Kazakhstan Independence Day 🇰🇿
Happy 34th birthday!
“Ер еліне, құс өңіне.”
Er eline, qus onine
“A man is for his country, a bird is for its nest”
-Kazakh Proverb
Dearest Kazakhs,
Thank you for having me in the Fatherland last year!
Thanks for having such a great country, people and hospitality and restoring my hope in humanity. What a brave nation! I didn’t realise a people could be so hospitable!
From the soaring peaks to the deepest valleys and the clearest crystal lakes, I wish you well on your 34th birthday - didn’t realise you were only five months my senior. Of course, that’s why you are older and wiser. From riding horses on the plains near Astana, to learning of the reintroduction of wild horses to the steppe. Understanding a more complex tea culture, even than we British, I am grateful to have learned much from you but most importantly, kindness. I miss the banya at Arasan, the teahouse Navat and of course Shymbylak and Medeo. In Astana, I miss the rooftop bars and, of course, everywhere the good value Yandex taxis. But mostly I miss the open people. How far you’ve come since independence! Learning you have every element in the periodic table in your rich earth and wonderful elements of your nomadic heritage, as well as understanding and wisdom of the ancestors.
Best wishes from London. I hope we see each other again soon. All the best on this special day.
Your friend as ever,
&
Құрметпен,
Marcus.
That opening proverb really frames the whole piece perfectly. The way it connects individual identity to place gets at something deeper than tourism or travel writing usually manages. I spent some time in Georgia a few years back and that same sense of hospitality caught me off guard too, how a culture can make you feel like belonging is less about time and more about openness. The part about Kazakhstan having every element in teh periodic table is wild, almost like the land itself is a literal foundation for everything that can be built. These kinds of personal reflections on a country's independence day carry more weight than any formal essay dunno why more people don't write them this way.