Menin Kazakhstanym. Sagyndym seni.My Kazakhstan. I miss you.
I have come across this feeling today.
I have recently been asked about my country a lot: last weekend during one of the national seminars in AIESEC in Latvia - Train the Trainers- I spent a few hours in the early morning telling about peoples in Kazakhstan, about our history and traditions, about current life and what our people look like. I was talking and talking for ages how it feels to be a Kazakhstani citizen, what our education system possesses and lacks of to be competitive in a globalized world, how politics functions in Kazakhstan and how bureacracy "has its best days", etc.
At one glimpse it seems that when you are away you start criticizing your country a lot. Yes, you see what works successfully and what doesn't when you are home, but somehow you don't talk about it a lot, unless you watch the news every hour and compare it to the world news. But here in Latvia I am somehow being asked quite often about my country, and I start to notice I should not just blame the government for not successful processes in the country. Success depends a lot on how people act.
But I wanna talk now about those first feelings of missing home country. It's not homesickness yet. I remember I first was missing Kazakhstan with its smell and taste a lot this year in March in Bucharest while attending AIESEC international conference EuroXpro. This conference is designed for new Member Committees'(MC) (in other words, National Board of AIESEC country) teams to get a global picture of what the organization strives for, what each MC member needs to know/understand/gain to perform at his best for his country and organization's stable growth, and of course for networking. Though the conference lasted only 6 days, and then we had 2 days of study tour in Transilvania (Central Romania) I had been terribly missing my home country and Kazakhstani people. The reason for that could be time: on March 22 we celebrate Nauryz- Muslim New Year, and the whole country goes "wild": we prepare Nauryz kozhe (which is tradtional soup with 7 ingredients; 7 is a very magic number for Kazakh/ nomadic people, as well as for other nations), we cook baursaki - a Kazakh type of bread, we organize different street festivals, national song competitions called Aitys, we celebrate change of seasons- from cold winter to fresh warm happy spring. We celebrate a birth of a New Year. So for the first time in my life I missed Nauryz this March, and for me it was very much painful. I had never thought I'd feel that way. In order to kill that homesickness and tears (yes, I even cried a bit!) I was skyping with my brother, adn when he told me they were preparing Beshbarmak- a national traditional dish with horse meat and solty dough- Oh! I felt worse and worse! So did Saltanat- current Vice President Finance of AIESEC in Kazakhstan. So at 5am we were preparing a video about Nauryz and how we celebrate it in Kazakhstan in order to show at the morning plenary on EuroXpro's last day. It was a very special moment for Salta and me, and we were damn happy when we shared with other AIESECers from 38 countries- more than 200 people- part of our culture.
This evening was one of the most remarkable ones for me as we had spent it with some members of AIESEC in Latvia. On Oct 16-18 AIESEC in Latvia had its first National Training Seminar (NTS) with new members in a peaceful Cesis- a small historical town not far from Riga. At NTS we had a cool "competition"- members voted for others according to a Global Competency Model's (GCM) criteria we have in AIESEC: Active Learner (AL), Social Responsible (SR), Entrepreneurial (E) and Culturally Sensitive(CS). According to GCM we select young people who want to join AIESEC as well as when AIESECers apply for different leadership positions within the organization. So, durinng 3 days at NTS 50 new members voted for their peers, and in the end we had 5 people who were acknowledged as AL, SR, E, CS, and these new members got an "award" of dinner with MC AIESEC in Latvia.
Well, this evening MC dinner eventually happened at MC flat: we were preparing with Jake and Liza cleaning the apartment :), cooking Rizotto and tasting a new bottle of wine, having talks in between with Liiga- the first one who came to our flat. The other guys came an hour later as they were attending a Selling skills training organized by AIESEC in Riga and one of the alumni. Finally, when we all gathered together it was about 8pm.
