Tag: SA2010

I will have a more complete final thoughts when I return home but I just wanted to do one last post from RSA before I leave.

Yesterday, I was able to do another interview with a guest house in Parktown West. The establishment had done quite well. He was unwilling to give me turnover numbers but they had close to 90% occupancy rate for the entire tournament. Funnily enough, he had actually visited Austin before for an international conference for the association of convention and visitors bureaus. Had some nice things to say about 6th street…haha.

Then I took the rest of the day off to do a bit of shopping for gifts and things. I first thought there was not anything in particular that I wanted besides a Makarapa, but once I started, I actually spent a bit. Stimulating the economy one person at a time. I especially was excited to hear about my Zimbabwean friend Tedious, who had managed to register with UNISA and will be starting his studies soon. He even gave me a gift, a (I will post the photo to prove it) 10 TRILLION Zim Dollar note. I believe the note is worth less than the paper and the ink it is printed on. Hyperinflation is crazy or “How to Destroy a Nation” by Bob Mugabe.

I was so excited to go to Alfred Beloyi’s Makarapa studio and see what the originator had created. Unfortunately, though many of the makarapa’s were exquisite, the only USA ones his shop had left were nice, but they just had beaded US flags on them, no player. I wanted the more classic one which had a player cut out on the helmet, so I ended up back at Rosebank market buying one I had seen earlier. (photos to come)

Last night I met up with Hilton and Caroline for a drink and to catch up/say goodbye. Besides the fact the Jolly Cool felt like a smoke box, it was a pleasant time, and I then went across the street to meet up with Bong’s friend Greg, who has been quite cool, taking me out with his friends and stuff when Bong’s has had to work.

This morning I did my final interview and said goodbye to both TEP offices I had worked in. Unfortunately, I missed Mahandra, but I was able to say goodbye to everyone else. (Don’t worry Mom and Aunty Lindsay, I will be composing a very lengthy thank you email when I get back home.)

Anyway I’m just about to leave Nicci and Chris’. I’m hoping one of them make it home before I have to leave. I cannot believe my trip is over already. Five weeks has both seemed like a very long time and also no time at all. Well more concluding thoughts and photos to come. I’m off to OR Tambo.

Peace,

Drew

Sorry for the delay between the two posts, crazy busy doing all sorts of things and battling a cold still, but here it is!

So for the past week I was able to do a few interviews in Soweto again and in Newtown, near the Johannesburg CBD and Newtown Fan Park.

I interviewed a couple of different restaurants who are TEP clients and both of them are doing very well, even if they do not want to give me proper turnover numbers. The Restaurant in Newtown is located right next to the FIFA fan park so a very high traffic area and quite fortunate for him. I also returned to Vilakazi Street and visited the famous Sakhumzi’s restaurant, right next door to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s house.

I also visited a different type of fan park for the Netherlands–Uruguay semifinal. It was a “private” fan park, one which you needed a ticket in order to enter. It was on the campus of a local private school and the demographics certainly indicated as much. The park was open to anyone, but the crowd definitely trended heavily to the affluent and was majority white. There was a concert before the match by a popular local rock band called the Parlotones. In my opinion nothing special because the sound was somewhat cookie cutter, but provided a good atmosphere. Chris, Bongi, and I went with Chris’ sister and her family. She’s married to a Dutchman and he obviously was quite pleased to make it through to the Finals. The next night for the Germany–Spain match, Bongs had some of his friends over and we watched at the house. Nicci and Luke were in Sun City for the week, so it was an all guy household.

