History of Aktau Area

This area used to be covered by ocean, so even in the hot, dry steppe you find seashells. These seashells are used to make bricks and buildings. I was taking notes so fast, but I think she said that Kazakhstan has the largest collection of these seashells. This is a brick I found that was made out of the seashells.

This is part of Sherkala, the mountain that we saw. There was another cave that was much harder to get up into. The adults were running up the front as fast as they could, trying to get a foothold, but came sliding back down again. Finally a couple of teachers got up and were holding out their hands to help up others. I was one of the last ones. It looked so easy, but I couldn't make it far enough before I slide back down again. I flung off my coat and got ready for another run. I told the group that my mind felt like a teenager and this should be easy, but my body was telling me another thing. I finally made it up and got lots of cheering.

Here is Sherkala mountain. There is so much history here. This was an ideal spot for a tribe to live because it had a wall around it and you could see the enemy coming. There is also water in this area. So lots of battles were fought and lots of blood lost. These are graves that mark the battleground.

A closer view of one of the graves. The tour guide has been giving tours of this area for 23 years and all the stories were just speculation until a few years ago when they started digging and discovered proof of the ancient civilization. She said she cried the first time she went out and saw the men finding pottery and tools.

Heartbeat of a Camel

On our field trip we walked through the hot, dry steppe and out of nowhere appeared this green oasis with a stream flowing through it. Years ago nomadic tribes fought for this land. Now they have built an entrance with this figure. We all got out to eat our lunch in the shade, but had to share our picnic spot with cows. We were all told to bring a lunch and so all the Americans brought a lunch for themselves. The two teachers from Kazakhstan brought the traditional picnic - enough food for everyone. Bringing your lunch to them meant sharing everything they had, while we all had our individual sandwiches. I love the Kazakh picnic much more!

This is a picture of the gas station that we stopped at to fill up our bus. I thought it was so rustic and then the bright red car drove up ruining my picture. But I decided that it is neat showing the old ways and the new car.

I took this through the bus window and was amazed that I got the picture of the camel along the road. This looks like a little village, but it is a cemetery. I would love to go explore it someday.

I know you see old trucks of hay in any state in the US, but look how old that truck is.

Oh, my gosh, I have fallen in love with the camels. Do you get that excited feeling when you see a deer? That's how I feel whenever I see a camel, but in a bigger way. Everyone laughs at my excitement, but I sure haven't experienced camels before. The teachers didn't want me or the school kids to get too close, because nobody can guess the nature of a camel. These camels were at a feeding station and we noticed that their front two legs were tied together. Earlier I had seen one lone camel running as fast as it could across the steppe. I

wish I could have figured out what it was running from or where it thought it was going and why it was in such a hurry.

Halloween in Kazakhstan

There is no Halloween in Kazakhstan or maybe I should say Aktau. One mother told me that on New Years they celebrate and dress up in costumes, but not on Halloween.
I am so glad that I brought stories and songs about pumpkins from the US. None of my kids had ever been to a pumpkin patch and there is NO farm land around Aktau to have a pumpkin patch. Every year I have taken the class to the pumpkin patch and had a big Pumpkin Day, so I was very disappointed. However, I was determined to have Pumpkin Day with or without pumpkins. I was delighted when a dad told me that he would bring in a few pumpkins. When he saw my expression he said, "Don't get too excited. They will be ugly pumpkins." And they were indeed ugly - not an orange pumpkin at all and very hard and bumpy. The other US teachers came in to see and just started laughing and taking pictures of the Russian pumpkins. We had so much fun with our 2 pumpkins. I divided the class into 2 groups and we completed a little book about our pumpkin. We counted the lines, drew pictures, figured out the color (light green/gray), cut strings to measure around the pumpkin, and then I cut the top so we could take all the seeds out. I broke the knife. I could barely cut through the hard shell. I was sweating when I finally got the top off. The kids went wild! I have never seen such a thick pumpkin. No wonder I couldn't get the top off. The seeds were beautiful - big and brown. I had planned to have the kids take turns drawing the face, but there was no way I was going to try and cut out the face. I just had them take turns painting a face on it.
Earlier that morning we had done a pumpkin sequence project with 3 of the older classes helping each one of my kids. (It took 3 classes to have enough students to pair up with my 9 kids.) If any kindergarten or first grade teacher from Stanwood, WA is reading this you will know the project I am talking about. We started out painting 2 paper plates orange. I used the last of the paper plates which are impossible to find here. I wish I had hoarded more at the beginning, because I ran out and some kids had to paint styrofoam plates. Don't ever do that!! The paint chips and curls away and leaves a mess! Can you imagine that paper plates have to be ordered from the US? I am bringing a stack back with me at Christmas and everybody better stay away from my stash!!!!! I'm smiling when I'm saying that, but I am also serious!!
I do have a fall break and decided to save money and hang out here for the week. Everyone was telling me that on Monday a cold front was coming in and it would be 0 degrees. I wouldn't believe it! It couldn't change from our sunny days to 0 degrees just like that. Just today I realized that it was 0 degrees C. which is 32 F, so now I am a believer.
I have spent the last 2 days of my vacation stressing out about money to buy my Christmas ticket home. I have the money sitting in my US bank and am finding it impossible to get at. I had a big meltdown about it and felt so ashamed of myself especially after watching the world news and seeing all the starving people in Ethiopia. And here I am crying because I can't get money out of my account. Two credit cards put my account at risk when they found out that I was in Kazakhstan and closed down all my credit. Not one penny will they give me!!! I have always depended on my debit card and since I haven't used it for 3 months I TOTALLY forgot the pin #. You can't believe how I wracked my brain for 2 days and then finally gave up and had to call home and get another card sent. Anyway, enough of my problems. I ended up buying one section of my ticket and will get the other later.
Happy Halloween to all of you. Celebrate for me. Love, Rachel

