I figured as long as they were speaking English (which they did for the most part), they were getting some practice for the day. All in all it was a great experience and one of the students told me later that they wanted to give me an “American” birthday party where other people throw the party. That’s different from here because normally in this culture it’s the birthday person who should organize, prepare, and entertain everyone else for their own birthday rather than be entertained.

One last cultural thing I would like to mention is in regards to giving toasts. At birthdays it is especially important that at least a few people stop the proceedings to give a toast to the birthday person. Everyone else listens while the toasting person speaks and then they all drink to the toast. Normally the toast is about having future happiness and success and it can often become a little bit redundant if people do not come up with creative ways to give the toast. As I mentioned earlier, the students wrote a birthday message to me on the chalkboard and it was what I would call a “chain toast” because one student started the message then each student added their own sentence to it after that. I would like to end this entry by writing down the words they wrote to me so you’ll have an idea of what you might hear if you are ever at a birthday party in Central Asia.

WHAT DO WE WISH MR. KERSEY…

Health, high score in bowling, good luck, love, great students, like we are, happiness, wellness, best wishes for you, MUCH MONEY, MANY FRIENDS, and I wish that cool wishes would really come true

- posted by Joel @ 1:27 AM

 
BUS 45…WHERE ARE YOU??

As the old TV show so appropriately asked the question about the police car, I asked tonight about my bus. Just as the rest of North American seems to be experiencing extremely cold temperatures during this last week, we too have seen our share of sub-zero temperatures. One difference I have noticed with living here as compared to North Dakota where I experienced the artic cold chill is that we never stayed outside for any longer than we had to when we were traveling from one place to another. Usually the routine was to go start the car and warm it up while waiting inside the house. Then we would get in our car and with the heater already blowing moderately warm air and drive while the windows were defrosting. After reaching our destination, it wasn’t usually very difficult to find a warmer place indoors to escape the face-numbing temperatures of the outside air. However, here in Kazakhstan, we seem to be spending a lot more time outside traveling to and from our destinations, and much of that has to do with the fact that we must rely on public transportation to get us everywhere we need to go.

My ride from my flat on the south side of town to the school where I teach takes me about 35-45 minutes each day. I spend about 20-25 minutes of that time outside either standing and waiting or walking to my destination. The cold air seems to become much more noticeable when one is waiting for the bus for 15 minutes without any way to go inside and warm up. Today the temperature was a frosty -10 degrees F. As I left from the school at 7:30pm to head home, I waited patiently at the bus stop for my bus to come by and take me home…15 minutes later, I was still waiting patiently. Normally I don’t have to wait more than five or ten minutes, but on this night something just wasn’t right and I sensed that my bus wouldn’t be coming anytime soon. Standing with the rest of the people waiting for the bus is an interesting experience because nobody spends much time talking and everyone’s thoughts are focused on looking for that next bus or marshrutka to come by that can take them back to their warm, cozy flat for the evening. It’s at these times of night when I can no longer feel the chin on my face that I begin to think that growing back that bright red goatee might give me a little more protection on my face. On this night I had to take a bus that would drop me off a good 15 minutes from my apartment. So I ended up spending about 15 minutes waiting, 15 riding, and 15 walking to my apartment. By the time I came home at 9:00pm, I was pretty tired and cold. It’s on these nights that a nice cup of hot tea is very welcoming once I make my way up the stairs and through the various keyed metal doors that lead up to my apartment.

Tomorrow night when I leave my school, I shall be asking the same thing, and this time I hope that Bus 45 will not avoid me like it did tonight because this is certainly one relationship I wouldn’t want to break off. So Bus 45…come to me tonight, please come and meet me here tonight.

- posted by Joel @ 9:23 PM

 
THE FASTEST ALWAYS FINISH FIRST?

Tonight the students in my class took their third exam and I noticed for the second time that they have this interesting habit of not wanting to be the first person to hand back the test once they have finished. It seems odd, but I notice that a few of the students who do finish first seem to spend a long time daydreaming or delaying right before they hand in their test. And then the excitement comes when one student finally gets up enough courage to be the first one to hand theirs in. After that the floodgates open up and usually two or three more come up right after that even though they had finished their test beforehand. I’m not sure what this phenomenon means, but I thought it an interesting observation.

