Play ball!!! Or something like it!!

So something I’ve learned is that a majority of the Peace Corps experience is teaching skills which one is only mildly comfortable with oneself. For example, I don’t know much about computers, but I can use Microsoft Word. I know a little bit about running a small business, albeit in an American context, so I do my best to give sound advice.

The latest manifestation of me offering my meager experience and skill set, and being treated as an expert is that now I am coaching softball. Mind you, I played back when I was 11 and 12, and those were two awkward summers. The hand-eye coordination was never there, nor was the attention span. Even so, while I may have been able to throw reasonably well at the time, those skills are long gone through lack of practice. Nonetheless, some organization affiliated with the Olympic Committee here in the Gambia is spending money to organize sandlot softball teams, and while there are two Gambian coaches, neither of them has ever played before either, nor do they know the rules, so my PCV friend and I are doing our best to guide the group.

How to do that? I know what good throwing technique looks like, but I can’t demonstrate. I know what a good swing looks like, but I can’t actually connect with the ball (actually any improvement was good here, many swung the bat in a downward motion like an ax). When I was learning all these skills, my coach or father would stand directly behind me, holding the bat with me, and guide me through the swing, but in this conservative society that doesn’t seem right for me to wrap my arms around an adolescent boy, but words sometimes fail, what to do? I do know the rules fairly well, but how to adequately explain them without the language? And there are a lot of nuances, that seem very logical to me, but may not if you hadn‘t grown up with it--you can run through first base but not through any of the others. You can’t throw the ball AT the runner to get them out. What if the batter hits the ball, the ball hits the first baseman, then bounces foul? Is it foul, or fair? What about if your ball is an unripe mango?

I’m especially happy when girls show up, even if its inconvenient. They are always late, or absent entirely from morning practice, only showing up in the evening. While their brothers are free to roam the neighborhoods and engage in pick-up games, the girls are home fetching water, cooking, sweeping, and doing the family’s laundry. So while it is irritating having to re-teach all the skills over and over, I know its not their fault. And I’m pretty proud of them for wanting to participate.

Overall, its been fun, and we did finally get equipment, though not nearly enough to have 40 or 50 kids practice. I’d like to think I’m coaching future Olympians, but in all I’m fine with just making sure some kids have some fun on a Saturday. Now if we could only get a pool over here(and NOT at a tourist hotel), I could coach on a skill that I actually know something about. ;-)