To Astana!

I feel I have nearly completed everything I sought to accomplish in Almaty. Next week I will take a train ride to Astana for a few days. I hope to visit with some administrators of the Bolashak program, current Bolashak scholars and the USAID office there. If I can, I will collect budget information related to how much the Kazakh government contributes to university budgets each year. I was able to collect this information in Tajikistan from the Ministry of Finance and would like to have the same information for Kazakhstan so that I may make a comparison.

President Nazerbayev made Astana the capital only 7 years ago and so apparently there is a lot of construction but the former farming center is still only sparsely populated. I am working with a student in Astana, who is friends with one of my contacts here, and he is helping to arrange lodging at an apartment for me. Additionally he is helping to contact some of the current Bolashak scholars. I have been constantly humbled by the hospitality and willingness to help of so many of the people I have met in Kazakhstan. My project would have been much harder and not as successful without their help.

I understand that it is still too early (I still have 10 days here) to consider what I have taken from my experiences in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, but I already feel a great respect for the hospitality these cultures show their guests. It is something I hope to bring back with me so that I may show it towards guests, international and otherwise, in the future.