After the test, I found out that many of my students congregate just outside the front of the school building to “discuss” what they thought about the test. I happened to follow them out after one of the exams and see them all standing and talking in highly animated Russian about the test. It was interesting for me to see this and to think that they actually thought that much about the test after they completed it. Sometimes I get the feeling it’s not really a big deal to some of the students, but for others I can see that it’s quite the issue for them to discuss what others thought about the test.

Tonight’s exam seems to have been a little easier for them. I don’t know if it was because I just wrote it too easy or because we spent so much time reviewing that they all knew it. Hmmm…I’ll have to fix that for next time so they don’t start thinking that I’m a pushover or something. I have to keep them on their toes since I’m only a few years older than most of them anyway!

IS THIS SEAT TAKEN?

Well actually this time my adventure occurred on the marshrutka (bus-van), and it was another one of those, “where’s my personal space” adventures that I’ll probably remember for while. First off, I have attached a picture of a marshrutka so you can get an idea of what these look like. They are made to hold around 14 or 15 people, but because the drivers get paid by the passenger, they sometimes try to cram quite a bit more than that inside the passenger area. I’ve seen as many as 21 people stuffed into these vans that have forced three or four people to stand up hunched over for a good seven or eight minutes before reaching their destination.



Well anyway, back to my story…I got into one the other night that happened to be quite crowded and their didn’t appear to be a spot for me. I was about to turn around, face the front, and stand hunched over when a middle age man who was a little husky tapped me and told me to sit down next to him. He could only move over enough to allow half of me sit down, but I did so anyway and used my left leg to balance out the part of me that was hanging off the edge of the seat. My surprise came when he put his rather large arm around me and gripped my shoulder with his hand to hold me on the bench. I realized he was just doing this to make sure I didn’t fly off the seat, but I have to say it was a little unnerving for me in this situation. He seemed like a pleasant enough man, but I didn’t really turn to look at his face since we happened to be only inches apart. I didn’t really feel comfortable staring at someone from such a close range. He held on to me pretty tight and I wasn’t really able to move even if I wanted to. During our ride he would speak to me in Russian using speech that seemed to be slow and even a little slurred. I couldn’t tell for sure since I didn’t understand him anyway. Eventually, someone else got out of the van and I was able to move to my own seat. As soon as I sat down and looked at him, I saw that he seemed to be a little sleepy, but then I realized that it was worse than that…he had been drinking…a lot. So much in fact that he was going in and out of consciousness and even proceeded to fall off the seat where I had just been sitting. No wonder he was holding on to me so tight! Don’t ask me why I didn’t smell his breath or notice him in the first place. I was a little unnerved as it was by the close quarters that I was forced to share with a total stranger once again…and this time I didn’t have any chewing gum to help me relax.

Well it finally came time for his stop, and I saw that the man sitting on the other side of him was actually a friend, and he was so drunk that he needed help from his friend to get out of the marshrutka and on toward his home. Some of the other smirked a bit as he was getting off. It was the last I saw from him, but I know that this is a normal occurrence here in Karaganda that most people are used to seeing and living with. Unfortunately alcoholism is a big problem here and it is not uncommon to run into people on the bus or marshrutka who have had one too many drinks for the evening.

Another day…another adventure in the sardine can….

- posted by Joel @ 1:21 AM

 
A REAL RUSSIAN GUY

Well I think I’ve officially disguised myself to look like a local “Russian man” now. Often times it can be pretty easy to pick out someone who is not a local; especially if they are not wearing the traditional dark colored clothing. I have a pair of Docker Khakis and every time I wear those people stare at me like I am asking for a car to drive by a puddle and splash me. It is not common to wear light colored clothing because it becomes dirty much easier because of the mud and dirt that seems to find it’s way everywhere and into everything. Fortunately the snow has covered most of the dirt for now and it’s okay to walk around it pretty much any color of clothing you want as long as it keeps you warm….and also it’s important to wear a scarf, otherwise you might get sick and not survive, but that’s an entirely different story for later. Anyway, today as I was walking around town dressed in the local garb, I had three different people start talking to me in Russian…and I did okay understanding what they were saying, but my problem seems to be in answering them in an intelligent manner using my limited Russian.