Oil Fields of Kazakhstan

Aktau is known for its oil fields and all kinds of oil companies have moved families here. Most of my school children have parents who work for the oil companies. I was excited about seeing the oil fields and their big fancy operations. It was really surprising to see miles of fields with these old-fashioned, charming oil drills. The pipes are all underground.

















The first oil gush happened in 1961.
They built this monument in the spot where the first gusher was found. The tour guide was so embarrassed by all the broken glass around the monument. She said she is ashamed when she brings expats to see historic sites and there is broken glass and garbage around. The red structure on the top represents the yurts the nomads lived in and represents the unity of families.



















Miles and miles of oil fields! In 1995 Kazakhstan didn't have enough money to develop, so they got grants from Europe. They got awards for doing such a good job. Aktau now has 3 sea docks for oil tankers to take the oil to other countries. They are huge opportunities for Aktau to grow. When the city was first built it was very primitive and they only built it to last for 10 years or so. The developers had no idea the city would grow so fast. That is why lots of buildings are already falling apart - because they were not made to last!

The land in Kazakhstan is called steppe. We went for 3 hours and saw nothing but dry brown steppe that is different from a desert. I need to look up the differences on the Internet, because it sure looks like a desert to me. (But not Jamara's Arizona desert with all the beautiful cactus)

This is Dinara, the assistant in our classroom. She organized the trip and was a great Russian translator. She is so sweet and calls me Ms. Rachel.

This is me overlooking Karaglye, the deepest depression in Kazakhstan. I am so thankful that Marcy gave me her coats and sweaters when she left town, because I had mine packed but took them out of my suitcase because of the weight.

I took this picture for my sister Rose because she loves rocks.

This is Medina who works at my school as the business manager. She knows both Russian and English, so she is a huge support system for doctor appointments, travel agents, etc. I wish I could flip the picture around

T

This picture got on here twice I believe, but I don't know how to delete it at this point. I meant to have a picture of Dinara and me at the depression.

I finally got the picture of my lovely outhouse on my blog.

First Experience with Kazakhstan Outhouse

This is the picture of the outhouse at Karaglye with the sun shining in the background. (A photographer's no-no) It is times like this that I am so fortunate to not have 100% smelling abilities. I was also very happy that I had my own toilet paper in my pocket. I walked in and found boards nailed down over the huge hole, with a board missing where you had to squat. It actually wouldn't have been so bad since I was used to Kentucky and Iowa outhouses, but so many people had missed the hole. It was very disgusting as you can imagine, but there was no other choice at this stop.
This is crazy. Now my computer won't let me add this picture.

