the busy month ahead

like the title of this entry suggests, this coming month will be my busiest thus far. first, i must say this:

THANK YOU to everyone who donated money to the Azerbaijani children's softball league!!! We raised all the funds we asked for. This means that softball in Azerbaijan will be capable of continuing for another year, despite the fact our funder ditched us at the last moment.

Speaking of softball, we have our first major tournament tomorrow. Teams from different cities including Barda, Sheki, and Ganja are coming here (Mingechevir) in order to compete. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

Other reasons why I am busy this month: I have to go to Baku again for an Environmental Committee meeting. I hope to start a community garden project this fall...
Next week I will be in Sheki helping with a summer camp for a couple of days. It will be nice to get into the mountains where it is cooler. Volunteers in other regions keep telling me it is hotter in my city than theirs...the bastards! Sheki is in the mountains, so I'd be shocked if it didn't get a bit nicer.

Then there is an all volunteer camp out! whoo hoo...

July 4th my city is hosting a huge event. It was supposed to celebrate the birth of one of my sitemates, Cindy, but she had to leave back for the United States. We in Mingechevir are NOT happy about this, but Cindy was ready to go. Technically, she fully completed her service. Cindy, you will be missed! Now, for the first time ever, I have a reason to visit Nebraska.

I just got a project from my organization that must be completed by mid July. This project is exactly the kind of work I want to do, but I just found out about it yesterday. So, I already agreed to a lot of traveling and other volunteer work before taking this on as well. Whoops. But the project is as follows: two half day (sorta, more like 5-6 hours at a time. yikes) trainings for farmers in two different cities (Barda and Mingechevir) regarding basic business skills like bookkeeping, business writing, inventory, etc. Oh, and it should be in the Azerbaijani language....yeaaaaaaah. I guess I need to start practicing that again. Wish me luck.