Day+23-30

I will soon be leaving the indigenous people of India in pursuit of my next destination, Kazakhstan. I am especially excited for this foot of my journey. This is where Spencer Wells found a man with the marker that links people in India to people in Africa and Australia. His DNA has been around for 40,000 years! The man was very excited because this meant that his blood was pure. It is truly remarkable that this one man's DNA proves the whole theory. I leave Maduari on Tuesdy, July 6 at 6:15 pm and arrive in Kazakhstan the next day at 4:10 pm. My flight cost $1,642. While here, I will be staying with one of Kazakhstan's many nomadic tribes.

Unfortunately I have no real knowledge of Kazakhstan and what I do know comes from the movie Borat, which I am guessing will not help me on my journey. I am hoping that I will not have as much trouble as Spencer Wells did getting across the border, and since I do not have cameras with me I think that I will be alright. Spencer thinks that these people were part of haplogroup R.



Even though Kazakhstan has a very large population, its distribution is extremely uneven. It has thickly populated foothills that neighbor upon nearly completely uninhabited mountainous regions. Big towns are situated next to thinly peopled deserts. Kazakhstan is a bilingual country: the Kazakh language, spoken by 64.4% of the population, is known as the "state" language, while Russian, which is spoken by almost all Kazakhstanis, is declared the "official" language, and is used routinely in business. The work "Kazakh" means "a free and independent nomad". Kazakhs have travelled from western China to the southern border of Russia for centuries. Tribes are the basis of society; the tribe consists of family members and the family elders. Most tribes are big in agriculture and herding.

After spending a week with these people, I have learned about their culture and way of life. I must now say my goodbyes and prepare for my next destination, Russia and the northern Arctic.