Drinking Camel's Milk in the Yurt – Expat Stories From Kazakhstan

by Monica Neboli

M

  manti: Uighur dish resembling a steamed bun filled with meat, onion and pumpkin (Kazakh/Russian)

  marshrutka: local minibus (Russian)

  menia zavut: my name is (Russian)

  menin atym: my name is (Kazakh)

  N

  normalno: normal, fine or okay (Russian)

  nyet: no (Russian)

  O

  Ochen pryatno: Nice to meet you (Russian)

  P

  palau: Uzbek dish of layered rice, often served with flat bread (Uzbek)

  peevah: beer (Russian)

  pervy sneg: first snow (Russian)

  piala: Asian-style tea cup or brand of tea (Kazakh/Russian)

  pirozhky: fresh potato pies (Russian)

  plov: Russian dish: meat with rice and carrots; similar to Uzbek palau (Russian)

  privet: hi (Russian)

  pryatki: hide-and-seek (Russian)

  Q

  R

  rahmet: thank you (Kazakh)

  S

  samovar: traditional water boiler that looks like a kettle with a tap (Russian)

  semechki: roasted sunflower seeds (Russian)

  shashlyk: skewered meat (Russian)

  shorpo: broth made from mutton (Kazakh)

  Shto..?: What is..? (Russian)

  shubat: camel’s milk (Kazakh)

  sneg: snow (Russian)

  sobaka: dog (Russian)

  sukhariki: dried bread cubes with different flavors (Russian)

  svetafor: traffic lights (Russian)

  T

  U

  V

  veniki: birch leaves (Russian)

  Vsyo normalno devushka, seichas ne holodno: Everything’s okay lady, it’s not cold anymore (Russian)

  W

  X

  Y

  Z

  zdrastvuite: hello (Russian)

  About Monica Neboli

  Monica Neboli (Lecco, Italy, 1969) has always been fascinated by other cultures. Before getting married, she backpacked all over the world. She then lived abroad with her husband and two daughters from 2006 until 2011, when she returned to her home country. During those five years abroad, she lived in Egypt and Kazakhstan, working as a coach to expat families, assisting them in adjusting harmoniously to their host country. While in Egypt, she wrote a booklet, ‘Benvenuti al Cairo’ [‘Welcome to Cairo’], for expat families arriving in Cairo, in collaboration with GIE (Gruppo Italiani in Egitto: a group for Italians in Egypt) and the Italian Embassy. While in Kazakhstan, she ran a seminar called: ‘Fundamentals of living in Kazakhstan’ to enable the expat community to learn more about the culture and history of their host country. Monica and her family enjoyed experiencing the many different cultures and peoples of Kazakhstan, and it was this that inspired her to compile a book of expat experiences in Kazakhstan. She has two daughters, Eleonora (6) and Agata (4), who are happily growing up as citizens of the world. Monica currently works in the corporate university of an oil company in Italy.

  Monica Neboli

  www.kzexpatstories.com

  neboli@alice.it

  About the Authors

  Gualtiero Bestetti

  Gualtiero Bestetti (Monza, Italy, 1977) is a nuclear engineer who has been working for seven years in the oil and gas industry. He first worked in Italy, then London, and in 2011 he and his wife relocated with their one-year-old son to Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Central Asia gave him a second son and a new perspective on life. He considers their time in Kazakhstan as one of the most interesting and exciting experiences of his life. He met people from all over the world and learned how to enjoy life with few and simple things. He currently lives in Italy, and is awaiting the next adventure.

  Roberto Boltri

  Roberto Boltri (Ampezzo, Italy, 1946) graduated with a degree in Environmental Sciences before working as an environmental engineer from 1972 to 1996 for a leading multinational corporation, working mainly in environmental and water resources management projects in Africa (Somalia, Algeria and Libya) and Asia (Uzbekistan). He then led international volunteer projects for international NGOs, the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. He has repeatedly been an international observer of elections for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2006, he published the book Un Esubero in Turkestan [Retired in Turkestan]. Roberto is retired and lives in Kazakhstan.

