15 of the 20 students that presented me with
gifts
It
is a beautiful early Sunday morning. I
am enjoying a coffee on my back yard patio as the sun makes its appearance over
the horizon. I can hear our local
cardinal chirping away in a tree; such a lovely sound. A skein of Canada Geese have flown over in
their usual ‘V’ formation whilst calling out words of encouragement to the leader. And me?
I have just returned home from my latest assignment and I am starting to
reacquaint myself with the location of the light switches. My lovely bride, Jane, is still sleeping and
so is my 18 year old daughter, Alex. My
24 year old son, Martin, is at his Royal Canadian Air Force base out in British
Columbia and my 19 year old daughter, Zoe, is in Montreal with some of her
friends enjoying a music festival this weekend. All feels right with the world this morning.
A
little bit of information on the place where I spent a total of 28 days;
founded in the 12th century, Shymkent was built as a ‘caravanserai’
to protect the Silk Road town of Sayram, 10 km to the east. What is a caravanserai? And what is the Silk Road? A caravanserai is a place where travellers
could rest after their long day’s journey.
The Silk Road is a historical network of inter-linking trade routes
across the Afro-Eurasian land-mass that used to connect east, south, and western
Asia with the Mediterranean and European parts of the world, and also parts of north
and east Africa. It includes routes that
take you through Syria, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan,
Pakistan and China. A city in the Kazakh
Desert, Shymkent grew as a market centre for trade between Turkic nomads and
the settled ‘Sogdians’ (an ancient civilization of Iranian people). The place is steeped in history, and it was
destroyed many times; including by Genghis Khan from neighbouring Mongolia. Kazakhstan is a bigger country than I
envisioned it to be; in fact it is so large that the distance from one end to
the other is about the same as from London, England to Istanbul, Turkey and it is,
literally, the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
What
of my ‘Journey in to Kazakhstan’? Well,
I left my home in Ontario, Canada for Shymkent, on Thursday 4 July 2013; I arrived
the evening of Saturday 6 July and I was bloody knackered! I was taken to the wrong hotel by the taxi
driver whilst his car stereo blasted out some kind of foreign music much louder
than was necessary. The ‘hotel’ was,
quite frankly, an awful dwelling. I am
not a snob by any means, but this was not a good place to be and I didn’t feel
safe. So my first impression of Kazakhstan
was not too good. Thankfully this error
was corrected in short order and I was only in the building for about an hour. Unpacking for my month-long stay was not an
option for me. I should say, though,
that the staff were great at the correct hotel, the Canvas Hotel, which became
my home for all of July. A lot of them
spoke some English and they all were friendly, courteous and articulate.
As
for me; I am used to being away for a couple of weeks at a time in my line of
work. It just seemed to be longer than
the four-plus weeks on this particular assignment; perhaps it was just the
distance and the travel time. When you add
in to the equation the language barrier, the culture gap, the intense heat and
lack of rain, the most anarchic drivers on the roads I have ever encountered,
the smog, the car horns that
never seem to stop as well as the noxious and smoke-laden exhaust fumes that
take your breath away, the dangerously uneven and unkempt sidewalks, the deep
roadside gutters that could break a leg in the blink of an eye and the
near-misses we had with cows wandering on the road. What an experience! I had a bit of a tough time adapting to this
new culture and way of life initially.
In all of my travels I have never felt so much like a ‘fish-out-of-water’
as I did when I arrived in Kazakhstan.
Shymkent
was almost like being in a time-warp of sorts; the fashion appeared similar to that
of the 1980s. Regarding communication; internet
cafes are everywhere and they always seem to be busy. The majority of the mobile phones that I saw
were just that; mobile phones as opposed to smart phones. Most of the vehicles, including a bus or a
large truck (called a lorry back in England) are also dated in their
design. For a country that reclaimed its
independence from the USSR back in 1991, and is moving forward with its
modernistic progress, everything appeared to be somewhat ‘out-of-date’. I am sure that in another ten years
Kazakhstan will have changed dramatically from what it is today. Kazakhstan’s economy is quite strong in
comparison to many of its surrounding neighbours, and is making head-way in
developing commercial and trade relations with ‘western’ countries. You could almost classify Kazakhstan as ‘an
advanced developing nation’ with great potential in its future; but currently
is still very much a ‘work in progress’.
A number of the students asked me if I would return to Kazakhstan to
conduct future training. My answer was
yes. I now have a better understanding
of the distance travelled, the 10-hour time change and the effect they both
have on the body. Initially, during my
first 2 weeks, I was going non-stop; my thoughts were such that I ruled out
ever returning to Kazakhstan. However if
I were to go back I would, at the very least, know what I was going in to and
therefore the ‘shock factor’ has now been eliminated.
