Baseball, Bad Haircuts, and Birthdays

My cousin, Abdulla, the kids, and I at Abdulla's 17th birthday party. He's the youngest in his eleventh form class, meaning even though he'll graduate this year, he still has one more year before his mandatory two year service in the military.

Awhile back, Peace Corps volunteers decided to get some pick up baseball games going with their kids. They had some supplies donated from America, got a few rag tag kids together and had some fun. Now this has turned into a ten team league, supported by grants, with regional tournaments once a month through the season, and a big bash in Baku with special guests from the embassy. Here, Goychay hosted Yevlakh and Ismayilli for an afternoon match-up. Yevlakh boasts four girls, with two getting permission to travel to a different region. Here is volunteer Julie Nelson and her two brave girls.

Dan and I cheering from the stands

Goychay was short a player, so we talked our friend Konul into stepping up. She agreed, threw on a t-shirt, and after about ten minutes I had showed her (most) of the ropes. She said it took a full game before she understood, but she made it to first every time, and even if she didn't catch every ball, she made sure to at least stop it from getting to far.

Here are more of the Yevlakh Yahoos. Julie's university donated their awesome red shirts making them a pretty official first year team.

Here is Mehran from the Goychay Wild Cats (Veshi Peshik) making Ismayilli work for their win.

And as always, we end with some good sportsmanship.

This softball league has been really great. The majority of the region children don't participate on sports teams. They all play backyard soccer, but there is no sense of being on a team in the way we think about. Encouraging others, working for the greater good, keeping your head up even when you're losing, and not throwing temper tantrums are basics for our children at a young age, btu it is simply not the case here. The kids also get a chance to travel to other regions without their family (almost unheard of), meet friends from other parts of Azerbaijan, and learn a new sport. My sitemate, Matt Thornton, started up his team out in his village, but now some of the kids we know from the city come out to play as well. Even having the tournament at the stadium in Goychay was great exposure for the Goychay Mayor's office, police, and Education Ministry to see us with the children and prove we aren't teaching them secret military-op training.