It is cultural here to help out an older man or woman when they are need even if they are complete strangers. You might see a young person give up their seat on the bus or help carry the bags of a person who is trying to get on the bus, or even help someone cross the street if they are having trouble walking on the ice. Well today I was attempting to cross the street at a section of town where a lot of people were crossing even though it wasn’t an official crosswalk. I noticed an older woman standing about ten feet to my right and she made eye contact with me and said something that I couldn’t quite decipher. I turned back to watch for cars and as I looked to my right again in preparation to cross I noticed she was still talking to me. I had a quick thought that maybe she wanted me to help her cross the street so I walked over beside her and tried to motion with her to follow me once it was safe to cross. She did so and suddenly I was escorting her across the street as a human blockade in case any cars didn’t want to stop for her. It was a comforting thought, but I saw that we had plenty of time to get across. She continued to talk to me as if we were good friends and even as we made it to the other side she just rattled off about many things I had no understanding of although I heard something about the supermarket which I think was where she was trying to get to. All I could do was nod and smile and act friendly because I really couldn’t respond with letting her know that I didn’t understand a word she was saying. Either way, at least I helped her across the street, and that made us both feel good.

To add points to my Russian guy disguise, I had another man about my age come up and ask me what time it was. I couldn’t answer him, but I was able to show him my watch so he could see the time. It’s about time I learned how to tell time in Russian I think. Either way I was able to help him too and that was nice.

Lastly, I had two guys walk by me and ask if I had a cigarette. That one was easy to understand because the word for cigarette sounds almost exactly like the English word. I couldn’t help them there, but they did figure out pretty quick that I was a foreigner once I started talking and they asked if I was an Americanetz. I said yeah and then they tried to talk to me some more, but we didn’t get very far. It’s those types of conversations that inspire me to try and learn more Russian. Not being able to communicate with people can be very frustrating sometimes.

So anyway, you may be thinking what the big deal was about all these people talking to me today, but actually it means I’m doing pretty good with the “Russian” because I certainly don’t look Kazakh, and also if they thought I was a foreigner, then they probably wouldn’t ask me to help them. But it’s a double-edged sword for me because now I don’t have to worry so much about people bothering me because I’m American, but at the same time when someone does ask a question, I can’t always answer them properly and usually end up telling them “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand.” So of course, I should improve my Russian speaking abilities so that I can help the out a little bit more. It’s coming along...slowly but surely.

CIGARETTE INQUIERIES UP THANKS TO NEW PURCHASE

Recently I was with a local friend of mine and we were shopping for a pair of jeans. He helped me to find a “modern” pair (they like to use that word a lot to say that it’s stylish) and it was a good price so I went ahead and bought them. He told me that I would be very popular with the ladies which wasn’t why I bought them, but that wasn’t a bad thing either. However, I’ve also noticed that since I bought them I’ve had many other young men my age begin to ask if I could “give them a light” or give them a cigarette. Apparently I must dress now in a way that tells people that I’m a smoker (which is very common here among young people), and so I think I’m now more popular with the smoking population than I am with the female population. Maybe it wasn’t such a good purchase after all….oh well, they keep me warm and they’re “modern” so they serve their purpose just fine.

BUT THOSE WOOL SCARVES ARE SO ITCHY

We all know the feeling of having our parents scold us for going out in the rain without a jacket on or for playing in the dirt with your best Sunday clothes. Well over here I’ve been scolded for similar things. One thing I’ve been doing wrong as of late is not wearing a scarf when I go out in the cold. I’ve been told here that wearing a scarf will protect you from getting sick and that if you don’t wear one. And of course, don’t you dare go outside with out a hat or beanie to cover your head because you’ll certainly catch your death. Now I have to agree that a hat is very useful in retaining body heat, but as for a scarf, I lived in North Dakota for a year and a half and never wore a scarf once. I don’t ever recall getting sick because of it.

Around here if they see you not wearing one and mention something to you, they will remind you of your mistake if you just happen to get sick a month or so later. I find it funny because they have some other not-so-sanitary habits that I have to laugh about when I see because it makes me wonder how they can’t see them as opportunities for severe sickness. Let me just give you a few examples.

1. It’s normal to double dip into bowls of food at meals when you are with other people. In fact I served a bowl of carrot salad to my friends the other day and instead of taking the salad and putting a portion of it on his plate, one friend proceeded to eat straight from the bowl of salad. Needless to say, I didn’t eat anymore of that salad and I was happy that I had already taken a portion of it by the time it got around to him.