  Nina Buonaiuto

  Nina Buonaiuto (Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 1977) is a teacher at QSI, the American international school in Astana. She has lived there with her husband and daughter for two years, but has “an embarrassing lack of Russian”. “I like to think I'm too busy,” she says, “but really I just haven't tried hard enough.” Before Astana, she lived in China (where she did try to learn Chinese). She plans to move back to the United States someday and have simple camping vacations, recycle her plastics, have a garden, and shop at a local farmers’ market that sells free-range eggs. “This is what I dream of when I'm stuck in big city traffic,” she says.

  Victoria Charbonneau

  Victoria Charbonneau (Richmond, Virginia, USA, 1961) describes herself as a “Jack of all trades, master of none”, because her life experiences have been so diverse. For example, she has worked on a dairy farm, as well as for a livestock dealer. She has also worked in construction, taught in the ESL department at Virginia Commonwealth University, worked with youth and the homeless in the US, been involved in foster care and hosted exchange students, and she has a general understanding of veterinary medicine. She is also a gifted artist and has an uncanny knack for working with children. She believes God gave her a huge heart for those overlooked and forgotten by society. She started going to Kazakhstan every year from 2000 until she moved there full-time in 2009. Learn more about Victoria’s work with orphans and widows in distress in Kazakhstan at J127 Ranch/Artists for Community Transformation International on her website and blog: www.j127ranch.org.

  Yolanda Cook

  Yolanda Cook (Cape Town, South Africa, 1969) has had a curious mind since she was little and it didn’t take long for her to decide that she wanted to travel. As a young woman, she lived and worked abroad for five years, au pairing in Italy and Greece; as a result she learnt to speak Greek fluently. Now, many years later, she is happily married and a mother of two children, aged 11 and 12. Yolanda is an avid animal lover, and is particularly passionate about horses. She enjoys the arts, writing and reading, and is always open to the next adventure. She is continuing her studies on various animal subjects to keep her curious nature satisfied. She and her husband enjoy the outdoors when they are home in Africa on holidays. After three years in Singapore, the family lives in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, with the goal of enjoying what life has to offer.

  Stanley Currier

  Stanley Currier (Los Angeles, California, USA, 1975) works for KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He started his career in education as an assistant language teacher on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) in Japan, and subsequently as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan. He then spent five years in the non-profit sector in Almaty, travelling extensively throughout Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan promoting education exchange opportunities for Central Asian youth. Stanley has also served as a political affairs officer in the UN Tajikistan Office of Peace-building. He has spent over 10 years in Central Asia, and finds ‘home’ in both California and Kazakhstan.

  Jacyntha England

  Jacyntha England (Vancouver, Canada, 1967) has been active in international education for the past 20 years. She taught English in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 2004 to 2008. During her time there, she fell in love with the warmth and spontaneity of the cultures and communities who call Kazakhstan their home, and enjoyed many moments in the cafés, theatres and mountains of the city known as the ‘father of apples’. She left Kazakhstan in 2008 for a job in hot and humid Singapore, where she misses the winters of Central Asia and the cries of “firs
t snow” in its streets and schoolyards. Jacyntha has an MFA in Creative Writing from Canada’s Simon Fraser University and has published numerous short stories, poems and articles in magazines, journals and anthologies. She sees writing as a way of expressing herself as she explores different countries and cultures, and is active in many writing groups and forums.

  Kristina M. Gray

  Kristina M. Gray (Crookston, Minnesota, USA, 1955) first arrived at Almaty’s airport on 1 May 1993 as a Peace Corps trainer to the first volunteers destined to be English teachers across Kazakhstan. For her, it was not love at first sight, particularly given those first four scorching summer months in Almaty. However, she did end up marrying the American she met the day after her arrival in the country. The pair continued their relationship while she was a Fulbright scholar in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, just over the Tian Shan mountains, for the next few years. Thereafter they worked and taught in the Washington, D.C. area and spent seven years teaching in Kiev, Ukraine. The couple then returned to Kazakhstan in the fall of 2007, and Kristina taught at KIMEP University, at the same location where she had trained 30 PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers). In those 14 years since she first arrived in Almaty, the city had changed significantly and Kristina found that life for expats had improved. Her final year in the country was spent in Nazarbayev University in Astana, where she started a professional development programme for 10 Kazakh teachers from Orken Intellectual Schools. She hopes to return to visit her former students and friends; until then, Facebook and Skype help with keeping in touch. Find Kristina’s blog at http://kazakhnomad.wordpress.com.