*Just a perfect example of a get together event back in Kazakhstan: if you book your meeting with friends, relatives and even sometimes with business men for 6pm, you'll have people come at 7.30-8pm. And it is quite normal for us- we already got used to such time culture. So, it is good to know in advance about timing habits in Kazakhstan before you start your business there :) *
...continuing
So, this evening was more or less full of jokes: we started a conversation about Kazakhstan (!), compared how in the ancient times marriage culture in Latvia was similar to Kazakh's. The conversation started with Romans' question on whether it is true or not that even nowadays a girl has her future fiancee 'booked' by her parents in advance. Well, yes, it happens in the southern part as it is a part of our culture and historical traditions. We continued on talking about Kazakh people in general- I shared some history of Kazakh khans and the tribes we belong to. For instance, every Kazakh must know his roots and his 7 past generations. So this evening was pretty much about my country for me again, and I think sharing different facts on Central Asia and Kazakhstan for the past month or so made me missing my peoples in Kazakhstan a lot!!
I have come across this feeling today.
I have recently been asked about my country a lot: last weekend during one of the national seminars in AIESEC in Latvia - Train the Trainers- I spent a few hours in the early morning telling about peoples in Kazakhstan, about our history and traditions, about current life and what our people look like. I was talking and talking for ages how it feels to be a Kazakhstani citizen, what our education system possesses and lacks of to be competitive in a globalized world, how politics functions in Kazakhstan and how bureacracy "has its best days", etc.
At one glimpse it seems that when you are away you start criticizing your country a lot. Yes, you see what works successfully and what doesn't when you are home, but somehow you don't talk about it a lot, unless you watch the news every hour and compare it to the world news. But here in Latvia I am somehow being asked quite often about my country, and I start to notice I should not just blame the government for not successful processes in the country. Success depends a lot on how people act.
But I wanna talk now about those first feelings of missing home country. It's not homesickness yet. I remember I first was missing Kazakhstan with its smell and taste a lot this year in March in Bucharest while attending AIESEC international conference EuroXpro. This conference is designed for new Member Committees'(MC) (in other words, National Board of AIESEC country) teams to get a global picture of what the organization strives for, what each MC member needs to know/understand/gain to perform at his best for his country and organization's stable growth, and of course for networking. Though the conference lasted only 6 days, and then we had 2 days of study tour in Transilvania (Central Romania) I had been terribly missing my home country and Kazakhstani people. The reason for that could be time: on March 22 we celebrate Nauryz- Muslim New Year, and the whole country goes "wild": we prepare Nauryz kozhe (which is tradtional soup with 7 ingredients; 7 is a very magic number for Kazakh/ nomadic people, as well as for other nations), we cook baursaki - a Kazakh type of bread, we organize different street festivals, national song competitions called Aitys, we celebrate change of seasons- from cold winter to fresh warm happy spring. We celebrate a birth of a New Year. So for the first time in my life I missed Nauryz this March, and for me it was very much painful. I had never thought I'd feel that way. In order to kill that homesickness and tears (yes, I even cried a bit!) I was skyping with my brother, adn when he told me they were preparing Beshbarmak- a national traditional dish with horse meat and solty dough- Oh! I felt worse and worse! So did Saltanat- current Vice President Finance of AIESEC in Kazakhstan. So at 5am we were preparing a video about Nauryz and how we celebrate it in Kazakhstan in order to show at the morning plenary on EuroXpro's last day. It was a very special moment for Salta and me, and we were damn happy when we shared with other AIESECers from 38 countries- more than 200 people- part of our culture.
This evening was one of the most remarkable ones for me as we had spent it with some members of AIESEC in Latvia. On Oct 16-18 AIESEC in Latvia had its first National Training Seminar (NTS) with new members in a peaceful Cesis- a small historical town not far from Riga. At NTS we had a cool "competition"- members voted for others according to a Global Competency Model's (GCM) criteria we have in AIESEC: Active Learner (AL), Social Responsible (SR), Entrepreneurial (E) and Culturally Sensitive(CS). According to GCM we select young people who want to join AIESEC as well as when AIESECers apply for different leadership positions within the organization. So, durinng 3 days at NTS 50 new members voted for their peers, and in the end we had 5 people who were acknowledged as AL, SR, E, CS, and these new members got an "award" of dinner with MC AIESEC in Latvia.
