World Cup: African style!

Although I wish I could be in South Africa, just being on African soil makes the World Cup feel so much more real. What a great time to be in Malawi! People here have gone so completely crazy, you’d think Malawi was actually playing. I’ll try to bring my camera out over the next few days to capture the flags draping off people’s cars, the dressed up bartenders, the hordes of people wandering around (inside and out) blowing those enormous plastic horns (deafening, but no one else seems to notice). I did capture an amusing newscast from South Africa with reporters wearing their home team pride!

So, as you all now know, Friday was the beginning of the Cup. It also marked the beginning of a strange illness spreading through work that seemed to infect people at exactly 3pm, coincidentally about 60 minutes before kick-off for the South Africa vs. Mexico game. It was like a ghost town at the clinic, and obviously a bad time for any Malawian to need HIV treatment or care. I made it to about 3:45 and then followed my work mates’ example and jumped ship. When in Rome…

Watching the opening game at Alexander’s Bar (named “home of football”) was exhilarating! It was packed, everyone (sadly, but me) was wearing a South Africa football jersey, and the crowd was hanging on every second of play. The atmosphere was intense – people blowing horns, slugging countless beers, and singing the South African World Cup theme song spontaneously at points in the game. When South Africa scored its only goal of the game, the place exploded: horns; high-5s; the official Bafana Bafana dance (you have to see it to visualize it); and mad screaming! The two brief power outages and the 2 additional satellite malfunctions threatened to damper spirits, but nothing could have moved people from their positions in front of the dark screens. The draw score of 0-0 was not the best possible outcome, but everyone was thrilled to see South Africa play well and start the tournament off with a respectable performance.

I also saw USA’s less than stellar performance on Saturday. Jon would be pleased to know that I actually rooted for USA and wore my red and white; it is not my fault that USA wore blue and England wore white! Just for the record: I am rooting for Brazil as #1 and would be happy to see any African team make the semi finals.