One thing Kelly Ray found when she traveled overseas is so many young people are fascinated by America.
Two years ago, Ray spent a semester at Kazakhstan’s Kazakh Economic University. The director of marketing for The PARC Group taught at the school’s English club and shared insights into American culture.
Before Ray came back home, she offered something else. She told one Kazakh teenager that she wanted her to come to America.
A year later, Ray returned and made good on that offer. She invited Aisulu Ispayeva, 18, and another Kazakh student, Aigul Zhumasheva, 26, to teach summer camp at Nocatee.
Months of planning and visa applications followed, until the two found themselves in the St. Johns County community, swimming, playing soccer and singing songs from “Beauty and the Beast” alongside American children.
“They really have been the heart of summer camp this year,” Ray said. “They brought a simplicity and childlike enjoyment. The kids were just drawn to them.”
Forming friendships beyond cultures
In 2012 Ray went to Kazakhstan because she wanted to travel and because she had connections through her church with Kazakh Economic University in Almaty, the nation’s commercial and cultural center.
“It was a period of my life where I had five months to do something unique and really make a difference,” Ray said.
Located between Russia and China, Kazakhstan was part of the former Soviet Union until it declared its independence
20 years ago.
A unitary republic like England, in Kazakhstan, capitalism is still a young idea. That made an American — especially one who knows marketing — very popular at the university, where Ray worked alongside two other visiting American women.
“When they came to the university, it was such a big deal,” Ispayeva said. “They were celebrities. Everybody knew about them.”
Because of trade with neighboring countries, Kazakhs grow up learning their native language of Kazakh and Russian. Young people also learn English, but most of the university students had never heard it spoken by an American before.
“The first time I showed up for a class I had this whole presentation on marketing trends in America,” Ray said. “And they said, ‘Have you ever met Brad Pitt? Congratulations on Obama.’”
What they really wanted was to hear her speak English with an American accent.
The cultural exchange went both ways.
“Everybody that met us said, ‘Have you seen the movie ‘Borat’? We are nothing like that,’” Ray said. “I told them, ‘Have you ever seen ‘Mean Girls’? We’re nothing like that.’”
When Ispayeva learned Ray’s favorite place in Almaty was an American coffee shop, she insisted on showing her the city’s museums and art galleries instead. The two became friends.
Two years later, it would be Ray’s turn to introduce Ispayeva to America.
In Jacksonville, Ispayeva was surprised to learn American women aren’t all party girls, like they are in movies. Also, she was taken aback when a restaurant worker called her “honey,” her first encounter with Southern charm.
“This surprises me — you are going down the street and people say, ‘Hi how are you?’ A complete stranger,” Ispayeva said. “People communicate nicely to each other. I like this thing – manners.”
Ray’s family also took the girls to Disney World.
“I was amazed. It was my childhood dream to go to Disney,” Ispayeva said.
She would not be the only person to have a dream come true.
‘In one day, everything happened’
Aigul Zhumasheva grew up in an orphanage in Almaty. She was often invited to the home of an American couple, Julie and Harold Nesbitt, who held Bible classes for the children. For Zhumasheva, Julie Nesbitt became a trusted friend, like a stepmother.
One day, Zhumasheva shared a secret — she wanted to work in America.
“When I was a little kid,” she said, “I wanted to see another country, see how the world is.”
Zhumasheva forgot she had said it, but Nesbitt didn’t.
Years later, Nesbitt met Ray. She told her she had a girl who wanted to go to America and she introduced Zhumasheva.
“I didn’t know she cared so much about this,” Zhumasheva said. “In one day, everything happened.”
Zhumasheva, who was studying sports and tourism in school, learned she would be working with 50 kids in a different country. Ray told her she’d have to work on her English.
“She told me I would work in Nocatee. I tried to memorize this name. I could not memorize it,” Zhumasheva said.
In Nocatee, Zhumasheva wasn’t sure how to bridge the cultural divide, until the kids at camp started swimming and playing soccer.
“When it’s sports, I know what to do. It just comes out of me,” she said.
Zhumasheva was amazed by her hosts’ hospitality. While here, she got to zip line over alligators and swim with dolphins. But also, she saw how good American jobs can be.
She earned $600 every two weeks, twice the amount she could earn back home. She’s saving the money to help pay for furniture when she has gets her apartment.
Asked about her small role in a Kazakhstan/American cultural exchange, Zhumasheva is modest. What she knows is, when she gets back she’s “going to share with people everything.”
For Ray, the cultural exchange grows larger each time she renews her relationship with Kazakhstan. Last fall she helped teach marketing in the former Soviet republic.
Today, people in Nocatee are learning about a far away country from two Kazakh girls.
“To bring all of those worlds together over two years, it was like, how did this happen?” Ray said. “To see my family and friends interact with them, it shows this is bigger than just me.”
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