(Salty...)
(Saturday's news headline on the streets of Pretoria)
Well well well…major upsets to report on the World Cup stage. Most notably…Brasil loses to Netherlands and gets sent home early. Wow.
Pretoria has seen its last games and these days it’s pretty quiet. There is still the occasional vuvuzela blast in the dark from my neighborhood, but otherwise things are quiet. No more vuvu joy in the streets as you drive past strangers, tooting away at them. Saturday I went to a big grocery store in Pretoria East and all the soccer merch is gone. Springbok green and gold is firmly back in place in this rugby mad city they call Pretoria. Although the full vibe is gone…the Cup ain’t over yet and a lot of favorites have now been sent home. It’s still anyone’s Cup!
Friday I took my usual long time to get in gear. The best part of the day is that my friend Surprise came back to Pretoria after being home in Nelspruit for far too long. Surprise is a friend of mine from the veterinary campus. He’s back on the main campus now as he dropped vet nursing and decided to go all the way for the full veterinary doctor degree. He lives up the street from me and we’ve spent a lot of time together since I’ve been in Sunnyside. I’m so grateful for a friend close by to go hang out with whenever. Surprise is a very good friend: fun, thoughtful, and always has my back no matter what we get up to or where that adventure might take us. In 2008 I visited his family’s home and we’ve only gotten closer since. Yay!
(Me and Surprise rep'n for Swaziland)
In the afternoon, Edwin, Douwe, and Surprise descended on my house and we headed off to the Square. Again, things are a bit quieter but since the Square is pretty much the only place worth watching the games…it’s still feebly beating along on game days. The beers are still too expensive but we still have our loyalty cards so we are still drinking like locals should be!
Friday we had Netherlands vs. Brasil and Ghana vs. Uruguay. We arrived at the Square just before the game to a sea of orange dotted here and there with Brasil’s green and gold. The Ghanaian fans were out in force as well, but they really started to populate the Square later in the night. Many fans had now switched to supporting Ghana AKA “Africa’s Last Hope.” I was among these supporters. I pulled all my African things out of the closet for the game. My Bafana Bafana Tshirt, my Swaziland cloth, and red/green/gold bangles. Africans are just as xenophobic, tribalistic, and racist as any of us other not-so-perfect humans out there. But, when it suits them, there is a pan-African spirit that infuses the population of the dark continent. This was one of those “Africa Unite” times as Ghana was the last team representing the continent of Africa in the Cup. Cote d’Ivoire, Bafana Bafana, and Nigerian fans have all switched their kit to represent for the Black Stars of Ghana. “Africa Unite” is an ad campaign headed up by MTN (a cell phone provider here). The campaign is meant to invoke the pride of being African, no matter what flag you fly, in the spirit of the first World Cup hosted on the continent. They have a really cool commercial running on TV that shows the major European league players from Africa leaving the continent and then coming home to unite Africa for the 2010 World Cup. It’s actually quite a nice ad, but I haven’t seen it running anymore now that Ghana is out.
Because of the strong Dutch ties in South Africa amongst the Afrikaans people…Netherlands also enjoys a lot of support. There was plenty of oranje in the Square on Friday. Brasil is a favorite around the world and since people are still donning their green and gold Bafana Bafana gear…it can double for Brasil’s green and gold. Green, gold, red, and black are the typical “African” colors, so the green and gold can triple for Africa, Brasil, and SA. Brasil are favorites because their players are hot, their skills are superb, and they always freakin’ win…so they are an easy team to support. One of my best friends is from Brasil and we met here in South Africa in 2007. He was such a wonderful person to cruise around with for many reasons, but one of the best was that once people found out he was from Brasil…they just wanted to know if he knew Ronaldo. I can’t imagine a Brasileiro can come to harm in South Africa. People here just love soccer too much. We could be in some shady ass place and even the hardest tsotsi (robber) just wanted to know if my friend knew Ronaldo. Priceless. If you are going to a soccer mad place…take a Brasilian for protection J
The first game, at 4pm, was Netherlands vs. Brasil. I was cheering for Netherlands cos I just can’t cheer for Brasil. Everyone loves them and I love an underdog. I don’t hate Brasil or Brasilians…in fact I love both. But it’s so predictable that Brasil will win and I prefer a little spice to my soccer showdowns. I don’t really care about the Netherlands, but like Kerry was anyone but Bush…Netherlands was anyone but Brasil. Many of the Ghanaian supporters were cheering for Netherlands as well, so there was plenty of support for each team out in force. We ended up getting a table with some Ghanaian dudes that were pretty drunk and crazy. In fact, I told one of the guys that if he spilled one more beer then he was going to have to buy me one for every one he spilt. That stopped that nonsense right away!
So Brasil scored pretty early on, setting up the win we thought was inevitable. The drunk Ghanian dude behind me kept shouting “a football match is 90 minutes! ,” enticing us to keep the hope alive for Holland. I don’t remember when Holland scored, but once they did they pretty much opened up a huge can of whoop ass on Brasil. It was insane. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Brasil was wiggling like a fish on the banks of the Amazon…pinch me. Near the end of the second half a Brasilian player was ejected on a red card and the game was pretty much over. Holland supporters in the Square were going nuts. There were even some guys who stripped down to orange Netherlands undies each time the momentum picked up for Holland. Folks were going mad. Oranje! Hands down the best game I have watched so far.
