Ulimate Frisbee in Kazakhstan

Oh, those silly hippies... these are the kids that wore their shirts the last day; not everyone.

This is my Kazakhstan doppleganger, she even has the same catches

I almost subtitled this entry "The Revolution Begins;" that would be an overstatement, but it would also express just how excited I am after the Ultimate Frisbee camp we had last week at my site. Six Peace Corps volunteers taught thirty six kids from 5-9th grades the basics of Ultimate, from throws and catches to fouls and self-officiating. And while our success on that last topic is debatable, our kids were able to play without our help by the end of the week. More importantly, they loved it and it took a real effort to get them to stop playing and go home! They ran us into the ground; at every break the volunteers would collapse onto available flat spaces and fall asleep.

Oleg, Disc, War Memorial

There were problems. The first host family I placed volunteers in turned sour, so I ended up with 3 guests at my house (the fourth visitor stayed with Jeff). This was a blessing in disguise, as this group of volunteers, most of whom I'd met only through email, ended up being kindred spirits. I knew I was in good company on the first day, when Aaron, an NGO volunteer, began giving out nicknames. This is a surefire way of intenfiying an Ultimate officianado. I usually have the ability to shuck off nicknames like corn husks, but at least for this week I picked up a couple: Nora the Explorer, No-no, and Toys R Us (you'll have to ask Aaron about that last one, I'm still confused as to where it came from).

Nora, Jeff, Justin, Aaron, Nathan, Mary

To compliment and complete the hippie spirit of the camp, we made tie dye shirts, like the one I'm wearing in the above picture. This was probably the aspect that my school administration liked the most; something no one had ever seen before that we could show as tangible proof of the camp. Thanks to Jeff's parents for the dye and t-shit kit.

Nora and Erkin talk attendance and strategy

There's not much else I can say about the camp; partially I'm in shock that it's really over after months of planning and stress. I think I fulfilled my camp director role well and was able to solve most of the glitches that came up, from bloody noses to rehearsing
cultural centers that wanted to kick us off the fields. Enjoy the photos, especially those of you that are either Ultimate addicts or enablers.

Rosham (rock paper scissors) for pull (kick off)

Thanks to everyone that sent discs (Eli, Jill, anyone that contributed to the box my dad sent). With a last minute addition of cheap Discraft discs (they have a sweet deal to send Peace Corps volunteers rejects), we were able to give away about 25 discs to our most active campers. They were thrilled and when I saw one of the girls yesterday, she said she was already schemeing with friends to meet up and play. Viva healthy living! Viva sport! Viva Ultimate!

No! Albert! Don't huck it away again! Gulmira, nice mark.

Now off to Almaty, Em is coming to visit and I need to get us into Kyrghizia. She's blogging about her adventures here.

How can you not love this picture?