Mentoring session
On Wednesday July 25th we had a mentoring session for students of Astana´s universities. It was held in the National Library in the city center. We first introduce each own´s country to the audience. Is not the first time I talk about Peru to foreigner and every time I do it I feel very proud of being Peruvian:
Here is where Peru is located….
We explain how is business done in our countries and I use the following link as an input that made me nod my head in agreement when I first read it: http://www.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/culture-for-business-and-management/doing-business-in/Peruvian-business-and-social-culture.php During the session we talked about several topics like IT Management, HR, Project Management, Finance,etc. And also what is to work for a Global Company like IBM. We expected more students but the sessions was held during exam period of major Astana´s universities.
July 28th, Peruvian Independence day
I’ve never being so far from Peru in the independence celebration day (14,700 kms from Astana to Lima). Of course this event need to be celebrated specially with people coming from all over the world. So I did introduce to my friends a good movie that summarizes our lovely culture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFtmSE5oPDA
And to celebrate I tried to find a Peruvian restaurant in Astana. The closest we found was an Argentinean restaurant called “Gauchos”. I hope maybe I can talk to the owner (finally someone who speaks Spanish) but realize that the owner was a Kazak that use to had a lot of business with Argentina and came to open a very nice Argentinean restaurant in Astana. It would be a good business to open at least one Peruvian restaurant here, just let me know.
Alzhir
During the weekend we visit “Alzhir” (Akmolinskiy Camp of wives of traitors of Motherland). It is located in Akmol Village, 35 km away from Astana. The only camp in the formal USSR where guiltless women we captured due to society and whose husband were shot, deported and simply forgotten due to false denunciation. Every visitor first come through the arch of Sorrow that symbolizes the entrance to holly earth, where two worlds alive and death are met.
The Arch of Sorrow
After that, to the right there is a composition called “War and Hope” that represents a women full of hopes and resoluteness to overcome difficulties and to the left there is one called “Despair and Powerlessness” that represents a man that has his foot trap representing his lack of liberty. This is not by chance, the majority of men were shot and their wife's in the camps still hope for a miracle. A Kazak friend of mine told me that his great grandparent was shot and all its properties stolen by regime of that time.
“War and Hope” and “Despair and Powerlessness” monuments
Inside the first floor of the museum there is a composition called “the flower of memory” and history about Kazakhstan. In the second floor there are jails and rooms that attempt to let the visitor feel how it was in the past, pictures representative women that lived there among other things. Also a picture of a 102 years old women that still lives in Astana and was prisoned here.
People from several parts of USSR were taken to camps located in Kazakhstan. 22,000 children were born in this camp and at age of 3 years old they were taken to orphans and changed their names. Only 2,000 could find their real mother and approximately 1,500 were born product of raping.
Outside the museum there are walls with all the names of women that pass 5 to 8 years prisoned or died in this camp together with a few inscriptions and one that summarizes the purpose of this Museum Complex:
To remember the tragedies of the past so as not to repeat them anew!
This video shows most in depth information about the place: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBpcb6KBZ-o
Football
We played 3 football matches every Sunday at 20:00hrs in the English school called Haileybury. First week we were only 9, second week increase to 13 and last Sunday we were 18 players so we need to play in 3 teams. Sunday’s football matches became popular in Kaznex every week and this is a good way to get to know everybody rather than just saying “Selem (Hi)” or “Sau bol (see ya)” in the office. (more Kazak words: http://www.kazakhadoptivefamilies.com/language2.html)
#ibmcsc Kazakhstan