I met some new Americans on Friday during the Brasil/Netherlands game. Oh, are they still around? Chris from Miami and 2 peace corps volunteers placed in Kazakhstan. I wonder how many Borat jokes they are sick of by now? Ha ha. FYI: I didn’t make any Borat jokes to them. The one guy was an Indian from Wyoming so I may have made a joke about that ;) Chris was running solo since his friends have now gone back to the USA so I asked him to roll with us. We sort of chilled together and lost each other a lot throughout the night. Unfortunately it seems like he might be getting the full SA experience…meaning more than zebra stripe cloth, biltong, and vuvuzelas. He is staying in some shady place in Pretoria Central and says he has been robbed twice there already. The place is dirty and there is a whorehouse next door. Yikes. It ain’t all sunshine in this Rainbow Nation…sorry to say. I gave him my number and hopefully we can spend some time chilling in the next week he is here. Although it sounds like he met a cutie from South Africa…so he might not be alone anymore after all J Again…it’s been nice to be a “local” from the USA for folks that need that here. I’m glad to be of service. Paying it forward for all the folks that have come out of the shadows in foreign lands for me!
In between the games we just chilled and enjoyed 2 for 1 cocktails for R27 (US$4). Somehow I gained a pair of oversized silly yellow glasses. I saw a guy that was a part of the ghost posse that caused all the drama a few weekends ago. That was interesting cos I thought he had gone to jail. Wild stuff, man. “My life’s the sickest…” The rag tag bunch of bandits crew swelled with the addition of Zack (the guy I went to school with in 2002), the ghost posse, Tuan, the new Americans, and a guy I met the other night in the Square that is definitely trying to spend some quality time with me if you catch my drift. I flitted around like the ADD hummingbird that I am…taking photos, having random conversations, enjoying the atmosphere. Sometimes this hummingbird steez does me wrong in SA. My ex-boyfriend used to get really really mad about it. People need to look out for one another here cos it can be dangerous, depending on where you are. Ladies especially need to be taken care of and looked after. South Africa at night, plus alcohol, is no place for a solo lady. My friends often have to work overtime to keep an eye on me…sorry! It’s just my nature. The Square is cool though and a safe zone where you can roam freely. I mostly felt bad for moving around so much cos I kept losing Chris (the lone American) and I didn’t want to abandon him. Being alone in lame when there is such a party going on!
My friend, Tuan, joined us for a bit. Like Alireza (who I met up with the other day), Tuan is an international student that I helped counsel through my blog. This blog of mine, besides giving me a way to write stuff, entertain, and inform you all at home about my adventures, has actually been a useful tool for people interested in studying in Pretoria. I’ve met 3 students through my blog: Tuan from Vietnam, Alireza from Iran, and Eunice from Singapore. The first 2 students ended up studying in Pretoria and Eunice decided against it. I’ve really enjoyed helping them out and setting them up with useful contacts. Mistakes were made when I got here and no one should have to repeat the same mistakes twice!
(Tuan and me)
Chris is American with parents from Chile and Spain. He spotted a group of camera guys and told me that they were from some famous show in Chile. I guess they go around to party places and film people living it up. It’s sort of interesting that they were in Pretoria…I mean it’s not really jumping these days. The presenter, Cuchilo, is supposed to be some big shot in Chile. I don’t know. Just some Square randomness to report. Part of their crew was a guy that juggled, including juggling things on fire, and did unicycle tricks. Around Pretoria that stuff is pretty rare, so it was kind of cool to have that added to the Square.
The guy that was trying to holler at me brought some friends. One of them, Tumi, gave me the best reaction I’ve ever received on giving up that I am American. He was like “USA, huh. Warren Buffet in the house!” Or something like that. Warren Buffet, if you don’t know him, is a super wealthy Nebraskan that has never really let it go to his head. He’s kind of the shit. My friend Ben is in love with him and I often joke that Warren is his boyfriend. It was cool to be met with such a unique reason why Tumi admired the USA. Most people just want to know if McDonald’s tastes the same or do I know such and such famous person. Hats off, Tumi!
The Ghana game got underway around 8:30pm with all the support now turned to the Black Stars. No one in the Square was really rooting for Uruguay. I think the support was especially against them because they totally ripped South Africa a new one in the group stage. There was even a demotivational poster online that had one of their star players and a caption of “vuvuzela silencer” underneath. Ouch. The game was alright for the bulk of it. The crowd was very lively with people doing vuvuzela call and response songs (there are a few here in SA that go with soccer games), shouts of “sishaya ivuvuzela” (we are beating our vuvuzelas…a SA soccer chant), and people making plenty of noise for Ghana. My vuvu made the rounds and gathered even more spit from strangers. It was actually kind of gross cos the spit was dripping out of the vuvuzela. Ew. This usually means that the people blowing it don’t know what they are doing…plus it’s just kinda gross. The game went into overtime and then penalty shots…which is where Ghana came undone and Africa untied. Ghana missed a pretty clutch shot and then one of their penalty shots was blocked…it was all over for the continent at this point and Uruguay advanced. Sorry!
