Africa's World Cup

It’s very exciting to be in Africa for the start of the first World Cup on the continent. Although some fellow volunteers are actually in Johannesburg watching the games, we’re not that jealous because those plastic horns sound really annoying, plus it would entail 50 hours each way on a bus and we didn’t want to miss that much school since we’ll miss a few days on our upcoming vacation with Janet’s mom and step-dad. Instead we’re enjoying the games in our teacher’s lounge where a crowd of at least ten gathers for each match. It’s like our own private sports bar, just for the teachers and their families, where we often pass drinks and snacks along the 3 rows of seats set up for the tournament. We got the seats of honor on the front row couch for the USA vs England game, which is more comfortable than the ‘nose bleeds’ third-tier seats that are student desks. Everyone cheered on the US, mostly because they are all Chelsea fans and hate Rooney. In general, the mood is very pro-Africa – we could hear cheering across the whole town when Ghana scored on a penalty. Luc is trying not to get too emotionally involved in the tournament since he’s already super stressed out by the Lakers and Africa already had too many real issues like poverty, malnutrition, malaria and AIDS to justify fretting over sports. Still, while listening to excited African fans after Ghana’s victory in town and on our BBC radio, it seemed like people are happy to forget their troubles for a little while and join in the Pan-African celebration.