Play Ball!!!

Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical. - Yogi Berra

I think Mr. Berra was right--baseball takes 140% effort, particularly when you are teaching the sport to 25 complete novices ranging in age from 8 to 18. Last Saturday, the American Sports Club put on a 4-hour baseball extravaganza, starting with the basics and working our way up to a full-fledged game and man, it was really, really fun.

Pulling off this event could only be done with the help of many parties that I want to give a shout-out to. First, the American kids who donated equipment and the organization Pitch In For Baseball for collecting it and sending it to us (and my wonderful parents for covering the shipping). Second, the American Corner Bitola staff for finding a playing field, buying snacks and T-shirts, and the Corner's interns for covering everything from translating instructions to playing catcher. Third, to the American Sports Club founders who applied for the equipment and helped teach the younger kids on Saturday. And last but far from least, my fantastic regional sitemates from Peace Corps who got up early on their Saturday, who didn't complain when we ran out of snacks, and who know WAY more about baseball than me so the kids actually learned how to play properly.

All week I had been dreading that the forecasts for rain would be true and cause the game to be canceled but miraculously, we got an ideal sunny spring day. We played on a field outside the soccer stadium and I guess the magnetism of baseball is undeniable--several kids defected from soccer practice and joined us instead. I must say, the youth impressed me with their ability to pick up the game even if it took us awhile to get everyone to understand that if you don't run over the base, it doesn't count. I think when we have real bases instead of egg cartons this will be clearer because, after all, why would you stomp egg cartons? Also memorable was when one kid hit a homer and proceeded to run the bases carrying his batting helmet tucked under his arm.

One of my favorite parts was Kaylee and Lauren's solution for putting the kids in a memorable batting order--they just lined them up in height order, shortest to tallest. I'm sure the major leagues will be switching to this approach soon, it's so logical. And the night before the game, we had a baseball talk at the American Corner where I gave them cracker jacks made by yours truly and we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," a requirement for earning a taste of said cracker jacks.

There are photos and even some video of all the baseball revelry up on Picasa. Some of the pictures are taken by me, but most are from Helene, my sitemate, and Stefan, an American Sports Club founder who is an amazing photographer. To close, I'd like to use another Yogi-ism:
I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.

The Big One

The big one--a major, bold, and innovative project. Most Peace Corps volunteers, at least in my estimation, want a Big One that they can point to as their success story, their volunteer legacy. I do not seem to be immune to this desire and I have to say, it's looking like the Big One will elude me. When I leave Macedonia, there will be no new building or annual event which I can say I created. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations for myself but lately I feel like my efforts have fallen short.

Tomorrow is Earth Day and as the lone environmental volunteer in my group, I feel as though I should have done a huge activity. Instead, I taught two classes with environmental lessons, one to kids and another to an adult English class. With the kids, it was organized chaos as I tried to be heard over about 16 rambunctious children in a small area. If I'm lucky, a few of them got the green messages above the din. Counting the 30 or so people in the adult class along with the kiddos, I reached about 0.05% of the city's population so, go me.

I got turned down to be a trainer for the next group of incoming volunteers, mainly because Peace Corps wants me to spend more time with my new work site after leaving the national park. I feel like I am being punished for being given a bad assignment in the first place and if the intent is to help me land the Big One, I think it will be for naught. Maybe I'm just grumpy because I have stitches on my back (minor thing, don't worry) and I haven't been able to exercise all week.

With the recent coverage of how Greg Mortenson allegedly exaggerated his accomplishments in his bestseller "Three Cups of Tea," maybe it is a good thing that I am keeping it real and saying yeah, I've only done a little bit. Thinking about writing this entry, I came across this Chinese proverb that gives me some reassurance:
It is better to take many small steps in the right direction than to make a great leap forward only to stumble backward.

I think it's the small stuff for me and I'm trying to be okay with that, embracing the forward momentum. Small but significant, for instance, is that I got two guys from my new boys club to volunteer in helping me teach the kids for Earth Day and they did a super job. And hey, if there was any doubt that I'm still a top notch volunteer, I suggest you read this great writeup by my friend Patrice, formerly a volunteer here and now a life coach. It's part of a series she is doing in honor of the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, so I encourage you to scroll through her blog and read about other volunteers' contributions, big and small.

K-k-k-kickball!

Explaining a baseball-like sport to people who have never played the game--this was the task before Ashley and me as we participated in the Bitola American Sports Club's second event, kickball. For the uninitiated, kickball is essentially baseball but you kick a bouncy ball instead of batting. However, as I said, none of the kids had ever played baseball so we needed to explain everything--what is a base, what are the bases called, which order do you run them, what's a foul, what's an out, etc--and do it before we lost everyone's attention.

The game actually started well although we did realize in the course of our play that we forgot a few key points, such as you can't actually pass the person in front of you as you run the bases, even if you are faster than him or her. Also the batting order is not to be renegotiated every inning, and players on the bench cannot kick the ball away from the catcher in an attempt to help their runner reach home plate. We had to move the second base, aka egg carton, about halfway through because it was getting lost in a mud pit. A few shoes (and one pair of glasses) came off in early innings until everyone got their kicking techniques perfected. All-in-all though, the match-up between Ashley's Wild Dogs and my Wildcats was a rousing success.


More pics are up on Picasa and I think you'll agree, we have one of the most scenic fields in all of sports. Our baseball equipment donation was approved and everything is in the mail, so next time we play kickball the kids will get to really run the bases and not egg cartons!

Ultimightier Ultimate?

Saturday was the Bitola American Sports Club's first event, Ultimate Frisbee, and when I awoke to a light but steady rain, all I could think was, "Oh no!" The kids did such a great job promoting the event with flyers around town, a Facebook page, and a website, but all I could imagine was that nobody would come to play in this kind of weather. Dutifully fellow volunteer Kaylee (who got up at 5 AM to come help) and I went to the meeting spot and were pleased to see a few hardy souls waiting. All told, 10 kids showed up to play!

I feel like I can't emphasize enough what troopers these kids were--first of all, it is a half hour walk to the field where we played. Then they ran warmups in the rain, practiced throwing in the rain, listened to the rules in the rain and, you guessed it, played Ultimate Frisbee in yet more rain. We were wet, we were sliding around on the muddy field dodging cow pies, and we had a blast! I posted some pictures on Picasa, but it really doesn't do justice to how terrible the conditions were but clearly everyone was smiling and having fun nevertheless.

I am happy to report that, if we can figure out the shipping and customs, we will be getting a donation of baseball equipment from a group in the U.S. and another organization may be donating American football equipment. I am not sure what sport we'll tackle next month but we are having a planning meeting tonight to figure it out. I am certain, however, that we will play Ultimate Frisbee again sometime!