Частник (Chastnik)
In my entries about my last trip, I forgot to mention another unusual custom which is by no means provocative, but never the less non-existent in America. In every city here, it is common for people to stop a chastnik, which in Russian means a private taxi, to get to where they need to go. This is especially popular in Almaty and Aktay, but can be found in pretty much every city with a larger population. In the States, the idea of flagging any car and going somewhere with a complete stranger at the wheel is a sure sign that you have a death wish. Here, on the other hand, it is one of the main sources of transportation. This is especially true in Almaty, where there are so many people using their vehicles as private taxis, that there are no official cabs to be found in the city.
To flag a chastnik, you hold your hand out. If you are on any street with traffic (which is the case for most streets in Almaty) a car will stop soon after you hold your hand out. You then tell the person where you are going before you hop in. If the driver agrees to take you to your destination, you negotiate a price. Some cities have fixed rates for rides that everyone in town knows and follows. In Almaty, the price is not quite as fixed due to the size of the city and the horrible traffic problems. Being a foreigner can sometimes be a pain if you want to hire a chastnik since there are plenty of folks out there who are more than ready to rip you off. In one instance while we were in Almaty, a car stopped for us. After the driver agreed to take us where we wanted to go, he tried to charge us over three times the going rate to get to our destination. Needless to say, we sent him on his way and flagged another car.
Rides in chastniks are at times fun because it is a good chance to mingle with the locals. There are always lots of interesting questions about life in the States. One of the more unusual questions we were asked was what the going rate was for a prostitute in America. To the disappointment of the driver, we were not able to answer that one.

Winter
Better late than never. Winter has finally set in. It is now -19C (-3F) outside. There is snow on the ground from Almaty all the way to Karaganda, and probably almost everywhere else in the country. When we left for Almaty 2 days ago, it was in the 40sF with rain. We saw winter set in with our very eyes in a cafe in Almaty yesterday. It rained all morning. It was the kind of weather that commonly occurs in the winter in Houston, TX. And then as we were eating lunch, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow. It snowed all day and was still flurrying when the train left Almaty yesterday evening.
Throughout the course of our trip, I did a little blogging on my computer. What follows is a little bit about our trip.

On the Train
Thanks to modern technology and the fact that I finally got my lap top fixed, I can now blog anywhere I want!!!! And so I would like to introduce my readers to train life in the former Soviet Union.
I am now typing this message in the luxury car of a train bound for the city of Almaty. It turns out we have to get our permanent registration to live and work in Kazakhstan in Almaty because our inviting organization is located there (I could write a whole entry on the bureaucratic nightmare we had to go through just to find this out!!!). In the former USSR, train travel is much more widely used and better developed than in the U.S. It is to this day the most common form of long-distance travel for everyone in this part of the world because it is much more affordable for the average person.
Most of the cars and the engines still date back to the Soviet era. The engines even still have the red star on the front, constantly reminding the traveler of the bygone days of the Soviet Empire.
When you get on the train, you find your spot and settle in. Travelers who will be on the train awhile like myself (15 hours one way) often bring their house shoes, pajamas, food, and other things to help one feel as comfortable as possible. There are four types of cars: the sitting cars for those who want to travel very cheaply and can live without lying down; the common sleeping car which, can sleep dozens of people in one common area (I have only gone this route once and now understand what cattle must feel like when they are traveling); the cabin car, with cabins that sleep up to four people; and the luxury car, which sleeps up to two people.
The most interesting part about the ride, apart from seeing the countryside, is the railroad trader. Many people literally make their living off of the railroad selling everything from food, newspapers, shubat or kumus (fermented goat and camel milk). These people often will get on the train and ride for a couple of hours to one city, and then board a train back to their home city, selling goods to travelers going two directions. On this trip, we have not run into any of these sellers.
Then there are the traders at the various stops. If your train stops in any city or village for any length of time, there are often sellers on the platform, often selling home cooked food and beverages. I have not seen any of these sellers this evening. I am assuming it is because we are on the later train or because the weather is so fowl (it is now raining and the temperature is probably in the low forties) that no one is up for fighting the elements to sell any dumplings.
Well, my battery is running low. The luxury cars have outlets for electrical devices, but they don't work for some reason. I have a long ride ahead of me and have to catch some zees to have enough strength to avoid the corrupt cops who are said to target foreigners at the Almaty train station. Living it up in the luxury car in the wild wild east...

