Softball In The AZ

October 10, 2007

This week has been really great. On Friday I went down to Barda in the central part of the country for a softball tournament with the Sheki team. There are four regions that have softball teams with Americans and Azeri’s.

Friday night was great fun we went to one volunteer’s house and had a wonderful spaghetti casserole with garlic bread and got to meet up with a bunch of different volunteers. The next morning we woke up and went to a field, that actually had grass, and played a double header. My team lost the first in a total melt down in the 9th inning we were up I think 12 – 3 in the top of the ninth and ended up losing to something like 17 – 15. Then the second game I think we won by 22 – 2. It was so much fun to be out in the sun playing softball. Later that day we all gathered at a different volunteers house where we ate some great lentil stew, mashed potatoes and homemade biscuits!

The next morning we woke up and headed to the field again and played two more games with the Azeri’s. Unfortunately not all the Azeris showed up so we couldn’t do a real tournament. But we divided up who we had and they all had a really good time! There we a few that actually really good. After the game we had to leave right away to catch our marshrutka back to Sheki.

As we were pulling into the Sheki Autovagzal the last marshrutka to Zaqatala was pulling out. So we went up to the 5 star western hotel and ate a real cheeseburger! Then those of us from the north shared the cost of a cab back home. As we were in the cab satisfied from our cheeseburgers and completely exhausted from the weekend we realized how much each of us wanted to get back to our homes. It was nice to have that feeling of this being my home and the desire after being away to want to come back to what I’ve learned is familiar and comfortable.

This weekend I’m heading down to one of the villages to stay with another volunteer and his host family to experience the end of Ramadan. They are a very strict Muslim family and it should be a great cultural experience! Ramadan is the holy month from mid September to mid October where Muslim people fast during the daylight hours. Then at the end they throw a huge weekend long feast! It should be great fun and I look forward to sharing it with you.