First week in Kazakhstan

More than a week has passed and I did, see, eat and learn more than what I would learn or experience in months. Not only by knowing Kazakhstan country and culture, but also by learning from my teammates cultures as well in personal and professional aspects. My first week in Kazakhstan was:

The project

On Monday morning (July 16th) we have our kickoff meeting with our three clients (KAZNEX INVEST, JSC Kazakhexpertiza and Soyuz Atameken), USAID representatives, representatives from IBM Russia, IBM’s local distributor and some interns from top local universities. 

During the introduction everyone of us did a short introduction of themselves. We need to wait in order to be translated into Russian for the audience.  Also, every client did an introduction of their expectations of this projects. You can read more in the following press release: http://kazakhstan.usembassy.gov/pr-07-11-2012.html

Kaznex Invest

Kaznex Invest mission´s is to develop and promote non-mineral exports and to attract foreign investment to Kazakhstan (http://www.kaznex.kz/en/).  I am part of the team that is going to make recommendations for exports website together with Yuji (Japan), Divya (India) and Tanner (USA). Working environment in Kaznex is very good and there are really nice people working with us. Specially Erbolat and Almas that are taking good care of us!  We also spend good quality time in the coffee area doing some group work and drinking cold Frappuccino's due to the hot weather.

Erbolat, Gustavo, Tanner, Yuji, Divya, Almas

During the week we did some interviews to validate our initial scope. And, after a few rounds, last Friday (July 20th) we had our final scope meeting with several managers and employees from Kaznex Invest:

Other activities

Indian Dinner

4 of our teammates come from India and they were eager to take us to eat Indian food. It was the first time I ate Indian food together with Indian people. They showed me how to eat spicy curry using one hand only. Food was fantastic and I am definitively going again!

Kazak Dinner

We also went to a Kazak restaurant and try some horse meet (thanks SiewYIn for the pictures):

Боровое (Borovoye)

This lake located at 250km north of Astana it called “little Switzerland” and is a kind of Oasis in the middle of the steppes. It took us until lunch time to get there. Going out of Astana, police stopped us in a checkpoint and requested our passport and almost half of us didn't brought it so we needed to return. These are some pictures during the waiting time in the middle of the steppes:

Arriving we did some walk around and did some swimming in the lake:

Football

Sunday evening we played football with Kaznex people. Although we were only 9, we played in a 7x7-size football field with one of the best artificial grass I ever played. Our international team needs to improve for next match (Sunday at 8:00pm). Of course, Peruvian t-shirt needs to be present also in this event:

You can follow some other teammates blogs and tweets in the following link: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/wwa_kazakhstan.html
#ibmcsc kazakhstan

The city of Astana – my view

Take a look to the following page to know more about this fantastic city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astana

However, if you want to check my experience take a look... (I will update this post whenever I found more interesting things about the city)

Kazakhstan Flag

The flag located in the city center is very big and it can be seen from far away. I didn't´t realize how big it is: 450m2 of flag in a 111 meters pole.

Bayterek

This tall monument build in the center is very popular and is one of the symbol of the city. Better watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGhrhLFxrmw

...and some pictures:

For more information go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayterek

Horses

Very common in Kazakhstan to find horses or derivatives everywhere but yet haven't seen one alive. I only see horse meet, horse sausages, horse milk, colorful horses across the city, horse games, etc.:

Horse sausages

Horses across the city

Looks like horse milk was first used in Kazakhstan:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090305-first-horse-domestication.html

And watching TV last night I saw a horse game that reminds me one I watched in the movie "Rambo III". This game is called "Kokpar". It is a kind of Polo game with a goat carcass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lVEI17qeUA&feature=related

#ibmcsc Kazakhstan

Arriving to Astana, Kazakhstan

The flight to Astana was better than expected. I even got surprised by the attention I received in the flight: an appetizer, hot towel, sleeping kit (ear plugs, tooth brush, toothpaste, etc.) and even ice cream after the dinner that includes dessert. Most airlines already forgot this pampers in economy class.

