New Years Day(s)

If there is one holiday that is totally awesome in Kazakhstan, it is New Years. As I've alluded to many times in previous posts, New Years in Kazakhstan is a combination of Christmas, 4^th of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving. However, one thing that I never imagined was that the holiday took all of the intensity from those holidays and crammed it into an almost week-long fun fest. I would have taken pictures, but as usual I forgot my camera. Anyway, my director has some photos from the holiday, and I'll upload them as I get them.

People started celebrating the holiday long before I even realized what was going on. We didn't really work the week of Christmas, we mainly sat and drank chai. The internet also wasn't working. On the 29^th, my director took me to a "yool-ka"/ political rally in Taldy Korgan, which was sponsored by the Party of President Nazerbayev. While I thought it was a bit weird to attend a political rally, it was really fun. (but afterwards my director and I had some great cultural exchange on political parties in Kazakhstan and around the world; something I enjoyed because I studied it extensively in college). While there was a lot of "hoo-rah" and a huge speech by the oblast Akim (Akim=head of government. Oblast=Kazakhstan version of a US state, eg. Iowa. ), what really interested me was the yool-ka. I really hope that my director took pictures. In the meantime, I'll try to describe it:

Little kids dressed up in Halloween like costumes linked hands (or appendages; there were some aliens and camels) around a huge Christmas tree and danced around it May-pole style. After they did this for awhile, the Kazakhstan equivalent of Santa Claus appeared and dispensed candy to each kid who walked to the front and gave a small toast to the love and health of everyone. It was very cute.

Later on that night, I went to a banquet sponsored by the office of Karabulak's Akim. Although I've always had a strict personal policy of not partying with people who I work with, I realized that in this case, New Years, it is socially acceptable. I still thought it awkward to drink with my director (would you be comfortable with sharing a bottle of vodka with your boss?).

However, I had nothing to fear; everything worked out quite well and I had a lot of fun. The only problem I had came with dancing: I am not a comfortable dancer, and dancing is huge here at banquets. I basically dance when I want to, which isn't often.

There was a lot of food at the banquet, and I failed to pace myself, because my host mom (who is the head cook at the café we had the banquet) cooked a meat and carrot salad that I really loved, and I ate way too much. After the food, were lots of toasts: to health, to luck in the upcoming year, etc. After all of this is the dancing.

At that time, I was too full to dance. Or move. This did not jive well with some of my co-workers, who tried to drag me, quite literally, on the dance floor. While arguing with them was really awkward, they learned very fast not to mess with me (and I learned that yelling is a perfectly acceptable behavior. I'll write more about this later). I also learned that I have a "death glare" that can stop middle aged Kazakh men to Russian babushkas in their tracks. It needs work, but it was something I never knew I had. I just have to aim it at the right people….

I still haven't described New Years Eve and day.

The day of the 31^st was spent cooking with my host mom. Monti, plemini, borsh, if you can name it, we probably cooked it. We cooked way more food than the family could eat, so I asked her why we were cooking so much. "Because," she said, "other people will eat it". I wasn't sure who the "other people" were, but I guessed that I would eventually find out.

At 8pm, I had a surprise: The Russian President came on TV, and wished the world health and peace. My host family, who was also watching, didn't mind one bit (they are Russian). To me, I was wondering why they weren't angry at this, because that seeing the Russian President on TV in Kazakhstan would be the same as if the Canadian president came on TV during New Years. (I'll save my other experiences with seeing how people in Kazakhstan react to Russia/living in a transitioning post-communist country for a later post).

At 10pm, we all dressed up (I didn't know for what; I was planning on staying at home) and ate dinner. We did lots of toasts to each other, and I did in a couple of toasts myself.

At midnight, my host mom climbed on a chair with a wooden spoon, imitated Big Ben striking 12, and yelled out more toasts (note: After talking to other volunteers, this is probably a tradition special to my host family. But it was fun anyways!). Then we went outside, where I feared for my life because everyone in Karabulak was lighting off fireworks. Roman Candles, M-80's, and god-knows-what-else was fired, seemingly at once, which made the sky so bright that they blotted out the stars. I saw fireworks land on houses ("No problem!," said my host sister. "They have snow on the roofs"), trees, and one even hit a car that was driving by. I had enough when I saw my sister looking in the firing end of her friend's malfunctioning Roman Candle. Luckily, no one was hurt. After all of this, we went "ghosting".

As a reminder, "ghosting" is when people get up and go visiting others. Evidently, it is tradition for people to ghost after midnight on New Years Day. That was why we made so much food and dressed up. When it was all said and done, it was 6 am. I went to bed. However, we were not done.

At 11am, more people came over: family, friends, my director, my sister's friends. We hosted and ghosted until 7pm, when I called it quits. I slept for over 13 hours.

And that's it!