Ideals of beauty

Ive been talking a lot about of ideals of beauty to the people in Kazakhstan. Now of course I don't say to anyone, "What is the ideal of beauty in Kaz?" That is a philosophical/social level well above anyone I've met at my site at least.

So to start this little study. I first taught my students vocabulary for the body then word descriptors for each area for the body... e.g. beautiful face, long black hair. After a couple days of practice. I introduced the question .... Is she/he beautiful?

The example answer I gave was.... Yes, she is beautiful. She has long black hair and freckles. She has smooth white skin and is tall.

So for practice I first brought in a trashy American celebrity magazine that I stole from another volunteer. I would ask each student if they thought this or that celebrity was beautiful. What I found out was every student in my class thought American celebrities were ugly. They said their skin was too white and the models usually were to skinny. (On a side note they didn't know who any of the celebrities were, which was a bit refreshing. I figured out I was in a part of Kazakhstan American popular culture hasn't broke into).

So I then asked who was beautiful in class. Two students who had the look of being Kazakh but also had fairer less Asian characteristics were decided to be the most beautiful in the class. One was Kazakh, she does not have such an Asian face but also had European green eyes. The other is my host sister she has Asian characteristics in her face but also has freckles and her skin coloring is not particularly dark.

Kazakhs in villages, or at least my village 0r even my 13 person 6th form class, find Kazakhs who have the Asian look but also contain a bit of the European look in their faces the most beautiful. But probably the most fascinating thing to me was that Kazakhs really don't care about weight at all. Generally they don't find it a characteristic of beauty or ugliness. Instead some of the most overweight teachers in my school are considered by my students some of the most beautiful.

On a sidenote one of the most beautiful characteristics for men for some of the southern Kazakhs and the Uzbeks is to have a uni-brow. Go figure...

Water Pumps, APA, classes...

After living at my permanent village life has become pretty routine.
My normal day:
At 8 AM I wake then trudge myself to the indoor water sink. Now sink is a loose term, the sink is just well water put into an object that looks similar to what a sink looks like. APA or grandma in Kazakh puts the water in the sink thing in the morning, sometimes its heated but sometimes its freezing cold, straight from the well. Its a trying experience as you turn the nob and wait for the water to hit your hands. Then its like college all over again but without the bathing, throw on the clothes you wore yesterday (in the winter this means 2 sweatshirts and a winter jacket) and start walking to school. 2 miles later Im at school. A newer looking building it was built with the help of a French sponsor company two year ago. Everyday I walk into the school with the incoming masses of kids, I then go and get my classroom key from the key lady. She's not really a front desk lady she just sits their all day with another lady and keeps all the keys to the rooms. Honestly she always has a group of teachers or other workers around her, its like having the water cooler at the entrance of your school. As I walk to my classroom and say hello to every female teacher and if I see a male teacher I have to shake his hand. Its the custom of all males to shake hands and

At 9AM classes start and each last 45 minutes with 5 minutes inbetween. Everyday I teach the 1st and 2nd classes. My situation is a bit different than most volunteers. See my school two years ago decided to teach one class of kids (25 kids) each year English 5 times a week. Classes in Kaz. are formed when the children enter the 5th grade these 25 children will stay together for 6 years, taking all the same classes and having the same homeroom teacher for the same period. With their friendships maintaining throughout life.


But back to classes, my kids see me 5 times a week, thats three times more than normal volunteers and teachers see their student in Kaz. They treat me like a big brother more than a teacher, so dicipline is a constant struggle. In must be the Tae Kwon Do part of me but discipline is not only required in class its strictly enforced. Class time is mine after class, I treat them like friends but in class I more like the devil. Sometimes though if I'm not feeling very good, I just have my counterpart (the lady responsible at site for my general well being) have a good yelling at them, she's through and through a soviet teacher. Meaning she can make kids cry by punishing them and she is good at it too, but she's a wonderful lady outside the school. Really I love her...

Around noon, I eat lunch normally potatoes boiled in a soup broth and tea in the equivalent of a teachers cafeteria. Costing me a me a whopping 70 tenge (ie 50 cents). This place located in the school sells all the basic material teachers and students needs and doubles as the lunch room. Its run by a good slightly overweight couple that has a daughter and are always chatting about the weather and the normal village gossip. That's two water cooler areas and counting...

