Archery in the Rhodopes.

Some of the early complaints I heard when I first arrived at my site were, "the kids are always playing computer games"; "they are becoming lazy and less active"; "do you know these teens are already smoking and drinking?!". "..they need to play more sports", remarked someone. During those early weeks I also received various requests from the kids as though I was mystery Santa doling out benjamins. One of then said, "Shah, can we have archery..?". To that I blankly replied, "sure, why not!". At that time I didn't want to spoil the child's mood, but knew that I needed more than just a wish to create a sustainable environment. As I started to learn and live and play in the community, it became more apparent that the children were in fact spending less time in any after-school activities, and simply turning to video games or something else. It was not because they lacked motivation, but that opportunities fell short before them. There aren't much after-school programs other than volleyball and futball at the school gym, the latter un-utilized during winter. This problem in itself provided an opportunity. I recalled what some of the kids had wished months earlier. And so naturally came the idea of using archery as a mean to promote physical activity and diversion from bad habits. The school and the community were excited by the idea, thought it would work among the children and were seemingly proud to start a "unique" sport for this part of Bulgaria. Well, as we know that money sometimes make the world go around as was particularly true here because we needed to buy equipments. So I wrote a project proposal for the last remaining USAID grants in BG. This morning, I learned that the archery project is approved. Now I can't wait to see the kids' faces when I break the news to them!