So my biggest most recent adventure, as promised….i went to the world cup! (that’s soccer for those of you who are super clueless). It was in south Africa, just one country away, how could I not? I bought the tickets over a year ago w/ my friend kate, and the whole idea seemed sort of distant and unreal until all of a sudden it came time to leave! In the interest of saving money, we drove the whole way. Actually scored a ride in a private car down and back with a guy from quelimane who was going to Maputo to apply for a scholarship, so we luckily avoided the bus, but it was still 24+ hours. We spent one night in Maputo and then got on a bus to south Africa. We came into the same bus station in joberg as I’d been to before, and I went through the same sense of “I’m supposed to feel unsafe here,” but everything worked out fine. A really nice lady at the information desk called us a taxi and while we waited we watched people go nuts watching the last south Africa game. The host country unfortunately didn’t qualify to move on to the next round, but they beat france, usually a powerhouse, which was really exciting, and the bus station sounded like a stadium, complete with screaming fans and those god-awful loud horns called vuvuzelas. Our taxi man came into the station to meet us, and right away we could tell he was…special. He talked a mile a minute in a really thick accent I found hard to understand. Our hostel was like 45 minutes outside the city and he talked animatedly the entire time, narrating as we went along “this is a mall…this is a school…we’re turning here….” Our hostel was called the thatchery, and he was convinced this meant the place had a thatched roof so at every semi-rustic looking building he’d slow down and say “thatched roof, this is it!” we had the hardest time convincing him that we didn’t know what the roof looked like but it was the name of the place. It was probably the most hilarious taxi ride of my life, but we finally made it to the hostel. It was freezing! I mean literally, freezing, the news said it was getting below 0 degrees Celsius at night, total shock for two girls living in the tropics, cold in quelimane means I can sleep with a sheet. But kate’s from Wisconsin, and I’m from Vermont; we sucked it up. Other than the distance from the city, the hostel was great. Friendly staff, comfortable rooms (thank god with blankets!), and a nice pub where we got dinner and watched that night’s soccer games. Kate was the perfect friend to go with, because she’s really into soccer. I could understand the basics of a game but a lot of the finer points are often lost on me and she explained it all to me without making me feel stupid.
The next day we had to go out and get our tickets. We’d been a bit worried about this, conflicting information about how much identification and proof of purchase we’d need, but it turned out to be a piece of cake! We took a taxi from our hostel to the airport cuz he was picking up other guests, and there we used a kiosk, just put in my credit card and out popped our tickets! Crisis averted. That afternoon the final games of the US group were on, US-algeria and Slovakia-england, at the same time. There were roughly equal numbers of Americans and brits at the hostel, and since the pub had two tvs both games were on at once, with the sound on the England game. It was super confusing for awhile to hear one game and watch another. And it was super tense because both teams needed to win to move on to the next round. England scored relatively early and so their fans became super boisterous , but the US kept missing shot after shot, even got one shot that was called off-sides and wasn’t (I actually know what that means!), and we were all on the edge of our seats until the US finally scored in overtime! It was so tense, but then so amazing to be in a bar full of fans, ALL of whom were happy!
The second those games got over a bunch of us piled into shuttles to go to a live game, Ghana vs. germany, at soccer city, the (I think) biggest stadium of the tournament, the one where the final game will be played. It’s gorgeous, looks like a glowing, benevolent spaceship. When we first got off the bus, quite a ways from the stadium, it seemed pretty chaotic. It reminded me of going to a state fair, cars parked in a field for miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers), and hordes of people pulling you along towards the final destination. Except here, the hordes of people look like they’re going to some kind of crazy dress-like-your-flag themed Halloween party. So we walked to the stadium, and I thought it was going to be painful chaos trying to get through lines and find our seats, but I was amazed at how smooth everything went. I probably spent no more than 10 minutes total waiting in various lines to get in. in contrast, I waited in line for probably 20 minutes to buy “spiral chips,” a potato cut in a long thin curly-cue on a stick and deep fried, yummy and different but I’m not sure worth 20 minutes and 15 rand. After snacks, and a quick trip through the over-crowded over-priced official FIFA fan store, we went to find our seats. We were way up in the top tier, but when we stepped out of the stairwell the view was spectacular, you could see the whole stadium, it was just like a shot on television but breathing in the air, it was really amazing. We were rooting for Ghana, the only African team that still had a chance of moving on to the next round, but we were surrounded by loud germans which was a little scary, but we held firm. The game was pretty good, both teams played well. It was so funny to be in a place that I’d been seeing on tv, that my mind was telling me was such a big deal, but watching a game felt just like any other sporting event I’ve ever been to, so normal. Except for those vuvuzelas. They are LOUD. And there were over 83,000 people in the stadium, the better part of them blowing them. Someone had suggested we bring earplugs and thank god we did because I think we would have left with permanent hearing damage otherwise, no joke. Germany ended up winning, so they were ecstatic and it was sad for Ghana, but then they announced that the result of the other, simultaneous game from their group meant that Ghana got to move on to the next round too and they just flipped out, they were more excited than the germans, and it was such a sweet happiness, it really touched me. Some players went flying around the field with their flag, and some Ghanaians sitting near us noticed we were rooting for Ghana and took a picture of us with their flag. It was such a high, i totally caught futbol fever. Who wants to go to rio with me in 2014???:)
After the game we hiked several kilometers out to a gas station where we were meeting the shuttle, bussed home, and crashed in our freezing beds, only to get up early the next day and head back to Maputo. One more night there and we headed back up the 24+ hour trip home. It was completely exhausting, but totally worth it. I hadn’t been paying a ton of attention to the games before I went down, I’d caught a few cuz I happened to be at someone’s house or in a restaurant but wasn’t worried about it, but I begged laras to lend me his tv for the remainder of the cup (or “Mundial” as they call it here) and ever since I’ve been a faithful fan watching every night. I was secretly glad when Ghana beat the US, because it meant they moved onto the quarter finals. It’s just right that an African team should be in it as long as possible. It’s actually really interesting, a lot of the big-wig teams have gotten knocked out, so it’s shaping up to be an interesting and unpredictable last few rounds. God, listen to me. I promise, once this is over I won’t have anything to say about sports for another 4 years…..
I’ll try to put up some pictures as soon as I can. And for anyone who wants to feel in the spirit with me, just turn on Shakira’s “Waka Waka” song, because I seem to have it permanently lodged in my head. “This time for Africa!”
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