Kazakhstan Poverty Research - Friday, Sep.8 (Day Nine)

Friday September 8 (Day Nine)

Discussion with Bota

Bota, in her 40s, is an excellent social researcher who worked for various projects for the government. We had a long discussion about her previous research and the possible research collaboration. They were very much willing to do the research and seemed to have a capacity too. The only thing we have to sort out is that we have to get the money from somewhere in Japan. Maybe PM Koizumi`s visit just before our visit may be a help, I thought myself.
Bota did three Kyzylorda government`s projects and first and second projects were the very projects we wanted to do. The results of those projects on the economic and social conditions of the people in Kyzylorda region were in the book and we asked them to copy them for us. Of course, it was in Russian and maybe we can ask Lyalya to translate them for us. After the discussion with Bota, we had a lunch at the student canteen. After staying at the Bota`s office for a while to hand in the chocolate to her.

Meeting with the Dean of World Languages Faculty, Mr Timur

After the meeting we briefly dropped in the office of the Vice-President of International Affairs, Rkhim and there we met the Dean of the World Languages Faculty, Mr Timur. He commanded a fluent English but he said the only time he spent his time in English speaking world was three months in Canada. You can do wherever, if you want to, he proved with his English. He has worked with JICA before (He said it was sometime between 1993 and 1995 but it turned out in 1996 – 1997 through the interview with Dr Salima who worked with JICA team.) The interesting story we heard from him was a lot of Japanese had claimed that they were Korean after the war. So he assumed that among Koreans living in Kyzylorda were descendents of Japanese.

Collecting the maps and statistics

Leaving the university we went to the statistics agency to collect the maps and statistics. There we met that Korean Kazakh lady, Kim, again and she gave me a collection of the newspapers for Korean Kazakhs, GoryoIlbo.

Having a Dinner at Danno

After a long day, we need much more palatable foods. We decided to go to the Korean restaurant, Danno whose signboard has a name in Korean letters. But there were no ethnic Koreans and nobody can understand Koreans. All the menus were in Russian and the taste of Bibimbap was completely different from Korean one. They said that Korean foods here are very much pre-19th century. The foods of Danno had both the pre-19th Korean taste and of course the Kazakh flavour.