  Rowena Haigh

  Rowena Haigh (Hong Kong, 1965) has long had family connections in the Far East. As a child, she learnt to ride Borneo pony stallions at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. After attending Warwick University in England, she went into teaching, initially in the UK, but later in the Middle East, where she met her husband Matt. Rowena has lived and travelled abroad extensively, including a solo trip to China in 1996, and a honeymoon through the ‘Stans’ and China in 2001. From 2005 to 2007, she and Matt spent two years living in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. During their time there, they not only attended the famous Shandur polo tournament in the Hindu Kush, but also trekked on foot to Baroghil on the Afghan border to be among the few people to experience the highest polo tournament in the world, featuring both horses and yaks! Rowena joined The Long Horse Ride whenever possible, allowing for the restrictions of a young family. She took part in the first trial leg – crossing the Gobi desert, part of the Kazakh Steppe and part of Ukraine – and completed the final leg in the UK. As the family were based in Atyrau, Kazakhstan between October 2008 and February 2012, she learnt Russian and was able to help mastermind the Central Asian leg of the ride.

  Olga Jaworska

  Olga Jaworska (Warsaw, Poland, 1994) lived in Astana, Kazakhstan for three years and recently graduated from the city’s QSI International School. Her father works in the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, her mother is an elementary school teacher currently employed at the embassy, and her sister attends eighth grade at QSI. The family has also lived in Russia and as a result Olga speaks fluent Russian. The family has done a lot of travelling in Kazakhstan – to Taraz, Turkestan, Kyzylorda, Karaganda, Balkhash, Pavlodar, Borovoye, Zhezkazgan, Oskemen, Semey and Almaty – as well as to Bishkek and Jalal-Abad in Kyrgyzstan. They are planning a trip to Uzbekistan. Olga fell in love with Kazakhstan and the steppes almost immediately after arriving. “I think the country has made a lot of progress since it achieved independence. This progress is visible even over the three years we have lived here. I would love to share with others the beauty of Central Asia, which is still largely undiscovered.” The family has since returned to Poland and Olga will be majoring in Physics at Warsaw University of Technology.

  Laura Kennedy

  Laura Kennedy (Chicago, Illinois, USA, 1963). She has spent more than 20 years promoting international development and exchange. Laura’s interest in all things Soviet first blossomed at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA, where she completed undergraduate work in Russian studies and political science. Laura first travelled to Moscow as a graduate student for four months in 1988, at the height of Perestroika (Mikhail Gorbachev’s movement for political reform). While there she had the good luck to work as a production intern for CNN during the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit. This experience sealed her fate as both as ‘sovietologist’ as well as a news junkie. She went on to spend two summers in the former USSR for work and academic research, before living in Moscow from 1994–1997 while doing doctoral fieldwork on post-Soviet migration. This time she was accompanied by her husband Chris Boffey, an American corporate attorney with a specialty in Russian law.

  In 2004, Laura found herself on the move again. The dynamic environment of Central Asia called, bringing Laura, Chris and their two-year old daughter Fiametta to Almaty, Kazakhstan. That same year a second daughter, Amelie, was born. Laura currently works as the Social and Human Sciences Programme Specialist in the Almaty Office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a position she has held since mid-2005. Her projects in Central Asia focus on labour migration, social inclusion and tolerance issues. In her free time, Laura enjoys volunteering, public speaking and spending time with family and friends, both local and expat, and enjoying the rich cultural mosaic that is Almaty!

  Annemarie van Klooster

  Annemarie van Klooster (Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 1974) grew up on an inland vessel and attended boarding school during the week from the age of six. When she was 13 years old, she had the opportunity to go to Thailand for six weeks to visit an aunt who had moved there. Annemarie returned home knowing that she wanted to live in Asia one day. When she was 20 years old, she visited her aunt again, this time in Indonesia, with her future husband. After this experience, they both knew they wanted to experience other countries. Today Annemarie is “38 years young” and lives in Kazakhstan with her husband and their three beautiful girls.