From the airplane you can see the “Great Steppe” that covers the majority of Kazakhstan. This type of land is usually characterized by a semi-arid and continental climate with very hot summers and cold winters. You don´t see nothing but this type of land to the horizon in every direction: 

At the airport, my expectation of Astana got short from what I see. The airport was a nice new building (although it didn't´t have automatic escalators). At passport control I received the immigration paper with only one stamp. They told me that I need to have a 2nd stamp from a police station within 5 days. This is a requirement so government keeps tracks where foreigners are. I´ve got disappointed to know later that this does not apply to every country and Peru was not in the clear list.

 

I took the taxi together with Tanya, one of the NGO contacts that arrange the projects and logistics for us in behalf of IBM (http://www.cdcdevelopmentsolutions.org/). I got relief to realize that she speaks Russian. Later I knew that some of us got a taxi ride to the hotel for 10,000 Tenge! (US$ 66.6) and another got to another direction because the taxi driver got lost in the steppes.

First view of the city:

My amaze increased while we went on the ride to the hotel. I can see very nice and new buildings while we were in a 3-lines road with new traffic lights:

After checking in the hotel and being travelling for 3 days (including a 24 stop in Frankfurt) I went for a breakfast and met Liza from CDC. Later that day I finally met some other IBMers part of our Kazakhstan 2 team. It is interesting to finally see the faces of the people that were in the weekly conference calls that we have during the last 3 months doing all the preparing work for this assignment. I will talk about our team in another post.

 

Khan Shatyr – Shopping Mall

Built resembling a Nomad house, this new shopping mall is one of the icons of the new Astana. Besides all the shops, that by the way I could only recognize 3 brands, It have a nice beach on the last floor. This artificial beach have temperature-regulated sand and the environment could be changed independent of the outside temperature. Never expected to find this here!

Today we have our introduction session and then a city tour. I will show this in the next deliver.

PD: Frankfurt Airport

I got really surprised and very happy to see the following cartels in Frankfurt Airport about Peru:
http://peru.travel/

#ibmcsc Kazakhstan

Halfway

So, how do I get to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan? I took a flight from Lima to Madrid (almost 12 hour flight) and then arrived at Frankfurt after a 3 hour flight from Madrid. I am in Frankfurt now and yesterday I did some tourism around the city center. I must say that my 4 months of German lessons did work this time. Last time I was here in 2005 I was really lost:



…and also ate a good dish that I used to eat when I lived in the Netherlands:
Döner Kebab

Today (Friday 13th) I take a 6 hour flight to Astana in Air Astana:

Next post will be from Astana, Kazakhstan at 11 hours time difference from Peru. Tschüsss

#ibmcsc Kazakhstan

IBM Corporate Service Corps

Welcome to my blog. This is the place were I´m going to show the world about my experience in the “IBM Corporate Service Corps” travel. This program empowers IBM employees as global citizens by sending groups of 10 - 15 individuals from different countries with a range of skills to an emerging market for four week community-based assignments. For more information go to: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/corporateservicecorps/programdetails.html

The program have a Triple Benefit:  (1) Communities have their problems solved, (2) IBMers receive leadership training and development and (3) IBM develops new markets and global leaders. For me doing volunteer work in a different environment with people from different cultural backgrounds triggered my enthusiasm to apply.

I’ve got selected to participate in Kazakhstan 2 team with people from different parts of the world: Belinda from Australia, Brad from USA, Chester from Philippines, Divya from India, Karla from New Zeland, Sara from India, Sri from India, Tanner from USA, Vishal from India, Siew Yin from Malaysia, Yuhji from Japan and me from Peru. And we are going to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan!



IBM Peru announcement July 3rd, 2012:


We all are very excited with this trip and we have been working already for 3 months learning several modules that prepares us for this voyage. If you want to learn more about the country than just wikipedia or Lonely Planet and check my experience in this program, stay tooned to this blog!  I will appreciate your comments. #ibmcsc Kazakhstan