School ends around 2PM for my classes and kids often come to my classroom for help in understanding of just too hang out. Usually I am grading homework and correcting mistakes. (I teach like they were 2nd graders, tedious but it works) Then I plan my classes for the next the next day.

Around 4pm I walk home, a nice 2 mile trudge with the cows as they begin their track home as well. Often avoiding the cow crap and stray dogs. I get home and grandma or Apa (in Kazakh) will ask me to get her some water. Now getting water is an adventure. At my house in Almaty we had a pump but here at site we have a bucket well.

Pumps and bucket wells both accomplish the same thing they get water out of the aqua filters. But I think I prefer the bucket wells. Pumps require too much effort with priming the pump by putting water in the pump and developing pressure. Usually you don't need that much water to justify so much effort. Bucket wells take almost the same amount of time for the same amount of water but its easier to know exactly how much time it will take to get water out of the hole in the ground.

Once Im done getting water I take a nap or I study Kazakh I read till dinner at 8PM though this time fluctuates by a lot depending on a lot of things. Thats my normal day, what a day, so exciting.

Food of village Kaz.

I wanted to write a small entry about the food of rural Kazakhstan. My area of Kazakhstan is a bit like the slaughter capital of the area. Everyday I will often see camels, horses, goats, and cows hauled off to wherever they slit their throats. For example a neighbor of mine has been raising 3 camels. Camels catch a hefty amount of money on the market or at least their meat does. But anyway because of that I eat lots of meat and different kinds too.

But anyway here are the top 5 foods for me that I've had in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan due to soviet times has many different kinds of foods with many foods originating from other countries that were brought to this country during inter soviet migrations and due to military service which many men served in during soviet times.

5. Pelau/Plough - the national food of Uzbekistan. It is an oily rice that within it has many different kinds of vegetables and spices. It is quite tasty and can be quite good if the right mixture of oil to rice is maintained. It is served on a communal plate and sculpted into a mini mountain and then a huge mound of cow meat is placed right on top of it. All meat in this country is boiled and cut up and this meat is now different. In all honesty I'm not a huge fan of this dish but this due to the fact that I have to eat it at almost every wedding, birthday, and celebration that I attend and it can be quite trying at times to shove down another spoonful of this stuff.

4. Borsch- A Ukrainian soup. Usually made from beef broth containing pieces of meat, cabbage, and if your really lucky beats. When combined with mayonnaise its a very tasty dish. Probably my favorite soup in country its filling and scrumptious and hardy. Though I usually have to dump salt and pepper into it since my family doesn't flavor their meat nor their soup stock.

3. Bec Parmak- the national food of Kazakhstan it is translated to 5 fingers due to the fact all you eat it with is your 5 fingers. It is a collection of hand made noodles which are boiled in a onion stock then placed upon a plate. The noodles are thicker than dumpling noodles but very wide and usually folded. After they are placed on a plate boiled meat is put right on top of it. What you do is you wrap the noodles around the meat and hand make beef dumplings till you are full, its a very hardy dish. Then afterward each person is full they are given to drink the skimmed fat broth of the boiled meat. Quite tasty!!!!!!!!!

2. Pilmeni- Is a Russian dish of beef wrapped in dumpling dough then boiled in onion stock quite tasty and very good. Though it takes lots of time to make and prepare when eaten with mayonnaise for me its to die for.

1. Chick Pee Sorpa- A new invention to the world of Kazakhstan making it a bit rare since new kinds of food do not evolve here much. As evidenced by me and the 10 dishes that I eat regularly. Anyway this is a bit of a combination of besparmak and pilmeni. Consisting of ground beef wrapped in a pasta noodle boiled in a onion base then topped with a carmelized onion sauce. Its heavenly and rare. I don't have it much but if you do have it remember it because its awesome.

Blue eyes

I've always found eyes and their colors to be the most beautiful part of the human body. I often take note of the color of someones eyes and many of the most important people in my life have exceptional beautiful colored eyes. My father has the bluest sky blue eyes Ive ever seen.

