17 - 3rd June

17- 3^rd June

Kazakhstan just beat Azerbaijan in their UEFA qualifier 2-1, so a happy moment in the house. The fact that the coach and 2/3^rds of the team are ethnic Russians, and the rest a mix of Germans and Kazaks doesn’t diminish the support the team gets from the whole country, which is a nice example of how the country copes with its ethnic divide. All national TV stations have to have at least 50% of their broadcasting in the Kazakh language, and this was achieved for the football commentary by having 1 man speaking in Russian and 1 in Kazakh. Its terrible for me, as I cant speak a word of Russian, but apart from some in the South, and returnees from China and Mongolia (more about that later), the vast majority of the country is bi-lingual. School is split into the two language groups, but both have lessons in the other language. In fact, my host sister is Kazakh, but she is in the Russian group at school (mainly because many think the Russian teachers are better (and they were certainly were during Stalin’s rule, when he exiled many Russian scientists to Kazakhstan to become school teachers).

Speaking of Stalin again, during his purges in the 1930’s, and the collectivisation of the Kazak steppe, many Kazakhs left the country and moved to Western China and Mongolia. With Kazakhstan now being the richest country in the area (thanks to all the lovely oil in the Caspian Sea), many of these people are now returning, and thanks to being outside of Russian influence, they have kept many of the Kazakh traditions alive. However, due to the lack of Russian, they (as well as myself, especially if I ever visit the North of the country) find conversing and getting work rather difficult, Russian being the language spoken in many situations. Our staff meetings at school take place mainly in Russian, despite 60% of the teachers being Kazakh.

Oh, I had a sesame flavoured ice cream today, well, it was vanilla, with lots of sesame seeds on the outside. Just thought I would add something less dull and historic to this post!