Qax Düşərgə = Flag Football

Flag Football became the theme of the camp. It was requested everyday and I gave the kiddles what they wanted. The kids got crazy competitive and everyday, try to explain as I might, they couldn't get it. So much shouting and going on as if each game was life or death. It may have been a tad annoying at the time, but it's hoot now!

Here's us being poor examples to being a team player and encouraging showing off and mild smack talking.
The cutest player on the field! He's 4 and had to come to camp otherwise his older sisters wouldn't be allowed. I was helping him but frankly he was holding me down!
The sprawl. We have all been freed from jail and are booking it to our side so we can return for the counter attack.
"Okay... we're in the safety zone, we have the flag, now when I say go you run for your life."
Jess played a bit nicer than I did. She slowed down and played all cutesy. Good thing she did.
This is my game face. In case you were wondering, yes I always play with my game face on.
Unfortunately my intense game face and smack talking led to many arguments. Every time I was surrounded by a group of shouting kids, I looked over to Stephanie and saw this. I have a game face, she has a "you're too much for me right now" face.

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Qax Düşərgə 2010!!!

Gakh Summer Camp 2010 was a lot of fun. I had help from about 10 other PCV's who came out to help me blow these kids minds away with summer camp fun! It was at the end of August for 6 days from 9a-1p at the Kids Sports Stadium in Gakh. The days went as follows:

Monday - Welcome Day: loads of games
Tuesday - Sports Day: Capture the Flag, Kickball, Soccer and Volleyball
Wednesday - Hiking Day: Group hike to Qum (the closest village)
Thursday - Theatre Day: Theatre Games, Sock Puppets, etc
Friday - Surprise Day: Water balloons, egg drops and dancing
Saturday - Carnival Day: Think 5th grade Field Day

First off we played games...lots of games. Here the kids took my grossly over-sized clothing (2-3 sizes) and relay raced in teams across the field. It was hilarious. The clothing was bright and fun which made the kids excited and made the Americans laugh even harder when the kids thought they were clown clothes. Thank you Target PJ's!
Then we played Red Light Green Light, Simon Says, What time is it Mr Fox?, Sharks and Minnows, and many other classics. Here are the kids waiting for the green light to come.

So much happiness up front - that's because she made it. However in the back those girls were a bit terrified. This game was taken way too seriously.
Now they're asking permission to advance. Aren't they adooooooooorable?Now we can see Stephanie overseeing Mr Fox himself. The kids cheat so much we had to have at least one judge to keep every player honest. I love the looks on their faces when you catch them and they're deciding whether or not to argue. Last up, Ninja! I love this game. Everyone gathers in a circle and one by one you get a chance to karate chop another players hand (you can move if you're being attacked). It's a very quick and intense game beause people can be coming at you from all sides. Here you can see the Qax Star (ME!) and Romiko battle it out for the win! If I remember correctly, he kicked my butt.

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The day we Nuş-ed!

I came up to Zaqatala with some friends and a super awesome competition ensued. 30 minute watermelon eating contest!
Once we arrived at Jessica's we figured out all of the rules:

• One 8 kilo (17.6lbs) watermelon
• One spoon
• 30 minutes
• All liquid must be drunk
• Seed spitting is okay

We left Jessica's and headed out to buy said watermelons but we could not find anybody nearby. Fortunately we live in Azerbaijan, so when we saw a car drive by full of watermelons we flagged him down and bought them right there in the middle of the street. All measured we headed up to the school where we planned to compete. Upon looking at the school we decided that the curb on the side of the street would be better...so we did.

Since I was involved there was trash talking. The best part was that all of the people who passed us were really cool about it. We were told "Nuş Olsun" (Bon Apetit) many times and the laughing was with us not at us. Great day for joint PCV and HCN(Host Country National) fun times!
Note this second video has a bit more pain in all of our eyes.

By the end a winner was determined, here are the results:
6th Place: Clarissa - 1.1 kilos (2.4lbs)
5th Place: Jade - 1.5 kilos (3.3lbs)
4th Place: ME - 1.7 kilos (3.7lbs)
2nd Place: John - 2 kilos (4.4lbs)
2nd Place: Sean - 2 kilos (4.4lbs)
1st Place: Stephanie - 2.1 kilos (4.6lbs)

Stephanie is a beast. If you look in the second video she doesn't even look like it's killing her. Who knew? It was totally worth it even though for the next hour we all had to lay down to prevent the watermelon from returning. As we were all in different states of horizontal-ness we were discussing Ramadan. Many Azerbaijanis are following this year (no eating and drinking for most of the day) and some PCV's too. Stephanie being the intelligent one realized that we sat on a street eating a watermelon in front of everyone. We all immediately felt like idiots. Luckily up north things are not so conservative so we are in a general consensus that it was not too offensive. Plus with the inability to eat and drink, walking about in this heat would not be so probable thus hopefully these people would not have seen us. All in all, good day in Zaqatala.

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