After months of uncomfortably cold and crappy weather, spring has finally begun to rear its head in Zaqatala. While it has been raining on and off for the past few days, last week we got to see a sneak peek as to what spring/summer will bring. The sun was shining, it was warm enough outside to not need a jacket, and people on the street looked happier.
As I've mentioned before, I have a Youth/Game Club where I get together with some local kids and hang out and play games. The week before last a few of the kids suggested we play frisbee, and so this past Friday I made sure to bring one with me, in addition to the pile of other games I usually carry. I recently found a bag of those shape-bracelets in the stack of things I got from the AZ6 PCV's who left last year, so I decided to start the club with a small contest; the winner would get one of the bracelets. I pulled out my book of sudoku and ripped out an easy puzzle for each of the kids, enticing them to finish as fast as they could to win the 'secret' prize.
Even though sudoku is prevalent here in Azerbaijan, I underestimated how long it would take to finish the puzzle. I was hoping there would be a winner after about 15 minutes, so we could spend the rest of the time playing frisbee outside. It took about four times that long. After sitting around for an hour, Könül finally finished and won the bracelet. Some of the kids wanted to keep going so they could finish their puzzle; one boy asked if he could have more so he could do them at home! How cool is that?!? I love sudoku so I was super happy to find that they (well, at least some of them) liked it too!
So anywho afterwards we all went outside and started throwing around the frisbee in a circle. After a few lessons on how to throw it correctly (I barely know how to throw it myself), I organized the group into teams so we could play ultimate frisbee. I've never actually played ultimate frisbee, so most of the rules either came from the kids who had played before or I just made up based on some faint recollections of hearing someone explain it to me.
So I made two goals across the 'field' (we were playing in a driveway/parking lot) and placed the frisbee in the middle, making each team run from their goal to the frisbee to decide possession. (I'm preeeetty sure this isn't how its actually played but then again - who actually cares as long as we're playing something amiright?) I explain that you can't run with the frisbee; if you catch it you must stand in place and throw it to someone else, although you can 'pivot'. We start playing and everyone's getting really into it... when suddenly one of the girls throws the frisbee into the air...... and it lands on top of the roof of the building next to the lot. GAME OVER. We literally must've played for 3 minutes before we lost the frisbee. In fact I spent more time going over my fake ass rules than actually playing the game! It was hilarious. As someone who (as you can probably tell) isn't really that big a fan of ultimate frisbee in the first place, I didn't really care that we lost the frisbee. The girl felt bad however and I assured her that it was okay, it happens to everyone, I can get another frisbee, [insert other comforting comment here] etc.
At the same time that this is all happening, there is a çayxana next to our 'field' where there is a table of men clearly talking about and laughing at us. They seemed to be quite amused with our frisbee playing. When the frisbee landed on the roof, they let out a big "AY DAAAAA!" in unison.
Anyway so with the frisbee gone I went to plan B - the YD staples of Ninja and POW. I tried to introduce Big Booty (the game, not someone's derriere) but they weren't really into it so we stuck with POW instead. After about a half hour, a truck rolls into the parking lot that is now our play area and parks right beside the building where our frisbee landed. The driver gets out, and the dudes that were making fun of us start shouting something at him. When the driver gets back in the truck we realize that the men have convinced him to try to get our frisbee back for us! He backs up the truck to get closer to the building, gets out of the truck and proceeds to climb on top of it and onto the roof where he reaches over for the frisbee and throws it down to us. All the kids start clapping and shouting "ÇOX SAĞ OL!!"
We finish the day throwing the frisbee around in a circle - havin' a good ol' time.
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