Friday 7 December 2012

Kazakhstan – The first Movember

November

 Hello everyone!




 November is a month to raise money for charity, and raise the upper lip hair on male members of society. ‘Movember’ is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during November to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancer charities. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health."

 

It is often necessary to raise spirits in a cold, harsh climate such as this. However, Astana has seemed strangely mild in comparison to last year. It might well be that we’re more prepared second time around. However, it has taken longer for the river to freeze, and I haven’t had to buy a proper winter hat until the middle of this month.

 

We haven’t had too many new experiences this month. Instead, we have continued our traditions from 2012 and revisited old favourites. We soared up the Bayterek…

 

…watched break-dancers in the world’s largest shopping tent, the Khan Shatyr…

 

…got lost rambling around in the snow…

 

…and had our traditional Thanksgiving meal…of Indian food.

 

Thanksgiving was one of the more novel aspects of this otherwise monotonous and work-heavy November. We decided to spend some of it chunkin’ pumpkins – those who have watched Modern Family will understand…

 
 
 

The other novel aspect was the facial hair that was formulating fast underneath my nose. It worked a treat for our day of fancy dress, Humanities Day. I feel that it made me become a more legitimate Victorian gentleman, though others have pointed out that I bore a striking resemblance to an old American president…

 

Alas, November 30th came, and the moustaches amongst our school disappeared into frothy bowls of warm water. In sum, having a moustache is fun but can also get irritating, especially when drinking milky products or eating soup. We have raised awareness for a charity that may not have had significant publicity in this country before, and hopefully we truly can "change the face of men's health." You can help by donating to http://uk.movember.com/team/867029.



Love you all


Matt

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