Youth activists change their world

At the university I accidentally walked into a youth activist center and met Aliya with whom I could actually communicate in English. Listen to her explanation of what they do. One of the environmental things they do is bust people for dumping trash. Funny, because I haven’t seen a piece of litter in this pristine city. But the work they do on violence and corruption is impressive.

A more sobering day was visiting the Alzhir gulag where Stalin put Wives of Traitors. They have a wall of the names of all the women who lived and died there because their family member was not loyal to Stalin. Looks like the Vietnam Memorial in DC. Children were taken from their mothers at age 3 and put in an orphanage.

One more English speaker, Saken, the taxi driver, has traveled to many different countries like other taxi drivers. The “uber” is a side gig for them, I guess. But at the end of our conversation Saken wouldn’t let me pay when we arrived.

Astana has its own space needle and at the top people line up to touch the handprint of Kazakhstan’s first president after independence from the Soviet Union.

The golden globe was an alternative energy museum, even though Kazakhstan has a lot of oil. Interesting buildings all over in this Disney clean city on the prairie.

Finally, I haven’t tried the national dish, horse sausage. I will try duck and lamb and other animals, but not horses or dogs. So I’ve gone for some vegetarian dishes.

Onward to Almaty, the old capital.Read more