I
was training for over 3 ½ weeks; 6 days a week with Sunday off. Whilst acquainting myself with the material
content, I noticed opportunities to enhance the product for future
courses. But as with anything new, there
will always be improvements and adjustments along the way. With a large class of 20 students, I found it
hard to engage them all in English whilst teaching. I didn’t feel as if everybody understood me; however
I applaud their due diligence and willingness to learn. I was pleased to see that everyone passed all
three of their exams. One student did
fail an exam, but comfortably passed the re-write. There is no way I could learn all this
technical ‘stuff’ in a language I don’t fully understand, yet they did. But I’ve got to tell you; oh, how I wished I
could have engaged them more than I was able to. It is that engagement that I, as an
instructor, thrive on.
At
the end of the classroom theory element, the students presented me with gifts of
appreciation for my hard work; it was nice to be acknowledged for my efforts
and it was a lovely surprise! I was
presented with an authentic traditional Kazakh male ‘shapan’ (robe) with matching
‘kalpak’ (hat) and a traditional Kazakh horse-whip that is used when playing a
fierce game called Buzkashi; it is a game on horseback that is similar to polo
but instead of a ball they use the carcass of a headless goat – I’m not
kidding! Also, they bought me a small replica
of the traditional Kazakh musical string instrument called a ‘dombra’. I was truly touched by their generosity and
appreciation.
A
couple of the students took me for a tour of their home town after we had
finished training one night. These two gentlemen
showed me some of the better things that Shymkent has to offer. They are very proud of the progress that
their country has made since 1991, which was the fall of the Soviet communist
rule. And it was with great pride that
they took me to Independence Park; this park was built in 1993 to celebrate
this historic moment in their nation’s history.
In fact, this city has over twenty parks; some of them are quite
magnificent. I was amazed to see so many
people out at such a late hour of the night at Independence Park. It was well after midnight, but the parks
were all lit up and families with small children were out and about doing
regular family activities. The guys told
me that in the summer months, because of the heat of the day, families sleep during
that time and come out at night. This
would also explain all of the busy bazaars and markets that I saw that
night. They also took me for a drink of
kvass, which is a very popular beverage; it is a fermented drink made from
black or regular rye bread and it tasted quite sweet but palatable, even for my
fussy tastes. Although Shymkent is not a
tourist location, it became apparent on that night, that there was more to this
city than I had been exposed to thus far; I enjoyed my late night sightseeing
tour and I enjoyed the company of my two hosts, Danijar and Saken. It is a shame my first impressions were based
on the worst things that this city had to offer.
On
my return home to Canada I was able to go for a walk-about in Almaty because I
had a 17-hour layover. The city is
situated in the foothills of the Zailisky Alatau Mountains and the view is as
beautiful as that of the Rockies when viewed from places like Vancouver or
Burnaby, British Columbia. The
old hotel that I stayed in for my Almaty layover was a Soviet designed building that
was quite old. It had the classic big
grey-stone appearance of the old Soviet authoritarian machine from a bygone
era. Cozy, it was not; neither was it
quiet. I was able to stop the in-window
air conditioner from making so much noise by removing a few ‘parts’ from it
(purely temporarily) and replaced the noisy beggars before I checked out. I didn’t care for the colour of the water
that came out of the taps in the bathroom either. What was nice, though, was that my hotel was
situated close to Panfilov Park. In the
park is Zenkov Cathedral, a 19th-century Russian Orthodox cathedral and it is
the second tallest wooden building in the world; it was painted in bright
colours, which made it look rather odd in comparison to its surroundings. What did surprise me was how close this part
of Kazakhstan is to the China and Mongolia border; I was a lot further east
than I realised.
I
regret that this was not one of the more iconic memories of world travel in the
court-of-self-opinion; but that first hotel in Shymkent didn’t help the cause
either. The whole experience got off to
a bad start and it never really recovered from it.
As
I look back, in retrospect, I was very limited in what I could do with my
down-time because of the language barrier; I neither read nor speak Russian or
Kazakh and so I was rendered helpless because both of these languages have an
alphabet that I could not decipher. I
felt like I was living in a world of pseudo-dyslexia.
To
sum it all up; I am too ‘Westernised’ as an individual. To put it bluntly; I am spoilt rotten in my
current lifestyle. Although Kazakhstan’s
economy is strong, a lot of what I saw there I found to be wanting based on the
living standards that I have become used to.
This country is worlds apart from what my family and I live in. This was definitely an eye-opening life
experience.
Having
been there and seen it for myself, having endured the intense heat and bright
sun, having only been away a mere 28 days, I have come to deeply appreciate the sacrifice paid by our
serving men and women in the armed forces; particularly in places like
Afghanistan and Iraq. They don’t get to come
home after 28 days; they don’t get to stay in a decent hotel with its amenities. They do get to put in longer days than I had
to and they do get to constantly have to be on their guard as they watch their
backs and the backs of their brothers-and-sisters-in-arms; and they don’t offer
up the constant ‘belly-aching’ that I have produced in my daily Facebook posts
and also, in part, in this blog. I have
‘roughed it’ myself on many occasions whilst serving twelve years in the Royal
Air Force. Of course, I was much younger
then; but I never had to endure the intense heat of the desert whilst carrying
around a full-pack and a rifle with the constant awareness that something could
go terribly wrong at any given moment. My
honest, sincere and heart-felt respect goes out to each and every one of these
brave men and women; come home safe.