Well, this evening MC dinner eventually happened at MC flat: we were preparing with Jake and Liza cleaning the apartment :), cooking Rizotto and tasting a new bottle of wine, having talks in between with Liiga- the first one who came to our flat. The other guys came an hour later as they were attending a Selling skills training organized by AIESEC in Riga and one of the alumni. Finally, when we all gathered together it was about 8pm.*Just a perfect example of a get together event back in Kazakhstan: if you book your meeting with friends, relatives and even sometimes with business men for 6pm, you'll have people come at 7.30-8pm. And it is quite normal for us- we already got used to such time culture. So, it is good to know in advance about timing habits in Kazakhstan before you start your business there :) *
...continuing
So, this evening was more or less full of jokes: we started a conversation about Kazakhstan (!), compared how in the ancient times marriage culture in Latvia was similar to Kazakh's. The conversation started with Romans' question on whether it is true or not that even nowadays a girl has her future fiancee 'booked' by her parents in advance. Well, yes, it happens in the southern part as it is a part of our culture and historical traditions. We continued on talking about Kazakh people in general- I shared some history of Kazakh khans and the tribes we belong to. For instance, every Kazakh must know his roots and his 7 past generations. So this evening was pretty much about my country for me again, and I think sharing different facts on Central Asia and Kazakhstan for the past month or so made me missing my peoples in Kazakhstan a lot!!
Jake serving Rizotto 
AIESEC in Latvia 09-10 members:
Romans,Mara,me,Janis (L-R, 1st row) Jake,Liiga,Liza (L-R, 2nd row)
I was making a few conclusions about these talks. Here are a few of them:
Patriotism - Almost all Kazakhstani people are proud about our motherland. Yes, there is something that needs improvement in state's life, but there is also many positive and good things . However, I do not notice here in Latvia people's such proud feedback. I understand, the state is in a difficult economic situation, the jobs and salaries are cut, competitive human capital moves out from the country to the UK, Irealnd and other western countries, but here is something positive too!
Tolerance- Kazakhstan is one a very few former Soviet states that is comprised of more than 100 nations and natioanalities for a long time. We had Germans, Koreans, Ukrainians, Georgians, Jewish, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, etc sent to Kazakh Soviet Republic during 20th century. During WWII or the Great National War (1941-1945) every Soviet family shared their shelter, food and clothes, adn family warmth with different nations. Is it a correct way to say or not, but owing to that War our people learnt how to be culturally tolerant, and help whenever others are in need. On the contrary, situation in Latvia between Latvians and Russians is a very controvercial one. The government or who(???) divides a very small population (less than 2 m inhabitants) into I'd say privileged and non-privileged. There is still a big deal of "true-Latvians" and "fake-Latvians born in the years of USSR" who can get a citizenship. I am sorry but I do not understand this system.
History/Traditions- I'd bet almost every Kazakhstani young person knows about our history and culture quite well. History of Kazakhstan is one of compulsory subjects a school student has to pass while entering Univerisity. However, results of tests prove the opposite fact sometimes. As for traditions, I really like that many families in Kazakhstan celebrate different cultural events no matter what natioanality they are. Of course, I can't say for all 16 m inhabitants of one of the biggest countries in the world- we rank 9th place in the world- but I am pretty sure about my friends' families and my international colleagues living in Almaty. As for personal experience in Latvia so far- I was not introduced different perspectives on Latvian past by people here. Mostly, it was either me reading about Latvia from various sources, or my team mate Liza sharing some viewpoints on Latvia's past.