Besides working, typing up some of my notes and doing more interviews, I also was searching, hoping, wishing for a ticket to the final. Unfortunately my local connection’s sms (which I’m still not sure he sent) never reached me while I was in Cape Town so I did not know that the last batch of finals tickets were going to be released. My connection knew 6 hours ahead of the official announcement but because I didn’t know, I was not able to go to the front of the line. In fact, I only found out after all the tickets to the final sold out!!! I was stuck. Now the blood suckers and extortionists emerged, asking absolutely ridiculous prices for the final. Even one of Ntokozo’s friends wanted R4000 (almost $600) for a ticket behind the goal in the nosebleeds/heavens/waaaay up there. I was not sure what I could do. I thought my best chance was to go outside the stadium with some money and try to find someone who needed to get rid of an extra ticket. That plan had some major holes considering that FIFA technically does not allow resale like that, and I received an email from the US consulate general notifying me of the various road closures and road blocks where police were supposedly going to ask you to produce a ticket. However, Sunday morning came and I was still planning my route of attack, but then an orange clad savior came through.

Ron and Eric, Chris’ brother-in-law and brother-in-law’s brother, came through with an excellent ticket at very very close to face value. Thanks to Nick, Ron’s son and Bongi’s cousin, he convinced his dad and uncle to sell the ticket to me rather than to some well-heeled Oranje who would pay 2 or 3x face. After consultation with my financial advisor (Thanks Mom & Dad!!) and my own finances, I realized I had enough saved up to afford the ticket, with or without help. So I bit. I was not disappointed in the least. I paid, but I paid for an absolutely excellent ticket. 12 rows from the field on the halfway line, 5 rows in front of the Dutch WAGs, right in the middle of the corporate section. Everyone else around us had hospitality badges and wristbands.

As you can see, given my hosts’ nationality, I threw my support to the dutch side. Nick’s dad is originally from Holland and his uncle still lives there. His uncle flew back to South Africa with his daughter for the final–he had already been to 11 games in the two weeks he visited during the group stages.

Anyway I took a whole loads of photos of the closing ceremonies, the pregame, and the match. The will be posted on facebook very soon.

The game itself was not awesome because of the quality of the soccer, in fact it was a very dirty choppy and diving filled match, but the atmosphere was once in a lifetime and unforgettable. In fact, as much as the match was amazing, getting to see former President Nelson Mandela was probably worth the price of the ticket itself. Right after the conclusion of the closing ceremonies, I was heading up the stairs for the bathroom when over the PA system came Madiba’s introduction. I pivoted on the spot and ran right back down the stairs to my row. He was all bundled up but he was smiling and waving. I’m sure if he had his way he would have stayed to present the trophy, but his family concerned for his health were only willing to relent to let him visit the stadium. I heard FIFA placed a lot of pressure on the Mandela family for Madiba to visit the match, but I would like to think he wanted to be there anyway.

Unfortunately, because my Eric, Ron, and family were my ride, I did not get to see the trophy presentation, the two of them were too angry to sit through it. I can understand the feeling but am still a little disappointed that I missed it. However, the view of the fireworks from outside the stadium was probably better than from within so that was nice. I’ll post the video to youtube sometime soon.

Anyway I will have one more post before I leave South Africa, just busy trying to do some more interviews and pick up some gifts before I head home Thursday. Only a few days left.

Sorry for the very long delay between this and my last post. I had very limited internet access while in Cape Town. Just returned to Johannesburg but have a lot to update on my time in Cape Town.

Wednesday night, after the long trip to the West Coast, was the Spain–Portugal match. I decided to meet up with Stevan and Pete (American Superfans and bus organizers) and try to snag a ticket. I met up with the two at the V&A Waterfront where they had been hanging out and walked over to the game. My negotiating skills need some work but I got a ticket to the match. Unfortunately, I did not have my Camera so no photos, but I was very high in the nose bleeds before moving down in the second half to stand in the concourse behind the cat 1 section.

On Thursday I went into the office in the morning but no one was going out to visit clients so I decided, given it was such a beautiful and clear day, I would be a tourist and go up Table Mountain. Excellent decision on my part as the last time I was in Cape Town, it was so cloudy all the days we were there, we were not able to go up. I had to wait an hour and a half to buy my ticket and get onto the cable car, but it was completely worth it as the views were spectacular.

