A Day in the Life
My name is Nursultan and I am eleven years old. I live in Kazakhstan, the biggest country in Central Asia, where the steppe stretches so far in every direction that you can see the curve of the earth. The grass is golden in autumn and the wind never stops blowing. I love standing outside and feeling it push against my chest like an invisible hand.
In the mornings my mother makes baursak, small pieces of dough fried in oil until they puff up round and golden like little pillows. We eat them with butter and honey. She also pours hot tea with milk, and sometimes she makes kurt, which are hard, dried balls of salty yogurt that you can carry in your pocket and eat like candy. The first time you try kurt, you might make a face because it is very sour and very salty. But once you get used to it, you cannot stop eating them. Do you have a snack you carry in your pocket?
My grandfather still remembers when his family moved with their herds across the steppe. The Kazakh people were nomads for hundreds of years, living in yurts, round tents made of wooden frames covered with thick felt. The felt is made from sheep’s wool that women press and roll by hand until it becomes hard and warm. My grandfather’s yurt was white with red and blue embroidered bands around the doorway. Even today, our family puts up a yurt in the countryside during summer gatherings, and sleeping inside it feels like sleeping in a drum because you can hear every sound outside.
Horses are everything to the Kazakh people. My uncle owns twelve horses and he has been teaching me to ride since I was five. Kazakh children learn to ride before they learn to read. At festivals we drink kumis, which is fermented mare’s milk, it tastes fizzy and a little sour, like yogurt mixed with soda water. My uncle says kumis makes you strong. He also showed me eagle hunting: some Kazakh men train golden eagles to hunt foxes and rabbits across the steppe. The eagles are enormous, with wingspans wider than I am tall. The hunter carries the eagle on his arm with a thick leather glove and releases it from horseback. It is the most incredible thing I have ever seen.
For dinner my mother makes beshbarmak, which means “five fingers” in Kazakh because you eat it with your hands. It is flat noodles boiled with lamb or horse meat and onions in a rich broth. The whole family sits around one big plate and eats together. My father always gives the best pieces of meat to my grandparents first, that is our way of showing respect.
On Fridays my father goes to the mosque, but many Kazakh families also keep older traditions from before Islam came to the steppe. My grandmother ties small strips of cloth to a special tree near our village and whispers prayers for our family’s health. She says the spirits of our ancestors watch over us. What do your grandparents do when they want to protect your family?
At night the stars over the steppe are so thick and bright that the sky looks like white paint splattered on a black ceiling. There are no city lights to block them. My grandfather says our ancestors used those stars to find their way across the grasslands. I think they were very brave.
Fun Facts
- Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, bigger than all of Western Europe combined, but has only about 20 million people, making it one of the least crowded nations on Earth.
- Kazakh eagle hunters, called berkutchi, train golden eagles for up to 20 years. The tradition has been passed from father to son for over 4,000 years.
- Kumis (fermented mare’s milk) contains natural vitamins and has been the signature drink of Central Asian nomads for centuries, some Kazakh families still produce it fresh each summer.
- The Kazakh steppe is home to the saiga antelope, a strange-looking animal with a large, droopy nose that filters dust in summer and warms freezing air in winter.
- A traditional Kazakh yurt can be assembled by a family in less than one hour and taken apart just as quickly, the perfect home for people always on the move.
How to Pray for the Kazakh
- Pray that Kazakh families who gather around the beshbarmak plate and share meals together would also share the truth about Jesus with one another.
- Pray for Kazakh grandparents who hold tightly to both Islamic and older spiritual traditions, that God would reveal Himself to them through dreams and visions, which many Central Asian people report having.
- Pray for the very small number of Kazakh Christians, who often face rejection from their families and communities when they choose to follow Jesus.
How Kids Can Help
- Pray: Pray for Kazakh children every time you see a horse or a star, let it remind you of the wide steppe and the kids who live there without knowing Jesus.
- Learn: Find Kazakhstan on a map and see how big it is compared to your country. Learn one thing about nomadic life and share it at school.
- Share: Tell your Sunday school class about the Kazakh people, most people have never even heard of them or their eagle hunting tradition.
- Give: Ask your parents about organizations that translate the Bible and share the gospel with Kazakh-speaking people in Central Asia.
Scripture to Remember
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” (Acts 17:26, ESV)