Long Awaited

Long Awaited 

Life takes people to unexpected places, but love brings back home. Like this quote, my dad always wanted to move back to his native country, where his ancestors lived hundreds of years ago. At the end of the 18th century, many Kazakh people started to move to other countries because of the beginning of the Russian Empire colonization. After hundreds of years under the Russian Empire, in 1991 Kazakhstan became independent so, the president said every Kazakh family was welcome to come back including Kazakhs in Mongolia. After this speech many Kazakh people came back, including my family. The Independence of Kazakhstan gave an excitement to my father to start a new life in the new country. 

At first, in 2003 my parents, my brother, and I moved to Kazakhstan to start our new life in the house. It wasn’t easy for my parents to live in the city where they didn’t know anybody. We lived in a house that we needed to heat with coal and wood. It was my parents wish to live in a house because both of them had always lived in an apartment. Also, they wanted to have a garden and fresh air every single day. In the first winter, it was cold, my father went to work, and my mother had to heat the home. Luckily, there was a German neighbor who helped us to heat the home. In the summer he used to grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers that inspired to us to have a huge garden as well. 

Moving to Kazakhstan affected my brother to be a diligent person. He went to Kazakh school, and he learned language from the beginning. At that time, many people spoke Russian because of Russian colonization. This circumstance led to my brother to learn one more language. Because my parents spent most of their money buying a new house, my brother had to help them. He used to work in our neighbor’s garden to make some money. After gardening, he collected glass bottles, and sold them to recycling companies. While he studied in the university, he worked in my mother’s workplace to earn some money, so he could learn English. As far as I could remember, my brother is working to invest himself, so he doesn't bother parents.   

Finally, this long-awaited immigration made me a real Kazakh. When we moved to the new country, I was only three years old. I learned Kazakh tradition, history, humor, and music. After four years, my father took me to learn how to play dombyra, which is a traditional Kazakh musical instrument that I loved to play. All these skills led me to join school activities around girls. On the other hand, in Kazakh tradition women are lower than men. I thought that women always should listen their husbands, to do housekeeping, and have children. Luckily, my husband is a well-educated, open-minded person that understands there are so many things to do at home and helps me whenever he can.

Today, I am living in a different country, but I know that my love is next to me. I think my father’s wish has come true, and affected our new lifestyle, my brother, and me. If my father didn’t want to immigrate, we might have never lived in a beautiful house with garden, my brother might not have become hard working person, and I might not have been a true Kazakh. Although it was a hard time at the beginning, I am always thankful for my father for this decision.