Escaping the Steppe

During the summer months, OCAP (NGO) volunteers and TEFL (teacher) volunteers have very divergent schedules. Sadly, NGOs do not have summer vacations, so we toil away at work while the TEFLs craft nomadic itineraries that take them from summer camp to summer camp across the country. I am a bit jealous of it all because it is a fantastic opportunity to tour the country and to spend time with other volunteers. That said, it is hard to begrudge my teaching counterparts anything because their daily schedule during the school year is a lot more grueling than life in most NGO offices.

Fortunately, it is not totally impossible to leave my island in the steppe. Recently, I traveled to a small town in northern Kazakhstan called Schuchinsk, where a number of volunteers assembled for five-day Russian language camp. The atmosphere around Schuchinsk was very, very different from what I have becomed used to in Zhezkazgan. Like most northern locales, Schuchinsk is much more Russian than the southern part of Kazakhstan. In truth, the biggest difference had nothing to do with the people; instead, it was the environment that really stood out. An hour or two south of the town by train, the steppe more or less ended and gave way to forested land. While there are trees in Zhezkazgan, it hardly feels forested, so walking under a canopy of greenery was a strange experience after living in the center of the steppe for so long.

(The road to the local volunteer's house was delightfully tree-lined by national standards)

(Locals clamber into boats at one of Borovoe's lakes. In the back left is Borovoe's signature rock formation that is fairly famous in Kazakhstan. It's basically the Old Man On The Mountain, except in a lake. You might have to click on the picture and expand it to see it well.)

It should be noted that the "green line" in Kazakhstan does not extend uniformly east or west. In the Kokshetau region (containing Schuchinsk) and around Petropavlovsk a little further north, the countryside is apparently forested. However, I've heard that Pavlodar and Kostanai -- located to the northeast and northwest of Schuchinsk respectively -- are classic steppe towns. This green island in Kazakhstan is well-known locally. Schuchinsk is the gateway to a small region of lakes and hills known as Borovoe. Locals will describe this area as "The Switzerland of Kazakhstan". It is certainly a pleasant area that is a welcome change from the endless monotony of the brown steppe, but this is a grotesque exaggeration. In terms of the dramatic beauty of nature, Borovoe is more along the lines of a typical lake in New England. The comparisons to the sweeping majesty of the Alps are...lacking, to be charitable.

(A Borovoe nature view)

(If you lived in the steppe, you'd call these hills mountains too)