There were a ton of tourists up on the mountain, so I took my sweet time, looking around, walking a bit, and trying to get a hold of Mom back home. After many attempts we managed to get through to each other and I got to wish her well from the top of the mountain! Also because of the ridiculous number of tourists, the line to take the cable car down was very long. However, this offered the unexpected and unplanned treat of seeing the sun set from atop the mountain. I’ll post the photos here.

The next day I made two stops, the District 6 museum in Cape Town and the FIFA fan fest. I had a duel errand to run at the museum, not only were they a client of TEP, and therefore an interview subject, but I also had to deliver some important slides to the museum. My Papa, a very good amateur photographer, had taken a series of photos of the Cape Malay community in District 6 before the apartheid regime destroyed the area in the 1960’s. His photos are an invaluable historical record given that he was allowed access into the Mosques, weddings, and lives of the community. The Lois & B.H. Daniller Collection will hopefully prove very beneficial to the museum in their goal of reconstructing the vibrant and diverse community that was District 6.

I then went to interview the informal traders, both displaced by the FIFA Fan Fest, and those who occupied space in the Fan Fest’s craft market. The people who normally operate stalls in the area currently occupied by the Fan Fest did not seem to be doing too well. The items sold there were a combination of obviously counterfeit or knockoff leather goods, clothes, and sunglasses, with a spattering of traditional African craft, and low quality World Cup related fan gear. In contrast, the artisans who paid R100/day to operate in the Fan Fest had much more intricate and exquisite work. I did learn that many chafed under the restrictions applied by FIFA. Many had been creating goods long before the World Cup, only to discover in their “debriefing” that any item with the words “World Cup,” “FIFA,” and most shockingly “2010,” were not allowed to be sold. Now I understand the intellectual copyright of the first two words, but 2010….that’s absolutely ridiculous! How can someone copyright a bleeding year! Most of the vendors said they were only working for a few days, it appears FIFA tried to have as many different chosen/selected/scouted vendors be allowed the chance to operate in the Fan Fest. While not selling much, the artisans do appear to be making good business contacts with potential wholesale buyers from America and Europe.

Saturday, being the Germany-Argentina match, I thought I would try my luck again and attempt to wrangle a ticket outside the stadium. Since I was staying in the Apartment in Green Point (fortuitous) I walked over to the stadium. Unfortunately, I was past the stadium in terms of the fan walk so I did not get to experience that particular morsel, but I heard between the stadium, fan parks, and fan walk, 300,000 fans were watching the game in Public Viewing Areas…crazy. I first tried my luck in the front of the stadium were the fan walk led to, but the sheer number of police and witnessing one guy busted for buying tickets had me thinking I should go try the waterfront side again. My negotiating was much improved and just my luck, I bought a ticket for $100 less than face value. I unfortunately missed Jacob Zuma and the Special Olympics celebrity soccer match, but it was a small price to pay. (For fear of reprisal, in no way am I hereby implying that South African President Jacob Zuma participated in the match as a Special Olympian…)

The match was surprising but quite fun to watch. Having no dog in the fight, I could easily wear my blue shirt but let the two German frauleins paint German flags on my face. Shocking to see Argentina dismantled in such a way, but the Germans played beautiful and creative football, and despite all of Argentina’s talent and attacking flair, they could not put the ball in the back of the net. After the match went again to the Waterfront and despite losing the huge group that my seat mates were a part of, I ran into Jonathon and his friends and then was lost in the massive celebration at the German Bar Paulaner. I had some dinner and met two German guys and two South African girls whom I ended up hanging out with. Lutz, David, Jules, Louise, and I ended up having an interesting night. After watching the Spain-Paraguay match in the Paulaner, we decided to go out. However, we first needed to pick up Jules and Louise’s car. This necessitated a few mile trek back into Cape Town and a run around to try to find an open entrance to the place where the two girls had parked their cars. Unfortunately, this excursion subsequently killed most of the night, though they felt bad and decided to take the three of us for drinks. It was good the three guys were there because I’m not sure it would have been great for just the two of them to have been walking around at that time of night looking for a way to get their car.