Our group sort of came apart after that as well. Some folks went this way and some went that way. The energy of getting everyone back together kind of killed the party mood. Plus Ghana’s loss made all that raucousness die down to a quiet whimper. When I came home…even Sunnyside was quiet. This guy that wants me was trying to get me to come to his place, but honestly I’m going home in a week. I kind of just wanna chill with my friends at this point. I don’t have time for stupid dude drama…sorry gents.
Surprise, his friend, and I stuck around for a bit longer and then ended up going home. When the group’s beer money dries up it is time to bounce J
A side note on the Netherlands vs. Brasil game…apparently Paris Hilton and part of her entourage were here for the game and they got busted for weed. HA HA HA HA. First of all, why on earth would you bring weed to a FIFA game? Those folks got things locked down tighter than a communist stronghold. I mean, Paris probably enjoys a bit more lax security compared to the plebs…but still…it’s freakin’ stupid. You can’t even smoke during a game without drawing serious attention. This ain’t no Chiefs game in the ‘hood, right? If you want to smoke weed then do it before the game and leave the shit at home. So Paris and her friend were detained and had to go to court. The friend took the blame and Paris got off scott free. It must be nice to be rich and famous. All I was thinking when I heard about this story was that I hope it was good shit and not some shake ass crap. If you are doing to go down then it might as well be worth it.
Saturday I spent most of the day running errands with Edwin. I have all these last minute things to buy for you folks at home, so I just wanted to go and get it all done before I drank my money dry. Again, from driving around…the atmosphere in Pretoria is back to the same old same old. There aren’t people in the streets randomly blowing vuvuzelas. Some of the flags in places have come down. As I said, the merch in the stores has switched back to rugby (the Tri-Nations is starting up in a week or so). I guess the World Cup is kind of over in Pretoria. I heard that things were still kicking in Cape Town…which doesn’t surprise me at all. I bet that place is still packed with tourists. I mean, it is the greatest city in the world.
Saturday was also Thanksgiving around here. Helen, Ross, and some of their friends decided to have a Thanksgiving feast. Yeah, it’s not November but it is winter here right now. So it’s sort of the same thing kind of ;) I ended up not going to the feast cos it was on the other side of town and Edwin didn’t want to go. I still don’t understand why he didn’t want to go, but he could not be convinced. I wasn’t going to make my friend drive me to the other side of Pretoria for nothing, so I just chilled at home. I watched the games at home in the comfort of the Lazy Boy and a nice duvet.
After Brasil’s upset…my team was now Argentina for the win. I wasn’t rooting for Brasil, but I did believe they were going to win. Argentina had a lot of promise: Diego Maradona (their coach) was being hailed as the greatest coach ever and blah blah blah, Lionel Messi is supposed to be the greatest player in the world (although he didn’t score a single World Cup goal), and so on and so on. I guess it was a lot of media hype cos Argentina GOT SERVED by Germany. 4-0, Germany. Damn, son! I guess this means my used car salesman dynamo, Diego, is going home crying like a Brasilian. Shame.
As for Paraguay vs Spain…all money on Spain. They are playing really well and their top players (most notably Villa) are really cranking out the goals. Paraguay played hard, but not hard enough. Sorry guys…but I guess it’s time for South America to pack it up and go home.
There were a lot of celebrities in attendance for the games. I saw a few glimpses here and there of them on TV. Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger (he’s been at quite a few games), Charlize Theron, the German head of state, Zuma. And I guess even dear old Paris…although she didn’t make the news until after the game. LOL.
Another quick note on the games as broadcast on TV. There is some “Say No to Racism” campaign that FIFA is hyping big time now. I don’t know why this message was only rolled out in the final games. It’s a good message and should have been a part of all the broadcasts. So now at the beginning of each game there is one player (maybe the captain) from each team that reads a message against racism in his mother tongue and then there is a quick shot of some people holding a “Say no to racism” poster. Sorry but it’s kind of a feeble way to broadcast that message. Yes, many people around the world are watching the game, but the delivery of this message in this way strikes me as about as bland and effective as the “Just Say No (to drugs)” campaign. Combating something as pervasive and entrenched as racism is going to take a bit more than some stupid poster and a 30-second speech from a famous footballer. Good idea, but needs a bit more effort. C+, FIFA. There is also something hilarious or maybe ironic or something about this message and South Africa. South Africa is still racist as hell. Yeah, it’s improving, but there is a LONG walk to peace and love here. I don’t know how to exactly explain how I feel about the hilariousness of this “Say No to Racism” campaign juxtaposed with the current climate in SA…just take my word that it’s a bit funny and strange.
Well, next matches are the semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday. Happy 4th of July today! Wish we could still be celebrating USA soccer in the World Cup, but c’est la vie. As of today (Sunday) there is one week til World Cup ends and 1 week until I go home. I’m damn excited…
No comments:
Post a Comment