Back by popular demand:

Kazakh Chronicles

(formerly known as Wackastan Bulletins)

…But first, you’re probably going to need a little background information.

In the fall of 2010, we moved to Astana, the relatively new capital city of Kazakhstan (it was only 10 years old) conveniently located in Siberia.

We moved there because we thought it would be exciting, and interesting, and adventurous. But we signed up for all of that a year and a half before the posting began. And during that year and a half, our first son was born, and he died due to an accident during surgery at 7 months and 8 days old. His death was completely unexpected by us.

Also within that year and a half, our daughter was born. We moved to Kazakhstan when she was 5 weeks old.

These letters were written to my friends as updates on what our life was like there. It was sort of like a blog, only it went straight to people’s email inboxes, because I couldn’t actually have a website at that time in that city: starting a new account was impossible there.

There were a lot of other impossible things we faced there: medical care of any sort (we had to go to Vienna for our daughter’s immunizations, for example), the terror of knowing that what happened to our son took place in a country that was considered to have quite a good medical system by comparison, living in a city with a brand-new Canadian embassy where there was no pre-existing community, and the impossible, impossible process of grief.

Below is my first letter, written within a few weeks of our arrival. These letters were my life-line, my survival mechanism. Sometimes I was able to look at my daily circumstances with a bit of humour. And this humour is what eventually allowed me to be less angry, less hurt and less confused as I navigated both bereavement and culture shock.

I’ve decided not to edit the letters; rather I’ll post them every few weeks with explanations or apologies where necessary.

Here we go!

Hello everyone,

As of last night we finally have internet. Although we have been expecting it since last Friday, it only took an extra 5 days to sort out, due to various wild goose chases. From what I understand, this is still at least four times faster than getting internet in the UK, so we are still doing very well.

Our apartment in Astana is very beautiful.

My two favourite things are the view of the presidential palace next to the river, right outside of our living room window, and the accessibility of hot beverages: we have a water dispenser, which also dispenses nearly boiling water - great for tea, and our espresso machine which is built right into the wall of our kitchen cabinets.

View of presidential palace from our living room

One major downside that I will have to get used to is the lack of accessibility for exploring on foot. So far, Maya and I have been out exploring about every other day, but I get the distinct impression that people think I am crazy - pirate taxis honking at me to give us a ride, other women looking me up and down, as I am missing the requisite stiletto boots. And I may be a little crazy, as nearly every walk ends up through the mud, as a side walk mysteriously ends halfway down the street, a pedestrian crosswalk goes through a patch of shrubbery, or a gust of wind picks up across the vast plain. So I'll need to take steps to become more Astanian. But I guess there are three years for that. I am very pleased, though that I've gotten used to carrying/wearing Maya instead of pushing her in a stroller, as that seems like it would be very nearly impossible with city transit.

Maya is growing a lot! We are eagerly awaiting our shipment from Canada as she has outgrown many of her clothes and sleepers. And we are looking forward to having all of our belongings, too, to make it feel more like home here. Maya is starting to giggle, and chat a fair bit. She very much enjoys that her friends, the "Chandeliers", are in every room in the house, and likes to visit with them and watch what they are up to.

Despite the huge square footage of our place, it doesn't feel that big as there are strange walls and closed in balconies that are attached to every room. Plus, we were welcomed by a ridiculous amount of furniture that is "in the guidelines" for furnishing SQ's (Staff Quarters) so we have had to be a bit creative with how to arrange the furniture, including placing the China cabinet in the guest room balcony, and some of the more offensive lamps are now decorating the furnace room. We also have a massive walk-in pantry, which will be good for storing all sorts of things, which you can get to through what is cleverly disguised as as kitchen cabinet.

The architecture here is pretty wacky. For example, if you wanted to find our place, you would cross the river next to the presidential palace (the Kazakh white house), take the first right after the Greek amphitheatre, and our apartment is on the left. If you pass the pyramid, you've gone too far. Seriously.

Past the pyramid, when you’ve gone too far, with our apartment complex in the background

Take care.

Love,

Valerie

Kazakh Chronicles #1

Kazakh Chronicles

Practice makes perfect?

Edumacation