  Claire McCarthy

  Claire McCarthy (Plymouth, England, 1977) is a teacher of Modern Languages and English as Another Language, at the independent school Haileybury Astana. She moved away from her home in the southwest of England to study and has since lived in various cities in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. After graduating as a teacher, she worked as a language teacher in the UK, before moving to Kazakhstan in 2008, to work in Almaty. She then spent a year in the Middle East, before returning to Kazakhstan in 2011, to work in the capital city, Astana.

  Laura McLean

  During high school and university, Laura McLean (Perth, Canada, 1988) had several opportunities to travel and experience new cultures. Thus, she knew from the outset that she wanted travelling to be a part of her future career. She trained to become an elementary school teacher and took her first official contract in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at an international school. She has been living in Kazakhstan since 2011 and says that every day there has been a learning experience.

  Johanna Means

  Johanna Means (Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, USA, 1979) attended Texas A&M University, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in Journalism. After working in social services for a few years, Johanna returned to the University of Pittsburgh to obtain a master's degree in Special Education. She worked in Virginia for four years before deciding to teach internationally. She loves to travel and experience the world. She worked for one year in Astana, Kazakhstan before moving to Shekou, China, where she currently teaches preschool. Johanna would love to see 50 countries by her fiftieth birthday! When she is not working or travelling, she enjoys spending time with friends and cooking.

  Antonio Monreale

  Antonio Monreale (Parma, Italy, 1963) has lived for more than 20 years in and around Europe and has been in Atyrau since 2008, with his family, wife Carole, and children, Elena (12) and Thomas (6). Although he grew up in Italy, he moved around the country extensively. Thus, when asked, �
��What part of Italy are you from?”, his answer is often, “I don’t really know.” At the age of 25, Antonio took his first assignment in London, achieving a degree in Computer Science while working. Although his career has been in Information Technology, he has a passion for the humanities and art. He published a book of poetry in 1999, a few essays in a local Italian newspaper in 2009, and a few professional articles in 2010 and 2011. He has a wealth of unpublished creative writing in different forms, which increases with time.

  Raquel Taravilla Pujado

  Raquel Taravilla Pujado (Barcelona, Spain, 1975) studied Economics at the University of Barcelona. She has 15 years of Human Resources experience behind her, of which 10 years have been in the oil and gas industry. She started her career in HR at a Catalan bank and, six years later, decided to emigrate and extend her horizons. After a six-month sabbatical, she found a job in the Netherlands in an international oil company. Little did she know that this was to be the start of a global career. After almost five years in the Netherlands, she was relocated to Atyrau. Both international postings have given her great knowledge on HR management within a multicultural environment. These days she is working in Italy on another overseas assignment.

  Erika Raimondi

  Erika Raimondi (Turin, Italy, 1974) is married, with three children. Erika went to Atyrau, Kazakhstan, during the summer of 2011, to follow her husband and his work. Since arriving in Kazakhstan she has felt the need to write, to tell of “this world so different and yet so close to us”. Her stories are captured in her (Italian) blog, www.mangiaeviaggia.it/blog/erikina. She also contributes to www.expatclic.com, a site that deals with expatriation issues for women.

  Alejandra Reyes

  Alejandra Reyes (Santiago, Chile, 1970) completed a bachelor of literature at Pontificia Universidad Catolica. After an inspiring experience as an assistant in the exhibition for the Pablo Neruda Foundation in the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes in Santiago, Chile, she decided not to further her literature studies, graduating instead with a degree in Cultural Management of Visual Arts from the Universidad de Chile. Thereafter, she completed an internship in the cultural and journalism department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile. Since then, she has been involved in cultural activities in many different countries, such as a collaboration with the Centro Cultural Cervantes for the ‘Cultural Month of Latin America’ in Cairo, Egypt. Later in Kazakhstan, thanks to the sponsorship of an Italian oil company, she managed two exhibitions for artists whom she continues to represent today. Subsequently, thanks to a different sponsor, she headed an exhibition for the Scottish photographer, Robert Kerr. After a request from a Kazakh human resources company, she managed two other exhibitions showcasing painting, sculpture and photography.