The people of Kazakhstan or at least some of them have very unique eyes shades when I compare them to the Asian peoples I grew with. Some of my students have green eyes some and blue and some have cat like hazel eyes which truthfully are creepy.

But in my house with my host family my host grandfather has the same shade of blues eyes as my father. That sky blue that you often read about in songs. The first time I saw his blue eyes and I realized how blue they were it was a bit shocking to me but now it just shows me how this country has been the transitory area of many kinds of people for thousands of years and each has left its mark on their ancestors.

A brief history of my part of Kaz.

Kazakhstan or rather the first Kazakh people or at least people who identified with being officially Kazakh came around in the 15th century. Prior to that people inhabited this area for centuries, with the occasional conqueror making it his own personal playground. (Alexander going east and Gengiz going west. Each and their armies leaving their natural physical characteristics going each direction.)

But the key distinguishing feature of ancient Kazakh's is that they believed in a combination of Islam and folk spiritual religion. The kind of Islam cultural anthropologists call folk Islam, also they speak the common language of Kazakh. The religious aspect of the Kazakh's is best understood when compared to that of the people of its southernly neighbor, the Uzbek's.

The Uzbek's and Uzbekistan lie in fairly fertile grounds and were the inhabitants of a couple ancient cities primarily Tashkent. Cities which lie on the silk road. So when Islam was in its infancy and spreading I think in the 12th century, Islam found its way along this trade path and took root in the areas which were very urbanized Therefore now Uzbekistan and its people are one of the most dedicated to the Islamic faith. Containing many religious schools dedicated to Islam and even an official government head of the islamic faith.

While Kazakhstan which was not urbanized and its people much more spread out took many more centuries to concrete its Islamic faith than the Uzbeks finally culminating in the mid 15th century. Even now many semi Islamic semi something else customs remain in the lives of the most traditional houses in the traditional villages. The traditions can only be called Kazakh after understanding their origins.

Anyway in the 15th century a definitive difference in identity and language began to exude from their Krgys neighbors who lived a very similar lifestyle in the south. Who prior to this point were called the same thing "Krgys." Mainly due to the different folk customs and Kazakhstan laying off the silk road path. At this point historian began to call people of the Kazakhstan region Kazakhs.

Groups (Zhuus)-Clans (RUUS)
OK so now this next part comes from a Kazakh national after we had a good time in a Cafe if anyone knows this information better please tell me. Because I've never read about it before in any book on Kaz I've seen or found.

So in the beginning of the Kazakh people asked for land in the region from what I guess would be the last vestiges of power of the golden horde. The prior ruling party of its day in the area remnants of the Mongols. The Kazakh people wanted to be free of a sole foreign ruler this is evidenced by the very meaning of Kazakh which means "FREE people"

After land was given this eventually became the first of the 3 groups of people that make up the entire Kazakh people. Eventually though a schism developed over leadership of the group and again some leaders went to the Khanate and asked for land these people were given more land and this group became the middle group. Eventually another schism developed and the lower group came into being with more land be given to the Kazakh's. Again I'm pretty sure this is a theory but I think its credible.

The left overs of these three groups still hold great sway in the hearts of the Kazakh people or at least most Kazakh people. Each Kazakh for the most part is separated into these three groups with a sub grouping based upon clan. Clan being decided by a person father 7 generations elder. A way to distinguish if you can marry someone since it is forbidden to marry anyone who is related to you by 7 generations.

But an interesting side is though most people fit into 1 of these 3 groups some Kazakh do not fit into any of these groups. They instead are outside of these groups. When I tried to figure out about their origins most people didn't know. One answer I did receive is that those people are ancestors of the Han Chinese and those were people looked down upon long ago but I can't be sure.

(I need to add a soviet section and Russian invasion paragraph but that won't be for a while. )

The Kazakh Language...

While I don't know everything about the Kazakh language nor would I ever hope too. I do have a basic running analysis that I have created after 8 months of using and learning the language. Here it is....