In Almaty
We are now in an apartment which we are renting for the night in Almaty, which is the business and trading capital of Kazakhstan. If you want to find something that can't be found anywhere else in country, Almaty is the place to go. It is also rather pleasing to the eye with its long, wide, tree-lined avenues and green landscape. The south side of the city runs into the majestic Tian Shan Mountains, which are now snow-capped, indicating that winter, though late in its coming, will be here soon enough.
The beauty of this part of the country is a bit deceiving. Most of Kazakhstan is endless step, with few trees and lots of brown grass. From what I have read and been told, the green, mountainous landscape is only prevalent along the eastern and southern borders. Despite this, there is a lot of nature type stuff to do in this part of the country and in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which is located just a couple of hours away from here.
People seem to be a little different here than in the rest of the country. Perhaps the most pleasant difference is the fact that there is a lot less trash in the streets. We were told today that people here make more of an effort to keep the city clean. This is the complete opposite of everywhere else I have been in this country, right up to the very outskirts of Almaty itself. On the way in this morning, I think I saw more litter in the villages outside of the city than I have seen anywhere else here.
So far during our stay here, a young man by the name of Igor has been taking us to various places in order to help us to take care of our business. He has by far more character than any man whom I have met in this country (If you can call him a man. He is but 20). He is the first man whom I know here who is faithful to his girlfriend, with whom he is planning to marry some time in the future. He is also one of the most ambitious young men I have ever met. He already has his own brick making business and has a couple of other ideas that could prove to be lucrative in the works. I think people like him are the future of this country. One can only pray that the government will continue on its current path to put into place law and order and enforce it. The only thing that makes me wonder is what might happen if Naserbaev were to suddenly kick the bucket.

List continued again
5. Cult of personality and cheesy slogans.
Yes, the cult of personality silliness continues to be ever present in virtually every former Soviet Republic. In this sense, the legacy of Stalin is still felt, even though he has been dead for 53 years and the country he once ruled has not existed for almost 20 years. It seems to be less blatant in Russia and gets more ridiculous as you head south into former Soviet Central Asia. Nasirbaeav (the president of Kazakhstan) is everywhere; including on billboards, in stores and even on the walls of offices that have no connection with the government what so ever. Our office at the complex already has a picture of him hanging on the wall. It was the first picture to go up.
Then you have the silly slogans and quotes. If there is not a picture of Nasirbaev hanging up on a sign, there is often a quote talking about how great Kazakhstan is and how the big 2030 plan (Nasirbaev's economic plan to have Kazakhstan fully developed by the year 2030) will radically change everyone's life. Personally, I think it is a big waste of money on the part of the government.
4. Nationalism.
Since Kazakhstan was under the rule of the Russian Empire in the 19th century and the Soviets in the 20th century, there is a great push for Kazaks to become more in touch with their national identity. In the process, this puts all the other Russian speaking non-Kazaks who make up more than 40 percent of the population, on edge. I was told that the government wants to remove Russian as an official language by 2030. I don't know if this is true and certainly did not see such a proposal when I glanced over the 2030 plan, but I do know that there are folks out there who would love to see this happen. Of course this would be economic and demographic suicide in many ways.
First, as I have already pointed out, more than 40 percent of the population is not ethnic Kazak. The vast majority of them don't speak Kazak at all. Then there are many of the ethnic Kazaks who either don't speak Kazak well, or don't speak it at all. It is common to see two Kazaks having a conversation where one will speak Kazak and the other will speak Russian since the Russian speaking Kazak can only understand it, but not speak it very well.
Then you have the demographic issues. Many of the non-Kazaks have left since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since I was here in 99-2000, 2 million have moved elsewhere, especially Russia, Germany, Canada and the United States. The population here is now only 16 million. This despite the fact that Kazkhstan is the 9th largest country in the world. With a rapidly developing economy, the place needs people to fill jobs. If you get rid of Russian, the Russian speakers will again hit the road (I have heard that folks are not leaving as much these days because of the fact that things are getting better. In some cases, they have even come back from Russia because of the growing job market). Russia is now trying to make it easier for Russians in the Russian diaspora to come back. If the language change occurs and everyone is forced to do everything in Kazak, I am sure that many will gladly go where they will not be regarded as second class citizens culturally and linguistically. Of course if this were to occur, I don't know what this country would do. The Slavic population tends to be more educated and fills a lot of the service industry jobs here. Kazaks, true to their nomadic tradition, often still live outside the city tending to the sheep. In the city here, it seems like they work most of the construction jobs, kind of like Mexicans in the US. This is not to say that Kazaks are not educated, professional people. I work for one who is. But the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of Kazaks who aren't and there are lots of non-Kazaks who are. In short, nationalism in this context will not benefit this country in the long-term.
Good list continued
5. Get togethers
When you go to a friend's house as a guest, there will always be lots of good laughs, toasts and great food. The other day we went to the birthday party of one our co-worker. We had a blast talking, eating, toasting, eating, eating, and toasting some more. I think it would serve Americans well to check out how parties and get togethers are done over here. It is next to none.

