Kazakhstan, cont.
Searching for info re. Kazakhstan, I ran across a blog by a fellow who has spent ten years working in Kazakhstan through a United Nations subdivision. He recorded several English-speaking people telling their experiences. Most made an effort to be PC. Two did not.
BREAD...One of those said that to the non-urban Kazakh, bread is almost a sacred substance due to the rarity of non-meat foods. There is no such thing as wasting even a scrap of bread, should one be lucky enough to get some. Living in the city, Almaty, she did have access to bread and each morning after breakfast, she fed bread crumbs to the birds outside her door in the street. Neighbors remonstrated with her earnestly that this showed disrespect for the struggles of Kazakh people some of whom never even get to taste bread. She ignored the rhetoric and continued to feed crumbs to the birds until one day when a peculiar chain of circumstances began with her strewing crumbs and ended with her going to a doctor to have her wrist stitched where she'd sustained a serious cut. The neighbors assured her that this turn of events was a judgement on her for wasting bread.
T P...Another speaker told of the shortage of toilet paper and warned that visitors to Kazakhstan should bring with them all the toilet paper they might need during their entire trip. On the one hand, they could possibly encounter a bit of TP, but likely not. In restaurants/hotels, none is in the bathrooms. When you want some, you must call down to the desk which might send up one small sheet off the roll, if they admit to having any at all. Most Kazakhs live out and about on the steppes, mobile with their herds. They have no indoor plumbing. For city people, the quest for toilet paper usually begins and ends with newspaper/pages of magazines and a waste paper can beside the toilet. Can't flush newspaper. Travelers to Kazakhstan are urged to bring with them a product called Urinelle, a funnel-like thing a woman can use to more easily access the hole-in-the-floor type of toilet common there. With this type of toilet, there may be no way to insert paper of any kind into the toilet, so, once again, travelers are encouraged to bring little one-sheet wipes to use as potty paper and then to carry away with them. How do you carry around used "toilet paper"? Well, travelers are instructed to bring lots and lots of zip lock plastic bags to use in keeping TP until there's an opportunity to dispose of it. What do natives use? No mention anywhere.
BREAD...One of those said that to the non-urban Kazakh, bread is almost a sacred substance due to the rarity of non-meat foods. There is no such thing as wasting even a scrap of bread, should one be lucky enough to get some. Living in the city, Almaty, she did have access to bread and each morning after breakfast, she fed bread crumbs to the birds outside her door in the street. Neighbors remonstrated with her earnestly that this showed disrespect for the struggles of Kazakh people some of whom never even get to taste bread. She ignored the rhetoric and continued to feed crumbs to the birds until one day when a peculiar chain of circumstances began with her strewing crumbs and ended with her going to a doctor to have her wrist stitched where she'd sustained a serious cut. The neighbors assured her that this turn of events was a judgement on her for wasting bread.
T P...Another speaker told of the shortage of toilet paper and warned that visitors to Kazakhstan should bring with them all the toilet paper they might need during their entire trip. On the one hand, they could possibly encounter a bit of TP, but likely not. In restaurants/hotels, none is in the bathrooms. When you want some, you must call down to the desk which might send up one small sheet off the roll, if they admit to having any at all. Most Kazakhs live out and about on the steppes, mobile with their herds. They have no indoor plumbing. For city people, the quest for toilet paper usually begins and ends with newspaper/pages of magazines and a waste paper can beside the toilet. Can't flush newspaper. Travelers to Kazakhstan are urged to bring with them a product called Urinelle, a funnel-like thing a woman can use to more easily access the hole-in-the-floor type of toilet common there. With this type of toilet, there may be no way to insert paper of any kind into the toilet, so, once again, travelers are encouraged to bring little one-sheet wipes to use as potty paper and then to carry away with them. How do you carry around used "toilet paper"? Well, travelers are instructed to bring lots and lots of zip lock plastic bags to use in keeping TP until there's an opportunity to dispose of it. What do natives use? No mention anywhere.
1 Comments:
Interesting. Maybe they use sand. Or camels.
Post a Comment
<< Home