Softball!?!

Life has just gotten a lot better, with the move to the apartment, but that doesn't mean it has gotten any less busy. I look back on March and see a completed move, a successful teacher training roadshow, and Writing Olympics completed. April will hopefully finalize all the details of the apartment (can we get this shower working? just how long will it truly take to get internet?), reassess the teacher training roadshow and reapply to grants, and work with the Xachmaz Softball Team.

Yup, you heard me right. Softball. Some of you may know my aversion to sports with a bat. Not a fan; ranking somewhere near planning office parties, softball and baseball are amongst my least favorite things. However, last year some Peace Corps Volunteers got funding for a really cool program for Azeri youth. Cities in Azerbaijan would organize softball teams and would travel around the country for tournaments. It was a huge success and this year its expanding. So, on one cold Sunday last week, 10 Azeri kids and 6 Americans donned donated gloves and started throwing the ball around for our first softball practice.

It was cool how we just started playing, never really explaining the rules. We started tossing the ball around. Then we introduced batting. Then we introduced bases, and the idea that they would try and run the bases, then the idea of outs. Baseball is actually a really complicated game and I dig how we're keeping the focus on doing rather than rules-going over strike zones, balls, and positions. Kids don't want that, they want to hit a ball with a heavy bat. After the initial hesitation of an unfamiliar sport and unfamiliar faces everyone started to have a really good time. We were one Michael J. Fox away from a Disney movie here.

I mentioned that Writing Olympics has taken place. We had a good showing, about 20 kids from Xachmaz, and I've heard of other cities that have had similar showings, so we're hoping for a good turnout (good being 301-1 more student than last year). Surf on over to the link below to see what I whipped up in iWeb (home page: not designed by me) to showcase the event. If you're feeling so moved, there's also a link to donate to the event. Tomorrow I'm heading down to Baku to judge the essays. Lannea has already read some of them from Xachmaz and she is really excited for what they've wrote.

This will be the second time this week I'll be in Baki. I was there on Thursday and Friday for the TEFL Counterpart conference, a conference early in our service for PCVs and their main teacher they are working with. It was really good, surprisingly so. The first day PCVs and counterparts were split and the second we were together. After being in the schools long enough for it to become a grind it was really motivating to have a training full of great ideas and exchange with our teachers about how we want to work in the future. My teacher now knows I want to work on zero-preparation lessons and she wants to learn how to draw as I do, quickly and embarrassingly. We never knew!

I full encourage you sending me anything you think of. I love mail! Here are some things that would be especially cherished/tweeted about.

EmergenC-always a useful item
Coffee-ground fine, for a french press.
Any mixes (pesto, french onion, etc)
Stickers-especially of American flags
Colored construction paper
Whiskey
Socks-the socks here SUCK, and they're expensive. As much as I love whiskey, this is probably the most necessary item on the list.
Goldfish-the snack, not the vertebrate