As always, I have to run. Since I still have not been able to fix my computer, I am having to do all of this blogging in an internet cafe. So sit tight and be patient. I will hopefully have this list done by the end of the month.

Top Ten List Continued
Sticking to tradition, I will start with the bad first. For those who have not seen the first part of my list, scroll down to the entry before this one.
6. The non-existence of punctuality in business and all things official
I could literally talk for hours about this subject. It has been a big nuisance, especially over the last several days. There is no such thing as doing things in a timely manner in any way, shape, or form here. I was told today that punctual people exist here, but they are probably all from the West. I will now expand on a few examples.
Two days ago the local akim (like a mayor) came to our complex at 5.30 pm to tell us that some big shot building inspector from the capital will come on the following day to "inspect" the building. We were told to be at the complex at 11am and that the "big man" will be there at "around noon". Everyone went into a panic. We were told to call the dj and the secretary (the latter we had just hired literally two hours before) and have them come at 11. We were not able to get a hold of either one of them until the next morning at 10 am. In other words, they had to drop everything to be present for the inspection. Without going into too many details, the guy was 5 hours late and only dropped in for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile our boss, who went down to Almaty and hoped to be back that day, never made it back. We think it is probably due to the fact that he is there waiting for something to get done and can't leave until all is taken care of.
Then today, we were supposed to go to the complex and meet with all of the people whom we hired to verify official papers and have them sign the work contract. We had no one available to help us check the papers and we had no contracts ready since our boss is still in Almaty. We had to have someone pass onto the workers to try to come again on Monday at the same time. I hope everything will be ready, but won't be surprised if it is not. In the immortal words of our boss, this kind of stuff is "normal in this country."
5. Driving and safety
If you are from any major metropolitan city in the U.S. and think the locals drive like maniacs, you have not seen anything. Here they have breaking traffic rules down to a fine science. It is normal for our drivers to run red lights, turn left from the far right lane (or sometimes even from the lane of oncoming traffic), tailgate and everything else that would normally get you a traffic fine in a heartbeat in the U.S. The other day, there was even a fellow who almost hit us head on coming from the opposite direction on a oneway entrance-ramp onto a major highway just because he wanted to avoid a long wait at a traffic light. Another time we almost ran head on into a passenger bus that was trying to pass a car. Of course the driver went into the lane of on-coming traffic to do this!
To top this off, wearing seat-belts here is considered an insult by many. It seems that if you wear a seat-belt, the driver thinks that you think they don't drive well. I am very concerned about how things will be once the snow starts falling and the ice starts collecting on the roads.

Good stuff continued
7. Driving
It may seem paradoxical, but sometimes the driving here is very amusing and quite a rush. It is kind of cool to feel like you are literally in the game Need for Speed sometimes.
6. Seeing and participating in a country's development
Kazakstan, in may ways, is a country on the rise. There is much optimism here about the future. Although there are still many hang-ups from the Soviet period, I have seem much change for the better here compared to my time here six years ago. Salaries are going up, jobs are available, and the Kazak government seems to be trying to diversify the economy. There seems to be some sort of a push to make things better for everyone instead of the all out hoarding that is still a regular part of life in many former Soviet republics. Hoarding does go on here (the President of Kazakstan has managed to become one of the top 10 richest men in the world since independence in '91), but the powers that be seem to be ready to "share the wealth" a little here.
I will press on with the list in my next entry.