With no game on Sunday I decided to take up my Aunty Lindsay’s other restaurant suggestion Bahia. (I already went to the “Five Flies” Thursday with Dustin Godevais a former high school soccer team mate who was a year below me at St. Stephens). The food was excellent. I had the baby kingklip on the recommendation of two different waiters. I am not the biggest fish fan but the Kingklip was so fresh and flavorful, spectacular. I also had a strange celebrity sighting. Towards the end of my meal, a huge entourage left the restaurant. I knew someone who thought they were important was in the restaurant as there were quite a few private body guards around the restaurant and the place was packed. Well, none other than the infamous Paris Hilton walked right by my table. No idea why she is famous. My funny waiter from Namibia, Hugh, said that there were at least 15 of her in Clifton.

Sunday, my second to last day in Cape Town, I went to Somerset West, where my Mom was born and raised, and went to lunch with old friends of my Grandparents, Sarah and Abe. Slightly delayed because my car’s battery had died, I had to wait for a replacement car before I could make the trek out to their house. Along the way, I was disappointed by the observation I made. The road that takes you to Somerset West (N2 I believe) is also the road to take one to the airport. Well all between Cape Town and the Airport there were signs speaking of the N2 corridor reclamation project, “living with dignity” etc.. and brand new government built houses starting to replace many of the formal settlements. Of course, as soon as I had passed by the Airport Exit and continued through the roughest areas of the Cape Flats, there were no new government houses to been seen and only miles and miles of rickety and poorly built shacks with black electrical wire snaking into each of the houses sprouting from a maypole like arrangement.

Lunch with Sarah Abe and their son Graham was very nice. Originally, I had planned to stay with the two but they could not have me, which in the end worked out better for everyone. I am very glad I got to see them though as they are extremely warm and welcoming. They kept apologizing for not being able to let me stay but I will say again they have no reason to and it was for the best that I stayed in the city itself.

As my flight was at 2 monday afternoon, I was able to conduct one more interview with a small hotel that is a client of TEPs, the Daddy Longlegs. It’s location along Long Street right in the heart of the city has resulted in massive benefit for the hotel. It is holding steady at a 80-90% occupancy rate and was able to charge slightly more than high season price at what is normally the lowest of low seasons.

Anyway I’m off to bed. Battling a cold I caught on my last couple days in Cape Town. Need the sleep. Hope to post the photos soon, love to all back home. Still another 9 days left in SA.

Howzit from Cape Town! Arrived on Monday night and found my way to UCT alright, thank you GPS and the very small “Campus Accommodation 2010” signs. Finding a place to stay here has been hectic. I had first booked a backpackers single (sharing a dorm room w/ another person) for R395/night. Expensive but doable and the cheapest I could find when I was booking my trip. Well about a month before the trip I get an email from the Campus Accommodation people claiming that I had not booked with a travel partner so I could not have that rate…of course I had to respond because if I had booked with a travel partner, we would have booked a double and paid less per person than the sharing rate. They then agreed to try to find me a travel partner. When they could not do that, they said they would charge me the single rate, a whopping and ridiculous R627/night. I tried to negotiate but the lady pretended not to receive my email and said she had booked me at the single rate. We had already paid 100% for 7 nights at the backpackers rate, but when I arrived they wanted me to pay the remainder. I stalled and then avoided because I did not want to pay anymore for a small concrete dorm room w/ a bathroom down the hall.

I then caught two breaks. I was explaining my predicament at the office on Tuesday and Jonathon came to the rescue. He offered me to stay in a small studio apartment he and his brother own in Green Point, about a km away from the stadium. It’s very small but I have my own bathroom and a small kitchen. Unfortunately, the fridge needs to be cleaned so I cannot use it and the place is very dusty. On Wednesday morning (I still stayed in UCT on Tuesday) when I went to talk to the manager in Baxter Hall. Short deviation, my Mom lived for a year in Baxter number 6 and my Aunt lived three years in Baxter, but I was staying in the newer Graça Machel dorm. Anyway, the manager refused to refund my money, but he did say he would honor the rate I was quoted and paid originally. So despite feeling very annoyed for whoever runs the concession of UCT’s dorms during the world cup, at least the contract I signed was honored.