Field Trip to Karaglye

Marc and Nick from my school created a great field trip on Saturday with their classes and I got to go along. Marc has 2 teenage twins from China and they both came along and Nick's ten year old student came with his dad. This family is from the Netherlands with blonde, blonde hair. The bus was one of the old city buses and a tour guide who spoke Russian showed us all the sites. Dinara, my assistant, did most of the translating with help from Medina, our school's business manager who is from Russia. We all set off merrily for our 12 hour adventure, even though all of us had to set our alarms for around 5:00 AM.
I have heard so many bus stories in oversea countries where you take your life in your hands when you head out on the curvy roads and crazy drivers, so I had no idea what to expect. Well, this driver was very smart and had a curtain behind him so that nobody could see the road ahead and the roads were definitely not curvy in the 7 hour ride. However, the bus was so old and noisy and bumpy that you had to hold on while trying to talk to anybody. The transmission sounded like it was going to go out any second, making horrible screeching and grinding sounds whenever he sift the gears. We had a few hills to climb and the bus would almost come to a stop it was going so slow and the driver seemed to be frantically shifting the gears back and forth. Anytime someone seemed to be on the verge of throwing out food in the trash, I would say, "No, save it!! We might be sleeping on this bus tonight and want it for supper."
It turned out to be a wonderful trip and I am so glad that I went even though I am exhausted today. It was perfect weather and I found out so many amazing things about this area. First of all Aktau is the youngest city in the whole of Kazakhstan. It is only 46 years old. It was built by Russian prisoners (mostly people that were against the Communist government). The guide told us a story about how the prisoners were given a certain amount of water each day and they had to give it up to use it to make cement. The water from the Caspian Sea had too much salt to make cement apparently.
All these pictures are of Karaglye, the deepest depression in Kazakhstan. It is the 5th deepest depression in the world. It is one of the Wonders of Kazakhstan. In America it would have been turned into a tourist trap with entrance fees, huge parking lots, souvenir shops, and restaurants. This place was only identified with a Russian sign that translated into Deepest Depression. There was only one shabby building that was closed, an outhouse, and no cars in the gravel parking lot.

Weekend in Almaty

I had so much fun in Almaty this weekend. Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan and used to be the capital city. The first difference I noticed from the plane was all the greenery and trees and the mountains. My city of Aktau is flat and dry for miles. All the rumors I had heard about Aktau were basically true, but I wasn't warned about the awful pollution and the traffic. First of all Aktau is by the sea so there is no air pollution and Almaty's traffic makes our traffic seem mild. The drivers there do whatever they want. Everyone is always in a hurry and if there is a delay, cars will drive over the sidewalk and drive down the tram lane. There were 3 lanes of traffic squeezed into 2 lanes and once a car was driving down the wrong side of the street. They sit and honk at anything, even at red lights. I met some expats(foreigners) who actually havecars that they drive in that mess. They say there is no way you can drive talking on cell phone or drinking a coffee. You have to be alert every second and BE READY! I guess that is the way we should all drive.
The conference kept us busy from 8:30 - 5:30 so we had to squeeze everything into the evening slot.
I was staying with a gal named Wendy from New Zealand. She was a night owl and I kept up with her the whole time. We didn't get to bed until after 1:00 the first 2 nights. I usually go to bed around 9:00 or sometimes earlier so I was really stretching myself. The first night we went shopping at the big Mega Center. I had heard that everything was cheaper in Almaty, so was really disappointed to find that the prices weren't that different. I did find taco shells, some lasagne noodles, lots of good-spelling spices, molasses,vegetable broth, and olive paste.
The next night we took a cab to the foot of Cockabay (I don't know how to spell this word in Russian) and climbed the lighted trail up the mountain. They have a big bronze statue of the Beatles because they played in Russia during the start of their music career. Wendy took a picture of me with my two coworkers, Nick and Marc.
They had lots of stalls with Kazakh products and I was in heaven shopping for Christmas items. We then went to a Bar and Grill and I ordered a milkshake from the English menu. I was so excited since I haven't had much icecream since leaving the states. Well, in Kazakhstan a milkshake means just that. They take chocolate milk, shake it up until it is frothy, add some whipped cream and serve it lukewarm. It was a huge disappointment!
One time while walking to get a cab, I took this picture of a man walking his cow down the sidewalk. He didn't seem very happy at first when I was trying to get his permission to take a picture, but then he gave me a great big smile.
The last 3 pictures are just ones that I took from the window of a cab when we returned to Aktau. On the way to the airport we had seen about 10 camels crossing the highway, but my camera was packed in my bag. So on the way home the boys let me sit in the front seat so I could get a picture of the camels. Of course, the camels weren't roaming around when I had my camera ready.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. May our thoughts be with all the people who experienced the natural disasters recently. I saw pictures on Wendy's TV and was totally overwelmed with the suffering happening around the world.
Love, Rachel