RSS
Home
Religion and politics on a picnic in Kazakhstan
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
This following post was taken from an email I wrote while teaching English as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan from 2006-08.
On one particularly beautiful April Sunday, I went on a picnic with some teachers from a nearby school. We headed into the mountains in a minivan packed with 15th local teachers and two Americans. It's amazing how beautiful the scenery gets even just twenty minutes outside of dusty Turkestan. We ended up in a hilly part of the country that has a small shrine to a supposed giant and a miraculous well.
From what I could gather in my broken Russian, the giant was some sort of Sufi saint who was killed by some other nomadic tribe in the 7th century. People come every weekend to this grave to pray. The grave is raised from the ground in a cylindrical shape and stretches for about 20 meters. The grave 
covers every bit of ground where his blood spilled after his head was cut off. His head then rolled down the hill and was never found. So goes the legend. As for what he did that actually made him a saint, nobody seemed to know.
Close by the grave is a miraculous well that judges the person trying to draw water from it. It's a short walk from the parking lot and up a small hill. On the top of the hill is a covered hut where the faithful gather to lower the bucket into the well and draw water. If you draw water then you are judged to be good. If not, you've got some outstanding sins hanging over you. People crowd around the hut, watching each other lowering and raising the bucket.
During the hour I was there, it seemed as if about 40% of the people there were sinners while the other 60% were without blemish. I myself tried, but discovered that I need to go back to confession before I'll be able to draw water again. The other American I was with drew up a full bucket… While I attached little importance to this occurrence, the other teachers who also failed to draw water were visibly distraught.
Also on this same picnic, I got the opportunity to talk to our minivan. We talked mostly of politics and the war in Iraq. He said that he could understand why the US attacked Afghanistan but not Iraq. Even more important for him was the issue of how the US conducted its war. He said that the US just bombed and bombed indiscriminately and then took the troops in. He was upset at the lose of lives of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Half jokingly, he said that he would have no problem if George Bush himself went to Iraq and tried to shoot it out with the Iraqis. The mental image of Bush himself fighting in Iraq was incredibly satisfactory for the both of us and we shared a laugh.
Kazakhstani people in general are quite surprised that most Americans aren't happy with Bush. In Kazakhstan, their president enjoys an approval rating in the 90s and even if someone did disapprove of him, they surely wouldn't voice their opinion. Patriotism here means unequivocally standing behind your leaders, as it does for some Americans back at home. While I am not supposed to express my own view on politics as a Peace Corps volunteer, I have no qualms about telling people about Bush’s current approval ratings. They are often shocked and horrified. "Wasn't he elected twice?" they ask. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to explain it either.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