However, I spent last night in the apartment. I have yet to decided for certain if I’m going to stay there, I still have the key for the dorm room at UCT, but I think I will. The only reason I would leave is the dust, my lousy allergic tolerance may make it unbearable but we will see. After tonight I think I will know one way or the other. At least I’m going to go back to UCT to use the gym facilities and the field they included in the room rate.

Anyway, as for work. Yesterday (Wednesday) I went with one of the consultants, Rob, to the West Coast to visit some of his clients. It was interesting because it was a completely new area and landscape for me. We visited a guest house, Duinepos Chales, in the West Coast National Park, Geelbek Restaurant in the park as well, a quite beautiful boutique guest house called Abalone in Paternoster, and a San cultural center. These places know that the winter is a low season, but all of them are having a very difficult time, seeing almost no traffic or turnover whatsoever. They have varying hypothesis that boil down to the normal local South Africans that would come on vacation here have been scared away by the prospect of foreign tourists, but for varying reasons (too far away, tour operators keeping the tourists solely located in the cities, and not the right demographic of tourists) there are no foreign tourists visiting their establishments.

The places in the national park experience their high season in a month because that is when the wildflowers emerge. The chalets were cool and built in a very eco-friendly way, sandbags in the walls. I can imagine if all the succulents were in bloom the whole area would be stunning. The restaurant overlooked a sea lagoon and driving through to Paternoster was interesting, though I fell asleep due to my rushing in the morning and not getting breakfast (bad). The Abalone guest house is set in this quiet fishing village overlooking the sea. According to Rob, Paternoster was the first place that a group of Portuguese explorers laid eyes upon during a trip to sail around the coast of southern Africa. These are supposedly the first words they uttered, the beginning of the lord’s prayer I believe.

We finished off the day at the San cultural center. Unfortunately we needed to get back to the office so we couldn’t stay long but the place seemed really cool. They offer tour experiences with fire making and bows and arrows, and even ranger training. They even host a few Anthropology students who work at the center working and doing research.

I’ve posted photos on facebook for everyone. Link here

PS Thoughts and Prayers with Max, he just had surgery yesterday on that ankle he messed up in his fall some weeks ago. First step on a very long recovery. Poor guy, again, if you’re in Austin go visit for me. Thanks!

So just to get it out of the way I will talk about the USA loss in Rustenburg against Ghana. The simple summation of the game is we had chances and didn’t finish, they had three clear cut chances and finished two. Simple as that. I may be in the minority saying Jozy played well this tournament, but I cannot deny he needs to improve immensely. At the end of the day, strikers are there to score goals, his hold up play, foul winning, and chance creation was very good, but he never finished. We really missed having Charlie Davies and a healthy Gooch. I think Dempsey played well in the final game, but it just was not enough. Landon has matured into a world class player, but he needs support. Michael Bradley was excellent in the center of midfield but without a settled partner, he could not develop enough of a creative rhythm. I could continue but 2000 words later no one would read about what I’ve actually been doing.

Funny story, when we met for the US supporters Bus in Nelson Mandela Square, it was hilarious how many British fans were trying to sell us tickets to the match. So arrogant and certain they were going to win the group…hahahaha. (Sorry schadenfreude is all we have left right now.)

