When I started the adoption of my son back in 2006, I learned he was in Kazakhstan. I had barely ever heard of it, and knew absolutely nothing about it. I researched on the internet in vain, because there was so little. I couldn't find hardly any photos. I found a blog by another adoptive mom and that helped, a bit.
Another adoptive mom posted on Facebook last night that Andrew Zimmern's Travel Channel program Bizarre Foods was doing a program in Kazakhstan. I was thrilled. I have watched many episodes of Bizarre Foods, and although I can't always watched the gory parts, I am always fascinated.
In watching it, I was struck because so many memories of my time in that country came flooding back, and it was almost like time travel. I also love seeing the faces of Kazakh people because they remind me so much of Michael's face, even though he is about 97% Eastern European and about 3% Kazakh.
One interesting note: when I went to actually pick up my son and bring him to America, I landed in Astana and my driver met me and we went to Petropavlosk, about a 5 hour drive, but it turned into 8 because the roads were HORRIBLE, and my driver got lost. The flat nice roads you see in the program are an anomaly.
Later in the program he visits the Green Bazaar in Almaty, a place I've been also. I almost couldn't look around while I was there, because eating horsemeat is very common there and there were tables just piled high with meat of horses and other animals. I know it's unfair of me to be so squeamish, but I am, and I didn't handle it well. I found a little shop that sold chocolates and I waited there while Michael and the guide walked around the market. He had never seen such a huge place.
Kazakhs are meat eaters. It's part of the culture. Michael has eaten horse and consumed kumiss [fermented mare's milk] many times. Ironically, here in the USA he's not a big meat eater.
Warning: if you are at all squeamish, fast forward through the first few minutes, when a sheep is killed and eaten. It's enough to make me a vegetarian. I really have to fast forward through Zimmern's killing and eating animals.
One note: there is a commercial that keeps popping up in this video, which is so annoying. Sorry about that.
