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Your StoriesYou are in: Lancashire > People > Your Stories > Rob's life in Kazakhstan  Rob's life in KazakhstanIf you had the chance to work abroad where would you choose? Australia, America? Perhaps Kazakhstan wouldn't be first on your list, but that's where Rob Laing ended up after he left Lancaster! We found out what it's like... Tell us about your job..."I work about 45km outside of Atyrau at a place called Karabatan on one of the world's largest construction projects (The Kashagan Experimental Programme) I work on the power generation plant as a Mechanical Engineer. I am involved with the installation and commissioning of all mechanical equipment from the smallest pumps to the 65 tonne gas turbines which will eventually produce the electricity for the refinery and also for the surrounding area. How long have you been there?"I have been here for six months now and haven't been home yet, though I am hoping to come back for a couple of weeks in March." What's your home away from home like?"I live on a camp during the week, which is similar to a glorified portacabin, though as we are engineers we get our own room and bathroom so its not too bad (apart from the scorpions in the summer!) I tend to get up at around half seven in the morning, trudge to the canteen for breakfast, then we drive the 10 kms to the office to get on site for about half eight. My day is usually spent on site ensuring that the equipment is going in as it should and according to whatever specs we have. What do you do in your spare time?"We get Saturday afternoon and Sundays off so come Saturday a couple of my friends and I head into the city for a night of decent food and beer (beer seems to crop up a bit here). We always head to O'Neills as they do a really good steak and burger and you can get a good pint of Guinness in there, then we head to another expat bar called 'The Guns and Roses' where they have a live band and play a selection of English, Russian and Turkish covers, I like to spend Sundays relaxing in O'Neills watching the football or cricket and generally feeling like one of those old men you always see in the corner of a pub. I don't think its helping my physique either as I sem to be growing a man gut."
Tell us about Kazakhstan..."Kazakhstan itself is a country of real contrasts, when you arrive at Atyrau International Airport, you come down the steps of the plane to be herded onto a bus, then driven literally 25 metres to what can only be described as a shed where you go through immigration. You then wait outside (come sun, rain, snow or hurricane) for an old tractor and trailer to turn up with all the bags on, once you have dug your bag out you can head into the city. What's the weather like?"The weather here is a real contrast too, in summer it reaches 45 degrees and in winter it can go down to minus 45, though so far this winter it has been pretty mild, the coldest we have had so far has been minus 30 Although as I type this it's about two degrees above freezing and we are knee deep in mud. You have never seen mud until you come here, there is mud everywhere, and it gets everywhere, not just on the site but in the city too, and it has a consistency somewhere between glue and that gunk they used to use on Noel's House Party. Atyrau and the area I work in are on the Steppe which is a semi desert area, it is very flat and totally treeless. You can see for miles in every direction and it was quite disconcerting when I first got here as I'm used to a few hills and some greenery. It is also very brown!" What are the people like?"The people I work with, Turkish, Russian or Kazakh are extremely friendly. They are very genuine and always ready to help. My best friends here are Turkish and we spend nearly all day everyday together, be it working or in the pub. On Christmas day I took one of them to the city where we had Christmas dinner, it was his first Christmas and my first Christmas away from home, we ate lots of food, wore silly hats and probably had a few too many beers. I went from having a pretty depressing Christmas stuck in the office to having a really good one in the city. I didn't get any presents though..." On average, how many Borat jokes do you hear from your mates back home each week?"You would be amazed at how many of my friends keep saying 'Yagshemash' and asking about Borat. I honestly never get tired of it..." last updated: 08/04/2008 at 12:31 Have Your Say
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