A phonetic based language which branches off the turkic ligua tree. It actually reminds me a lot of Tagalog not in word meanings but the ways it is spoken. FAST. In common usage words are rolled off the tongue and entire sentences can have reverse meanings depending upon additional sounds added to root parts of words. My first 4 months at site life was a bit of a language guessing game where I could understand the majority of what was said but I was never quite sure since one sound can make a statement a question, negate it or even pluralize it.

But also in traslation simple kazakh sentence will often require very long translations due to the sounds and how each sound translates. But the language I find very pretty and flowwy (yes flowwy)


Lets do a simple exercise.
Apple - allMuh (stress is on the second half of word normally in Kazakh, all as in all. Muh as in Mum.)
to take - ALLU

In Kazakh like in english we drop the to/U part.
English "Take the apple"(Kaz doesn't use articles, a difficult aspect for a teacher)
Kaz. "allMUH all" (with the verb always being at the end)

"Don't take the apple" an additional sound is added to the verb stem "Muh"
"allMUH allMUH" 2 words exactly the sames in sound but then additional sounds are added if you pluralize the statement

"Don't take the apples" an additional sound is added to the noun word which is dependent upon the sound and if it is a hard or soft word in this case the sound is (LAR) as in Singular.
"allmuhLAR allMUH" (stress always on the last syllable)

And if you are in Almaty or apple land you say "allmuhtuhDA allmuhLAR allMuh"
DA in this case being the equivilent of in or at. "Don't take the apples in Almaty"

Kinda cool kinda weird how much I think about this stuff. (I have lots of alone time)

The ride into town...

The ride into city... is an adventure.

When I go into the city I first go to the taxi stop. Where I catch a taxi or a van and if I am truly desperate a bus. (A taxi in this country is not a yellow vehicle with a light on its hood but rather anyone who owns a car and wants to have the profession of a driver. Meaning taxi drivers run the gambit of very good to just plain reckless.) I have begun to count the near death moments Ive had on a single trip into the city and right now the high number is 3 for a taxi, for a van its 2. Though I now have a very good driver friend who has taken me a couple times on the trek.

After I get to the taxi cab stop and go into my taxi I wait for 3 other passengers to come. This process can take anywhere from 15minutes to 1 hour. Usually while I am waiting for people to come I will have to talk to many of the other drivers who want to chat in Kazakh with an American. They go through the standard 15 questions. (Where are you from, Do you speak kaz, do you like our village, What year were you born, Did you know Im related to so and so teacher at your school, Are you married, how much money do you make)

So once we get 4 passengers we start moving over a road that consists of so many potholes that cars need to drive down the middle of it to go full speed. So when another car comes from the other direction drivers usually ( I say usually because some don't which adds a big 1 to the near death count) slow down to half speed and go over the potholes. This proceeds for 3 and a half hours / 4 in the winter till I get to the city.

What is the scenery like?
KANSAS.... a lot of grassland nothing and lots of goats, horses, mules, and the occasional camel. With the scattered village and skeleton concrete soviet built building. Though for the first time I saw a few yurts. Portable living huts that are moved 3-4 times per year dependent on the weather. (Yurts are the traditional living homes of the Kaz. people but during the forced settlement period in USSR history. The nomadic kazakh people were pretty much wiped out and forced to live in settlement during the 1920's. Look at the next entry. Now though their are some people who have returned to that life cycle in the steppe though the numbers are very few.)

But the point of this entry is that there is this one place on the road that reminds me of Dante's Inferno. A place where in the winter is closed due to the extreme cold winds that come off the mountains and funnel into the Kansas size nothing plain below it. The first I went on this road my counterpart teacher told me this part of the road is often closed 3-4 times per year. I asked her why but I didn't understand her at the time.

Later the first time I went on the road to the city in the winter I understood why. Many of the trees most of them 10-15 year olds were often snapped like they were yearlings used by a giant to fish. In the place of the trees were objects that were shaped like trees but were covered with ice and had oddly angled ice branches that grew according the blowing of the wind. And not just the trees ice entirely covered every plant and due to the wind the ice increased its quantity going sideways. For example the grass covered with ice had icicles which went in the direction the wind blew.

What a place straight out of Dante...