Some Educational Bizznass

Due to some issues in the past Peace Corps currently has a very strict policy on PCVs getting involved in local politics. I can’t be sure, but I think that might be a reason as to why during training we were schooled very little in any sort of governmental affairs beyond the civil sector. As a group we were all insistent on learning about the Kazakh society as a whole. There are two especially interesting dynamics at play in this country: 1. All the things that go along with a post-soviet republic. 2. And as such the hybridization of Russian and Kazakh cultures. After having a few very fortunate and informative conversations I have gathered a little insight on these topics. Since independence in 1991, Nazarbayev (the countries only president), has developed a very pragmatic approach to governance. All decisions therefore being very economically oriented has created an almost anomaly of secular ness in this region. Also due to proximity and fact that unlike many of the other Newly Independent States, there wasn’t a mass exodus of Russian nationals, there is a heavy influence of Russian culture. Although there are a few signs of nationalistic sentiments in southern Kazakhstan and a genereal appeal to return to the Kazakh language, there are few tensions between the two ethnicities. And although with religion and food and language and appearance there seems like much to divide Kazakhs and Russian Kazakhstanis there is definitely a singular culture and identity with much intermarriage.
Even though I was alive during the end of the Cold War it never seemed to really be a thing of my lifetime. It has been so interesting to talk to people here (both my age and older) and get the perspective of the ‘enemy’ for something that doesn’t seem real to me. On a 10 hour train trip I was in a sleeper car with a 30 year old man who told me about when he was 15 he remembered listening on the radio in the final days of the USSR. Before the collapse there was a lot of announcing of certain committees being formed trying to tighten control of the union and he told me of how as a 15 year old he remembered vividly feeling that he was going to lose his freedom. It seems surreal to talk to baby boomers here because they are the products of the Soviet Union, now living in democratic market economies. And while everyone seems to be happy about having freedom and the ability to choose but it is hard to deny the niceties that are free health care and essentially free housing, among other things. This is a lingering challenge of paradigms. So while there have been many economic successes in this country the transition to a civil society, securing human rights and distributing these economic gains hasn’t been so easy. And because of said communist perks and very little history of civic participation to promote local and community change, Kazakhstan’s fledging NGO sector is just beginning to establish itself. And that is where I fit in! hooray! The major cities are fairly developed, therefore the Peace Corps (in it’s 19th year here) are sending us to more rural areas. Sort of working their way out like a wheel spoke (Detroit anybody?! Heyoooo). Again that is where I fit in, living in Aca a village of about 5,000 and helping develop community capacity building. An interesting aspect of this is advocating volunteerism. To many people I have encountered this is a new term and don’t really understand what I mean when I say that I am here as a volunteer. The kids however are down with it. Our first project is working with two schools to hold a kind of volunteering contest with emphasis on ecology and helping the disabled. It is happening in December and im stoked!