A Kazakhstan Christmas

I’m just gonna say it. Christmas in Kazakhstan is not great. Being a post-soviet country, Christmas is not very well known and not at all celebrated. The big holiday here is New Years. They do put up “New Years” lights, and Grandfather Frost brings gifts for everyone. So at least there are decorations and holiday parties, just not what I’m used to back home. I really miss the Christmas music, too! Both this year and last year I’ve never really felt the “Christmas spirit” when listening to Christmas music. It felt kind of out of place.

Luckily, this year was a step up from last year, and much more memorable. That’s not saying much though – last year, before going to school, I opened up the gifts my mom and dad had sent me, cried a little, then pulled myself together for school. After school I did a Christmas themed English club which was pretty chaotic and not exactly what I had imagined. It was depressing.

This year hasn’t been nearly as depressing. I started getting in the holiday mood by attending and helping out with Hannah’s “American Christmas” program at her youth center. Her students performed songs/dances and did a short play of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. She made hundreds of sugar cookies as refreshments and we helped decorate them the night before, which was a ton of fun, and they were gone in a matter of seconds! Crazy. 

The amazing backdrop, painted by some of Hannah's students

The Who's 

The Grinch - Obviously.

Anna and Me!

These girls danced and sang to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Jingle Bell Rock

Looking Festive

Garret and Trevor - the new boys in Kokshetau. We're pretty much already BFFs. Er, something.

 Then on Christmas Eve it was once again time for the Christmas English club. I usually don’t get more than 4 or 5 girls coming to my English club, but I had 22 students from my 5^th and 6^th grades come to this one, as well as 4 4^th grade girls from the Kazakh class who, while I was prepping the classroom, shyly knocked on the door and said “Are you Miss Holly?” “Yes, that’s me.” “Um, Miss Holly, my friend in the 6a class said there would be a holiday today. Can we come too?” Sooo –ooo-oooo adorable. Of course I let them come.

We started by learning the song “Once There Was a Snowman” and then we decorated stars and used them to play “Pin the star on the tree” and finally played a game kind of like musical chairs – students dance while the music is playing, and when the music stops the last one to sit down is out… which didn’t work quite like I wanted, because we had so many kids and limited space. But it was still fun – I had them dancing to Stephen Colbert’s “Another Christmas Song” Awwwwesome!

Kamilla and Zarina - 6b class

Dana and Madina - BFFs - 6a class

Dana and Zhanara - 6a class

Natalya, Tanya, Alina, and Daliria - 5b class

Timur, Sasha (6b) and Ruslan (5b)

Our lovely Yolka!

Then my Christmas Eve continued to be awesome when I met Hannah and our local friend Gulnara to attend Midnight Mass – and subsequently drank hard liquor with a Nun.

Gulnara is an English Teacher in the city, and one of her students is a nun, Sister Cecilia, and she had invited us for tea/coffee before mass. We got to the nunnery around 11:20pm and went inside the miniature house – seriously, if I went up on my tiptoes I could hit the ceiling. So we sat down to a table laid out with cookies and chocolates and tea and coffee. Hannah and I begin serving ourselves and Sister Cecilia said she had something to add to the coffee that would be tasty and help warm us up (the church was so cold, we had to wear our coats, hats, scarves, mittens the whole time). We asked what it was and she said it was an herb – Balzam – that another Sister had been given by a Father while she was visiting in Lithuania. We asked if it was an alcohol, and they just kept saying that it was an herb.  She poured a tiny bit into each of our glasses and – admittedly – it had a nice taste! Then Hannah and I took a closer look at the bottle… 45% alcohol! Gulnara saw us laughing about it and said “чуть чуть (just a little bit) hard. But it’s ok. It will keep you warm!” Thanks, Sister Cecilia.

Mass was really nice. I’d never been before, so it was a good experience. The cathedral here is really new and nice inside. I had a hard time understanding everything, and the Father’s sermon, but I liked singing the hymns and seeing the whole procession of mass. Afterwards, Sister Cecilia brought us back and introduced us to the Father and another Priest there who spoke English quite well. They were very nice and invited us to come back again. And I think I will.

We got back to Hannah’s apartment around 3 am and had some tea to warm up before going to bed. We both had to work the next morning, so we got up early and I took off to get back to Krasney Yar in time for school. Luckily I only have 2 classes on Saturday… but I didn’t stay for the 2^nd. My kids were taking a test, and I wasn’t really needed, so I skipped out early so that I could Skype with Mom, Dad and Jeffy. Yay.

Then it was off to the Kokshetau English Teachers Association Meeting. We played a few games, sang a few songs, had tea together and then – as is often the case in KZ – an impromptu dance party broke out. Good times!

Garret and I finally made our way out of there and to Hannah’s apartment where we met up with Anna, and just hung out for the night. We finally decided to watch Elf, but Hannah and I were so tired from Mass the night before, we didn’t even finish it before falling asleep.

Anna and I went to the Christian church the next morning. Another new experience for me.  Anna told me it was started by missionaries from Canada who were Protestant. It was a much more rockin’ service compared to the Catholic mass! But everyone was really nice, the songs were fun to sing, and I had a good time.

So! That was my last Christmas in Kazakhstan. I’ll go ahead and put the Kazakh stamp of approval on that. Bam!

Now, it’s off to Karaganda for a New Years Eve Extravaganza!