Kazakhastan

This is a spread I worked on and provided major design elements to the fin-ished product.

This was a feature article in Stowaway magazine.

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Kazakhstan By Rachel Mahrt

When Life Takes You to

Kazakhstan When Life Takes You to

43 ▶ fall 2013

XXXKirsten and Scott, a U.S. couple teaching in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, were riding to the ground floor of their 18-story apartment building one morning. Music abruptly started playing in the normally quiet elevator. After a startled pause, they spontaneously broke into dance. In the attitude of “go with it,” Kirsten and Scott rocked out to the elevator music in the elevator of their 18-story apartment building until they reached the bottom. When the doors opened, they calmly stepped out, giv-ing no evidence of what had just transpired.

This moment epitomizes their travel philosophy. Kirsten explained, “Some of the most enjoyable experiences we’ve had here were when something completely unexpected happens and we decided to go with it. And some of the worst times we’ve had were when something unexpected happens and we get really upset or frustrated about it.”

“We wanted to travel, had a love for it, and we had this opportunity [to live in Kazakhstan], and we said, ‘Well, let’s make it plan B,’” Scott said. “And then plan A didn’t happen, so here we are.”

After they flew to Kazakhstan, they took a noisy bus from the air-port to their apartment. Looking out that bus window they got their first impression of Astana: it was flat. Very flat. But not the skyline: Scott thinks its futuristic-looking buildings, most of which were built in the last 10 years, make it look like Tomorrow Land. It’s one of Kirsten’s favorite things about her temporary home: “the skyline of Astana is unmatched. You would never mistake a picture of Astana, day or night, for another city, and it’s beautiful because of that.”

The architecture wasn’t alone in giving a polished first impression. The Kazakh people, including teens, Scott says, are “dressed to the nines.”

“They’re really into fashion. In the States, if there’s a TV on in a restaurant, it probably has a game on; but here, if there’s a TV it has the Fashion TV channel on.” Kirsten laughs as she relates, “Everyone looks great all the time—it was a little bit

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intimidating.”

Finding FoodThey quickly realized that living in a country where you don’t understand the culture or language makes com-monplace activities, such as finding food, feel adventurous.

“It was hard to find milk when we first got here, Kristen said. “We kept going to the refrigerated sec-tion and would look for things with cows or percents written on them, and when we got it home, it would be buttermilk.”

Scott added, “At one point we had 4 cartons in our fridge, all of them were not milk. Finally we looked it up in the dictionary, and asked someone ‘what is milk?’ And we found out that the milk here is

evaporated, so we were looking in the wrong place. That was kind of a disappointment.”

Ordering food was also a strug-gle, especially for Kirsten. A month after moving to Kazakhstan they

went to a food court in the mall. All Kirsten wanted was a salad. “I was wandering around looking for a salad, and I was kind of standing back, try-ing to pick something out, because as soon as you walk up, they expect

XXXKazakhstan’s national dish, beshbarmaq, or horse meat with broth and onions, is served with pride at traditional feasts.

Kazakh Facts ▶ Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world ▶ Population of 16 million, 60th in the world ▶ Kazakhstan declared independence on December 16, 1991,

making it just over 20 years old ▶ A traditional dish is beshbarmaq, horsemeat with onions driz-

zled with meat broth. ▶ The national beverage is fermented mare’s milk. ▶ Apples originated in Kazakhstan, and are called alma in Kazakh ▶ In the London 2012 Olympics, Kazakhstan ranked 12th, with

13 medals (7 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze)

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you to say your order right away. We didn’t even know how to say ‘I need a second.’ I was so overwhelmed mak-ing a decision. The only things I could make out were things like ‘hot dog on a stick’ or ‘pizza,’ . I was so frustrated that I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to get anything.’ My eyes were getting really teary. It was so frustrating because I just wanted a salad. I gave up. It was a defeating experience for me.” That

gave them more motivation to learn some Russian. Scott said, “The first word we learned was the Russian word for ‘this’, ‘eta’. I have learned that when you travel, the words you need to know are ‘this,’ ‘yes,’ and ‘no.’ Those words go a long way.” They used “eta” and pointing to commu-nicate until they were able to learn more specific words.

Things that seem common back home are a source of excitement abroad. “Something that’s really fun in the international community is someone will say, ‘I found peanut but-ter.’ And everyone will say, ‘WHERE? WHERE did you find peanut butter?’ They’ll tell you the store they found

it in, and everyone will rush there,”

Scott said.

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XXXScott and Kirsten in their winter gear.

Teaching AbroadSince Kirsten had a teaching certificate, she applied to all the paid teaching posi-tions she could find (typi-cally programs that accept only people with teaching certificates pay more). She heard back from the job in Kazakhstan posted on TeachAnywhere.com. She and Scott are now working with the Miras school [need to verify name], teaching critical thinking and history [have more specific names of subjects they teach?].

Travelling “There are so many surprises. The most fun we’ve had is when we’ve had the attitude ‘let’s go with it.’” They once asked a bus driver in Almaty, a large city in Kazakhstan, if he could take them to their destination. Scott relates, “He said ‘…yes…?’— a really questionable ‘yes,’ but we got on anyway.” They rode on the bus for a while, asking the driver every once in a while [in Russian? I need to ask them] “does this go here?” and point-ing to the destination on the map. After riding for 45 minutes, they concluded that they were completely lost and that the bus driver hadn’t understood where they wanted to go. They tried to get off the bus, but the bus driver told them to stay. At this point, they thought, “you know, who else can you pay $0.50 to and get a tour of the city?” So they stayed on the bus and got to see most of the city. Eventually they asked him again if it went to their desired destination, and the bus driver’s face fell and he let

out a low, “Oohhh….” and told them to get off the bus and catch a differ-ent one.

Their PhilosophyBoth said living abroad helps you value what is good in your culture, as well as question what you take for granted at home.

Scott likes learning about peoples’ worldviews. “When you start talking to people about politics, reli-gion, food, and the people you talk to like the way they do it, you realize that your way of doing things could be different.”

Kirsten added, “Living abroad helps you see your own worth, but you also get to see the worth of other systems, other ways of doing things.”

Reforming Kazakh schools is “exhausting, mentally and emotion-ally” for these two as they confront cultural differences. Yet this experi-ence has helped Kirsten gain insight into her professional practices. “You

find clarity in doing something differ-ent, because you have something to compare it with,” Kristen said.

There are rewards for the hard work they put in to teaching and adapting to this new way of life. Kirsten says, “It adds dynamic to us as people, us as a couple. It makes you feel good about yourself. I feel good that I’m doing something difficult, and that is expanding me as a person. It expands your confidence. I can look back on this and say that it was a difficult experience but it has made me so much stronger. I am capable of difficult things. You can tell yourself, ‘I did something really hard...so what else you got?’ You feel empowered, and that’s one of the really neat ben-efits of doing something like this.”

They chose to live and teach in Kazakhstan because it was an exciting opportunity to get out of their com-fort zone and challenge themselves. “Some people run marathons; we move to Kazakhstan.”