March 17-21
Hello
everyone!
March is a
month full of special occasions for Kazakh people. Quickly following on from
International Women’s Day is the third New Year celebration I have had since I
moved to the steppe last August. We are on our Spring break a little bit before
most schools back in Britain thanks to the celebration of Nauryz – Kazakh New Year.
I’ll talk
about that later, but it has been a busy time for all of us. The school hosted
its first ever Athletic Day on March 17th. This was the culmination
of the time trials that I had established earlier in the term. The success of
these was so palpable that we decided to hire a sports complex – complete with
actual track, as opposed to hurtling dangerously down the corridor next to the
dining hall – and hold races for all age groups.
The more
eagle-eyed of you may have noticed that that date of this event was a Saturday
– a non-school day. In spite of this, the vast majority of the children and
staff were present for the event. I had a rather important role as the starter
of each of the races. For children seven and above, that meant I got to try
something new – fire a gun.
It’s fair to
say that it isn’t a gun that James Bond would be content with. The instructions
were entirely in Mandarin, with no pictures to help us assemble the small
weapon. It worked on an irregular basis, and was soon put to one side. Why?
Well, I may have fired the gun high above my head, only for the entire
cartridge to explode and ricochet at pace into my hand. I still have a small
mark. Best to stick to the whistle after that.
Saturday was
a busy day. We also witnessed and thoroughly enjoyed a concert in the Shabyt
concert hall, the outside of which seems to resemble a giant blue dog bowl. Our
school’s choir performed a brilliant requiem, and one of our children played a
wonderful set on the piano. It was wonderful…for the hour that I saw. I had
other places to be…
Those of you
who are as wise as owls – can you tell we’ve been doing animal poetry in
school? – will know that this day was the finale of the Six Nations rugby
championships. The one which Wales only needed one more win in to complete the
Grand Slam, a clean sweep of victories in the tournament. I dashed off to a bar
to ensure that the Wales-France game was being shown, then subsequently found
that Al-Jazeera had changed the broadcasting channel. The wonders of the
internet allowed me to revel in a fifth successive Welsh triumph, and a third
GS in a mere eight years. Time to celebrate, but how?
Well, those
who are hawk-eyed will have also noticed that the date of this event coincides
with a rather notorious and happy national holiday for one particularly green
nation. Combining this with the newly-accumulated knowledge of the location of
an Irish bar that sells (incorrectly-poured) Guinness meant that we could
celebrate St. Paddy’s, Wales’ rugby superiority (only me for that part) and the
success of our Athletic Day in the way that Ireland’s patron saint would have
wished.
We had two
days left of school after that weekend, which were dominated by the build-up to
Nauryz. We were treated to a delightful theatre show and some musical
performances in school, and a special Kazakh lunch. Some of the teachers were
also involved in the Kazakh games played in the afternoon. No beshbarmak,
though – I still need to eat that properly.
Kazakh fun fact:
Nauryz is celebrated across Central Asia, and is a symbol of spring
renewal, fertility and friendship.
This short
video was made by our Kazakh department, and will help you to visualise some of
the reasons for and activities undertaken for Nauryz.
I’m now back
in the motherland for a couple of weeks to remember that grass can actually be
green, and that everything in Britain is relatively expensive. The dream is to
return to Kazakhstan to see Astana drenched in sunshine with not a drop of snow
in sight. Dream big, kids. More realistically, I do genuinely hope that the
temperature will be in positive figures when I come back to continue my Astana
adventure.
Happy
Nauryz!
Наурыз мерекесіне арналған!
Love you all
Matt
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