Hospitality- Every Kazakh family would host/invite for dinner/invite for other family/not family related events internationals. I guess it is in our blood to share the best with others. I have worked with many internationals during University years and after, and many of them were mentioning this feature as the first one that came to their mind. Of course, I agree there are lots and lots of processes that are not as developed as in the West, or that our people do business not according to again, some Western ways. But hospitality is the trait our people do not lack of! Unfrtunately, I haven't witnessed it here in Latvia. I remember, I was expecting for a long time I'd get a chance to have a welcome party in AIESEC in Latvia for the sake of get-together time and also introducing Central Asia and Kazakhstan to Latvians. Sounds funny and sad but I haven't had it yet, though I am here already for 3rd month.
Wow, this post turns out as a quite long and quite random one. However, the purpose of this post was to outline some things that do exist in my country which I really miss, and which, unfortunately, I haven't seen in Latvia a lot. But I am staying positive- I still have 7 months to spend here. Who knows what the future prepared for me- maybe my spring 2010 posts will be brighter? *Though the future is shaped by me but probably is being prepared by God*
Romans,Mara,me,Janis (L-R, 1st row) Jake,Liiga,Liza (L-R, 2nd row)I was making a few conclusions about these talks. Here are a few of them:
Patriotism - Almost all Kazakhstani people are proud about our motherland. Yes, there is something that needs improvement in state's life, but there is also many positive and good things . However, I do not notice here in Latvia people's such proud feedback. I understand, the state is in a difficult economic situation, the jobs and salaries are cut, competitive human capital moves out from the country to the UK, Irealnd and other western countries, but here is something positive too!
Tolerance- Kazakhstan is one a very few former Soviet states that is comprised of more than 100 nations and natioanalities for a long time. We had Germans, Koreans, Ukrainians, Georgians, Jewish, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, etc sent to Kazakh Soviet Republic during 20th century. During WWII or the Great National War (1941-1945) every Soviet family shared their shelter, food and clothes, adn family warmth with different nations. Is it a correct way to say or not, but owing to that War our people learnt how to be culturally tolerant, and help whenever others are in need. On the contrary, situation in Latvia between Latvians and Russians is a very controvercial one. The government or who(???) divides a very small population (less than 2 m inhabitants) into I'd say privileged and non-privileged. There is still a big deal of "true-Latvians" and "fake-Latvians born in the years of USSR" who can get a citizenship. I am sorry but I do not understand this system.
History/Traditions- I'd bet almost every Kazakhstani young person knows about our history and culture quite well. History of Kazakhstan is one of compulsory subjects a school student has to pass while entering Univerisity. However, results of tests prove the opposite fact sometimes. As for traditions, I really like that many families in Kazakhstan celebrate different cultural events no matter what natioanality they are. Of course, I can't say for all 16 m inhabitants of one of the biggest countries in the world- we rank 9th place in the world- but I am pretty sure about my friends' families and my international colleagues living in Almaty. As for personal experience in Latvia so far- I was not introduced different perspectives on Latvian past by people here. Mostly, it was either me reading about Latvia from various sources, or my team mate Liza sharing some viewpoints on Latvia's past.
Hospitality- Every Kazakh family would host/invite for dinner/invite for other family/not family related events internationals. I guess it is in our blood to share the best with others. I have worked with many internationals during University years and after, and many of them were mentioning this feature as the first one that came to their mind. Of course, I agree there are lots and lots of processes that are not as developed as in the West, or that our people do business not according to again, some Western ways. But hospitality is the trait our people do not lack of! Unfrtunately, I haven't witnessed it here in Latvia. I remember, I was expecting for a long time I'd get a chance to have a welcome party in AIESEC in Latvia for the sake of get-together time and also introducing Central Asia and Kazakhstan to Latvians. Sounds funny and sad but I haven't had it yet, though I am here already for 3rd month.
Wow, this post turns out as a quite long and quite random one. However, the purpose of this post was to outline some things that do exist in my country which I really miss, and which, unfortunately, I haven't seen in Latvia a lot. But I am staying positive- I still have 7 months to spend here. Who knows what the future prepared for me- maybe my spring 2010 posts will be brighter? *Though the future is shaped by me but probably is being prepared by God*
1 comment:
OMG! We have almost the same posts:) Almost at the same time:) Sooon KZ re-union in Netherlands!
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