This past week was a world wind. Monday I went to my first Azeri wedding. Tuesday I went to Song Zeng, which means last bell, and is the ceremony marking the end of school and graduation for 11th formers. All of thursday was spent getting internet in my house, which finally started working Friday (...let me pause a moment to let the gravity of that last statement sink in-I now have internet in my house). Saturday was spent preparing the First Ever Country Wide Game of Assassin and readying myself for a week long trip that commenced Sunday, with Khachmaz's first softball tournament, in Baki.
Which brings me to the subject of my email. Over the past couple of months myself, a few other PCVs, and a couple of Azeris have been coaching a group of Azeri youth in softball. The word 'coaching' may be a bit strong for kids who only have 7 weeks experience with catching, throwing, and batting. As recent as a couple weeks ago the minutes before practice were closer to a challenge in American Gladiators, with softballs misaimed in every direction, rather than an organized team sport.
But they've gotten a bit better and we finally had nine who understood about half the rules of baseball with a vague understanding of a position or two to play. Last week we had our first simulation game to prepare for this week, our first tournament game. Our opponents were the mighty Bilasavar, who had been playing for two years and practiced four times a week, Sunday alone was a four hour practice for them. But with a promised paid-in-full after game meal at McDonalds sweetening the deal we were all pretty excited to give it our all.
We approached the field like every sports movie ever made featuring a rag-tag group of kids. And just like every first game played in those movies, we got slaughtered. I mentioned that our team only had about half the rules down. Baseball is an incredibly complicated game and our team just had begun to understand where shortstop stands and which base they'll throw to; we had to save concepts like tagging the base after a fly out or force outs for game two preparation.
With this in mind, it wasn't surprising that we got trounced pretty royally. However we did score some runs and make some good plays so the coaches were certainly satisfied. And once we told the kids how hard Bilasavar practiced to give them some perspective they became pretty satisfied with how they did too. Unfortunately this also means that they now want to practice 4 times a week.
For Americans, baseball is part of our cultural heritage. Whether one like baseball or not, it is well known that there are 9 innings in a game, or the layout of a baseball diamond. For Azeris baseball is 100% foreign and the idea of not running after the ball you just hit, or throwing the ball to the base where the runner is going rather than was just at really has to be taught. This is just one more item to add to a long list of times in my service where I must explain and justify a concept or preference that I take as tremendously fundamental. Raising hands in class, preferring to drink water, waiting to let someone finish speaking, not wanting to live with a family; what ever it is the Peace Corps really showcases just how cultural all of our taken-for-granted assumptions truly are.
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