Except from working in a office for my internship I'm also visiting another country with its own culture. Women's day is a part of the culture in Kazakhstan.
I didn't even know that it existed. But now I do know, I think we should celebrate it too!

Because I hadn’t any fruit or vegetables left in my apartment I went to the fruit market. But in Aktau you don’t have to get up early for that. At 10 o’clock most of the stands are still closed. Arjan, a student who had his trainee in Aktau before me, told me that it was better not to buy meat in the supermarket. I got an address of a ‘safe’ butcher near to the market. But he also had to store everything. Well better next time.
Krijn (my supervisor) and his family invited me for diner on Saturday. We went to a restaurant near to the seacoast. In the restaurant almost every dish was reserved. According to Krijn and his wife that was very exceptional. During the evening the restaurant filled with principally women. Most of them were there with their mother, sisters, friends, grandmas, … to celebrate Women’s day. For me a lot of things to watch, especially a table with women who all wore a party head.
It was quite clear that the restaurant couldn’t handle all the people. There were several things you couldn’t order anymore. ‘Well ok, we’ll take something else.’ I ordered mutton. When I almost finished it, the waitress came with another plate with mutton on it. Probably I ate the mutton of another person. However, he/she made I good choice. When we finished the mean course, they brought the entrée. Krijn told me in most of the restaurants it was a little bit chaotic. When the cook made your meal, they just bring it to you. It’s possible that the meal of the other people will be later.
Well it could be worse, it tasted great!
To complete the party, there was also a live band. Within 5 minutes half of the restaurant was dancing. That was weird to me. Because normally when you meet Kazakh people in public they are very formal. I didn’t expect this at all!
After a nice evening I went back to my apartment. Later on Nurgul (1 of the female colleagues) called me and asked if I would like to go out with her and he friends. ‘Of course!’
And so I went to a Kazakh club with Nurgul, Maral and Arai to celebrate Women’s day. They don’t have a boyfriend. Explanation: There are more women than men in Kazakhstan, for each man there are 5 women. ‘So why don’t you search for a guy abroad?’ Well because that’s not really conform the Kazakh culture.
In Kazakh clubs there are seats around the dance floor. Beside that you can also order dinner till 3 o’clock in the morning. You have to make sure that you get a table, order something to drink, leave your drink and bag at the table and go dancing. The Kazakh security makes sure nobody will touch your stuff. For me this was very strange and I didn’t feel really comfortable with it in the beginning. But after a while I got used to it. We had a great night!

Nurgul and Aliya invited me for a play in the theater of Aktau. I didn’t know what to expect. The only thing I was sure off was that the play would be in Kazakh.
From the outside the theater looks really big and also the hall is. But the theater room itself is quite small. Also this evening was a women’s evening. There were just a few men and the play was about 5 women who were pregnant. During the play you got known of their lives; how they live, how they got pregnant etc. Lucky for me there were a lot of stereotypes in it. One girl of fourteen was reaped and completely unhappy, two women were pregnant of the same man, one woman was already 45 and pregnant of her 13th child. The last woman was together with her husband a couple ‘happily in love’. It broke his heart when he heard that his wife died during the child-birth. At the end of the play the actress told us about how many women in Kazakhstan pass away during the child-birth.
On the stage there was a lot of sobbing. But sometimes the sobbing of the people who were watching was even louder.
It was quite a heavy evening. But also one with the Kazakh culture.
 
Monday Women’s day! Finally it was the big day. A nice warm sun and no clouts in the air. What do you expect more?
On the streets you could see a lot of people with chic cloths on, men with flowers and families who went out together.
Because of the nice weather I went for a walk along the beach. There is one place where you can see swans during wintertime. It’s like a small attraction and especially this day there were a lot of couples who took pictures together with the swans. The beach of Aktau is not comparable to the beaches in the Netherlands. There not a lot of moorings and there are just a few restaurants and bars. After a while the clouds came back and I took the stairs back to the centre of the city. At the end of the stairs stays a gigantic statue of Taras Sjevtsjenko. He was artist but also a writer. His work caused commotion but also changed the literature. Behind the statue you can walk through a park. I think several well-known persons would be jealous to that. Beside it was Women’s day, still a lot of shops were open and women had to work.
In the afternoon there was a meeting in the office with Leonard and Shaun. They work for Agip. Agip is the client of Witteveen+Bos and is (one of the) sponsor(s) of the project. The meeting was in English of course and for me it was a difficult to understand everything. It was about the substructure of one of the islands. During the meeting I learned about the design of the island but also technical words and how to communicate in English in a meeting. After the meeting Niels and Krijn had obligations by their wives and family; cooking a delicious meal and visiting babushka (=grandma). I went to a restaurant, Guns n’ roses, with Leonard and Shaun. Both studied civil engineering, work all over the world and have a big knowledge about civil engineering. Of course also in the restaurant it was a special evening with live music and exuberant Kazakh people.
Accidently or not in the evening on the CNN news there was also a headline about women all over the world who demonstrated. Why? For the number of women that die while giving birth, for attention to this and medical changes to reduce this amount.

Tuesday morning in the office the women had a lot to discus. About the presents, the activities, dinner that their husband made, how babushka was doing etc. We also received a little present of one of the colleagues. A cake. Well not a real cake, it was wrapped like it with a towel in it. I still doubt of it is meant to clean things or for washing.

Women’s day is not important but very important to the Kazakh people. They celebrate it exuberant several days. Beside New Year it is the most famous notional holiday.