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Thanks to some friends who invited me to help them with summer camps and other projects, I have gotten to spend the past two weeks in Aktobe, the oblast’ that borders Kyzylorda to the north. I’ve made it to four villages/small towns where other volunteers are currently stationed, as well as done my share of traipsing around the city of Aktobe. There’s a lot I could write about this trip, but what I want to share with you all right now can be said mostly in pictures.
That is, the most basic element of any scene: its setting. Aktobe is remarkable, for this sojourner from the deserts of Kyzylorda, in that it is what I imagined all of Kazakhstan would be: a boundless, grassy, and – most importantly – highly walkable steppe. Kyzylorda is just as full of open space, if not more so – but all of it is shrouded in mounds of sand, which seem as likely to sink beneath your feet as to fly in your face. So it was only when I came to Aktobe this summer that I had the opportunity to stand before the kind of horizons I imagined I would encounter every day in Kazakhstan.
And, for me at least, it was a breathtaking sight. I hope these pictures show you some of what I mean.
Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible – and so enjoyable.
(NOTE: the people in the photos are an Aktobe village volunteer and his host brother.)
It certainly is big sky country!
That’s what I thought the steppe would be, too! It’s great you got to visit it.