N is for...Nazarbayev
Honourable mentions: nature
It would be foolish to talk at length about Kazakhstan
without discussing the country’s leader. Cult hero? Dictator? Probably a
combination of the two is a more realistic assessment.
Nursultan Nazarbayev is an immensely popular figure here.
When he came to the school on its inaugural day, the excitement amongst staff
and children was palpable. His face adorns many posters around the city, and
his words are printed across the city. Under his leadership, Kazakhstan has
emerged from being one of the poorest Soviet states to having one of the
fastest-growing economies in Eurasia. Resources have been managed carefully and
exploited to help build the new capital, though it is commonly accepted that
many pockets have been lined during the process. Whether he is as popular in
the countryside, where money doesn’t seem to go as frequently, is not something
I know.
On balance, I believe that Nazarbayev does a very good job
for Kazakhstan. The rumour is that the president has cancer, and may not have
long left. This is where one of the country’s future problems may lie. There is
no obvious successor. His political party, Nur Otan, is in reality the entity
that legitimises his authoritarian rule. What will happen if he doesn’t wake up
one day? History would point to a power struggle, unrest and a dip in economic
and political performance. Kazakhstan is on an inexorable rise, and cannot
afford to let that happen. What President Nazarbayev has done is made people
proud to be Kazakh, and that is not a bad thing to have achieved.
O is for…Olympians
Honourable mentions: ostentatious
Though in a far-flung corner of the globe, there were times
when it felt as if we were living in Little London in 2012. A combination of
the Diamond Jubilee and the build up to the Olympics made us very proud to be
flying the Union Jack and sharing stories of Britain with our children.
We had the pleasure of meeting some of the Kazakh swimming
team in the April before London 2012, and the boxer Serik Sapiyev soon after
his victory in the welterweight category. What struck me was how personable
they seemed. The swimmers were more than happy to pose for photographs, and
even willing to take part in a relay race. Serik Sapiyev took his time walking
around the school and shook many hands, and even posed in fighting mode with
the smallest children in the school.
It’s not every day you meet someone famous or someone that
is simply the very best at the skill that they do. I can’t imagine that the
British athletes, as nice as they seem to be, were able to get around too many
schools or clubs due to various commitments. Another tick in the box for living
in Kazakhstan – if someone famous is around, you’re more likely to meet them!
P is for…partying
Honourable mentions: pool
bar, propaganda
We did a lot of it. From house parties to dingy bars, from
embassy bashes to school benefits, we have had plenty of fun with much drinking
and dancing. The pictures can tell the story for me.
Q is for…quotes
Honourable mentions:
Quizzes
Our headmaster has a reputation for using a set list of
phrases to end emails or conversations. From the ‘magic dust’ of the school’s
beginning to reaching the ‘final furlong’, we could always rely on him to pick
up our spirits and keep us working until the final day. He is a very personable
and good-hearted man, and was great to work under.
R is for…running
Honourable mentions: Russian,
reports
Those who know me will know that I enjoy running. It is
obviously difficult to run outdoors in Kazakhstan for six months of the year.
However, there are plenty of gyms with plenty of treadmills that can try to
satisfy the hunger to run. I also established an alternative running club in
school – a time trial whereby a child runs each week and their score is
recorded and displayed. It was great fun and the children, particularly the
younger ones, were really keen. It was also nice to be so involved with the
P.E. department at school.
My own running was limited to a half-marathon in the UAE
which I trained for relentlessly in the wintry steppe, and a few 10k races. One
infamously turned out to be 11.1k, because the local organisers didn’t
understand the instructions and sent us down a route purely for half-marathon
runners.
Two other races, in May, were organised by the American
school. Those races were lots of fun, particularly the first year when I was
accompanied around the course by a young boy on a bike who seemed to want to
say a word for each step I was taking. The gold medal also melted during the
day and fused with its ribbon, and had to be put in the fridge in order to
rescue it. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to run outside more
regularly in my next posting!
S is for…scavenger hunt
Honourable mentions: shashlik,
sports
Astana may be a relatively small capital city, but it still
possesses a population double that of my home town, and it is growing all the
time. The first opportunity I had to really go deeper than the spectacular
surface that the capital possesses was when we signed up to a scavenger hunt
organised by the U.S. Embassy. It ran during the month of November, and forced
us to keep exploring as the temperature really began to plummet to unfathomable
depths.
The hunt took us far and wide, flung across all corners of
the steppe. Tasks ranged from finding a cowboy bar to stating what shopping was
in the basket of a supermarket’s logo, all done in icy winds and deep snow. Of
course, you need to keep your spirits high when tasked with arduous journeys in
arctic conditions, and our team Well Hung
passed this test with flying colours.
One of my favourite memories of these adventures was when we
were instructed to head to an automobile market outside of town to find out the
name of a sign. We were in the process of taking a photo as proof when a couple
of large men with golden teeth approached, no doubt to tell us off. Quite the
opposite occurred – they wanted to be in a jumping picture with us. Wonderful
stuff, and the whole adventure was a great chance for us to meet more local
people and see a completely different world to the one we were living in.
As a reward, we got to spend a very exclusive night at the
Sky Beach in the Khan Shatyr. The beach that normally closes at 10pm hosted our
party until well after midnight. We came 2nd, losing on a tie-break,
but I definitely think that our team came 1st for having fun!
Fun has been the order of the day for the last two years.
The next blog will cover the final letters of my A-Z about Kazakhstan.
Love you all
Matt
No comments:
Post a Comment