Thursday, April 21, 2011

Sports Day in Moldova coming soon!

I just got an email from Bobby-- they're doing a "sports day" in Moldova in late May, and are hoping to run an adults' absolute as an "appetizer" for future BJJ training, so let's finalize the sending-gis program! I'd rather anyone who is donating send them directly to

Mihaita Tudor
Str Traian 187-189 ap 32
sec 2
Bucuresti, Romania

I recently went through my finances and realized I won't be able to retire ever if I don't increase my savings rate, so I did, and that means I won't have a bunch of money for posting boxes to Romania. However, I will happily donate some money to the sports day award fund.

Here's Bobby's email to me:

Hey Georgette,

As promised, I emailed my former boss at Peace Corps and she forwarded my info to all the volunteers in the country. Unfortunately I only got one response, and it was from a volunteer who knows a guy who is working with kids in MMA but he doesn't have a permanent location or mats or anything. I don't think we'd be able to get a team started there until he at least got a permanent place to train (he's using like an abandoned school right now).

So as far as I know, I have one person who has pledged "30 kg" of gis (thanks Mikkel!). I'm not really sure how that fits into our gi counter but I suppose if I have more than I need then I can make use of the extra ones somehow. He told me that we would get the gis to me late June, so we will plan to head out from Romania in early July to have the kids' and possibly adults' tournament.

What I'd really LIKE to do is go out to the village in late May, for when they have the "sports day" and hold an adults' "absolute weight class" tournament and give away maybe a little cash and a t-shirt and a certificate just to help spark interest. My former student who is training out here in Bucharest with me right now will be in the village for the summer so he will be able to help me with the tournament (his participation in organizational things is really key since the long-term success of the program is pretty much in his hands).

I think our gi counter still stands at:

No kids gis
No adult gis
No new gis

Ok, I'll be in touch. Take care,
-b

So please tell me if you're mailing gis, what size and how many, and I'll make sure to get that to Bobby. Thank you so much! That's the first step-- then maybe we'll have some international travelers heading that way this summer to do some training! How awesome would that be!

And a treat:



And another:

3 comments:

A.D. McClish said...

Hey G. I have a question. What if you have a really ugly looking gi that you don't use? The first gi I ever ordered off of ebay is hideous. I never wore it once. Do you think they would still want it? I mean, its in good shape. No holes or anything. Just...really ugly. lol

Georgette said...

I'm sure they'd use it no matter how ugly. What is it- purple and pink camo?? Lol :)

Bobby and Amanda said...

No, but really, send it AD! We got a lot of initial interest in the project but so far no donations.

I am working on setting up a website so that people can people can donate money for things like shelves to store the gis and small cash prizes. Like I said before, we really don't need much but we do need some stuff. Like gis.

Anybody out there know anything about starting a website with a "donate" button (and also a way to give money back in case it doesn't get used)?