2. When I go to play sports I often bring a water bottle with me. The guys I play with seem to have no problem all drinking out of my water bottle without a worry about putting their mouths on it each time they take a drink. Of course if I didn’t get any of that water before they got to it, then I usually just go thirsty and then go home and put my water bottle through a soapy hot water beating before drinking out of it again.

3. Around here, people spit all over the place. Men mostly…women don’t seem to find the habit quite as attractive. But anyhow, even when I play soccer in the gym, the guys will spit on the side of the gym walls when they get a good build-up of saliva. It doesn’t happen very often, but just seeing that once or twice during the night is enough to turn my stomach a little bit. Quite disgusting if you ask me, but hey at least when they go outside, they put on their scarf and drink out of a communal water bottle to replenish their thirst.

- posted by Joel @ 7:07 AM

 
NEW YEAR IN KAZAKHSTAN!

Here in Kazakhstan, it is traditional for people to stay up the entire night, and it evens seems to be a little bit of a competition because it is people like to ask how late into the morning you stayed awake until going to sleep. Generally people will celebrate with their friends or family at home or in a café or restaurant of some sort and then when midnight hits most people go outside to watch fireworks and walk around town. It is also very common since people stay awake for most of the night to have many guests spend the night at your apartment or house and go home later the next day.

For me it was quite a different experience this year. I did not expect to have the night that I had last night when I ventured from my apartment and out into the night to visit the apartment of some other Americans for a New Year celebration. They had opened their home up to about 25 people to come celebrate and stay all night long if they wished.

First off though, I had three of my students over for dinner in the afternoon and we had a good time talking, watching American football, and eating Sloppy Joes. Between the five of us, we gobbled up almost two kilograms (four pounds) of beef as we sat in the living room watching a taped showing of an old 1991 Citrus Bowl game between Florida and Florida St. Poor FSU, they got clobbered, but the guys really enjoyed watching it and they were interested in learning about the rules and watching how the game was played. As is also traditional for New Year’s, each of them brought me a gift. Most people here celebrate the New Year with gift giving rather than Christmas.



After they left, we cleaned up a little and prepared to head out into the fire-cracker filled night and over to the another apartment about fifteen minutes away. As I left my flat about 9pm I saw several groups of people outside already shooting off random firecrackers just like the ones I had been hearing the entire day. I was actually growing tired of hearing these loud, short-lived ear poppers that had no flashes or lights, and I was thinking to myself that it wasn’t going to be much of a celebration once midnight appeared if this was all they had to present.

I came to my friend’s flat and we enjoyed a time of fellowship and food for a couple of hours before the clock struck midnight. Once the time came up, we all went and got on our coats, hats, and shoes. I was armed as usual with my digital camera ready to see if it could handle some night shots and midnight videos of what I thought would be just a lot of noise and racket echoing around circular area of the complex.

To my surprise I came out and looked around me to see that there were fireworks shooting off in all directions. And these weren’t like the normal ones you can buy on July 4th. Some of them were the classic “fountain” fireworks, but most of them were long circular tubes that are handheld and shoot off multiple mini-blasts of sparkling light. I immediately pulled out my camera and started shooting video. The mini-shots were going off all over the place; from apartment windows, from the ground, and apartment entrances. And people were shouting and cheering like a war had just ended! I almost felt like I was in the middle of a battlefield myself as I heard all the pops and explosions going on around me. It was interesting to see people shooting these things out from their balcony windows five stories up. I guess if your apartment is built with cement walls and linoleum flooring, you don’t have to worry too much about burning the place down with some errant spark or smoldering match.

So this excitement went on for about half and hour and it didn’t slow up one bit. The family I was visiting had bought their own supply of fireworks and they shared with us so we had a chance to shoot some off as well and it was a lot of fun.

As is tradition with most people here for the New Year, we did our best to stay up the entire night. I only made it till 4:30am. I’m just not as young as I used to be. We watched what could be called the Russian version of It’s a Wonderful Life after the fireworks and it was fun to see a movie that had so many cultural jokes that I could related to in the last four months of living in Kazakhstan.

So now the new year is here…it’s 2004. What do you think?

It doesn’t seem like a grand number to me, but I’m sure it will provide just as much excitement and unexpected adventures as the last. But I do find it hard to believe that I’m sitting here typing this in my flat in Kazakhstan when in June I was waving to my family and friends as I received my diploma at school. A lot can change in one year.


- posted by Joel @ 7:05 AM