The atmosphere before the match was different but fun. The US bus I took stopped a few kilometers away from the stadium at the dive of all dives called “Lucky’s Bar.” Stevan, our awesome bus organizer had to convince the cops to let the bus drive to the bar because security was much tighter for this game than for England-USA. He managed after being threatened with arrest if we drove to the stadium, so we drove to the bar with a police escort. Then 4 hours later drove close to the stadium, no problems! The bar was real Africa. They had a butchery where they sold you the raw meat that you went and braai’d (BBQ’d) yourself. (Knock on wood no adverse effects, I made sure to cook my lamb kebabs and beef boerewors close to a crisp). The atmosphere was great and outside the annoying local hustler trying to get everyone to buy him beer and the high pitched shrieks of “Show them Ghana, Show them” and “Make my circle bigger” (???)–which even makes USA-USA-USA sound halfway creative–it was a great time. We watched the South Korea-Uruguay match thinking the winner would be our next opponent, well too bad for us.

About two hours before the match we drove over nearer to the stadium and parked, with a nice tip to the house owner so that we could park in front of his place. I purchased a US flag on a pvc pipe for R50. Then I nearly lost it to a South African girl who claimed that she was an American fan but she had a Ghana flag painted on her face. I said if she washed off the Ghana flag and found me I’d give her the US flag…she found me. I was done, I had to give up my new flag.

However, I was rescued by a nice American I was talking to. She was there with her husband, her brothers, and some friends and I was joking about what happened and she offered to get my flag back. I flippantly said sure thinking no way, the girl won it fair, I’m not getting it back. Then about a minute later she is walking back with the flag pretending to be both my sister and my girlfriend (she messed up her plan and first claimed girlfriend, then sister, and then tied herself in knots explaining the two) but she somehow managed to get the flag back. I was surprised and nearly dying laughing because the story she was weaving was ridiculous, but I decided I’d keep the flag and give the South African the free Vuvuzela I had just picked up earlier thanks to Castle Lager. Seemed a fair trade, and the yellow matched her Ghana outfit better.

My seats to the match were amazing, 7 rows from the field I was really lucky to have them. In the first match I had the same category of ticket but in a much worse location, 2nd deck on the corner flag. I would have sat behind Shaq standing the whole match if we could have won, but it was a great experience non the less. Left the stadium heartbroken, wondering what could have been.

I’ve posted photos from the pregame and the match here

So in the interest of brevity I will take the next post to update more completely on my research and update on Cape Town. I went to Rosebank Market in Johannesburg last Friday and managed to get 11 different interviews, so I was proud of my industriousness. The answers were a mixed bag, from some feeling very negligible change, to others tripling even increasing 6 times over their sales during the World Cup. The majority were experiencing a benefit, but of varying degree.

I also met an interesting young man, Tedious, who was working the stall because he needed to pay for his school fees. He had to flee Zimbabwe right before his final year of school and so in South Africa no credits transferred and he has to start from the beginning at UNISA. He is going to pursue a tourism management degree. He was the most helpful vendor, actually spoke to me twice with no reservations. But most were nice and willing to speak to me, even though the market was quite busy.

Cape Town update to come. Later yall.

So I will doing an exclusively soccer post tomorrow but I am first going to write about the last couple of days of interviews and my new lodging.

On Monday I went to visit the official FIFA Fan Park at Innes Free Park in Sandton. What I discovered there was quite surprising and disheartening. The Fan Parks in Germany were a huge success and drew many tens even hundreds of thousands of people. According to the vendors, and verified by my own eyes, at the Innes Free Fan Park with the exception of the first Bafana game, maybe a few hundred people were going through the park every day. When I went into the fan park there were fewer than 100 visitors, quite possibly outnumbered by the various support staff and vendors.

I spoke to owners of two food stalls and two craft stalls of officially licensed informal traders. One food vendor “Mo Khan” sold Indian and Pakistani food and had entered into the business with his sister, who actually owned the stall. Mo is actually a driving instructor, but he was helping out at the stall. The other vendor made hallal food. “Ibrahim” owns a butchery/deli and so already had quite a bit of experience.

Both vendors related to me a story of inflated expectations and broken promises. Innes free park is an official FIFA fan park and run by FIFA and MATCH. The business plan presented to the vendors was clearly one of projections and hopes, rather than cold hard facts and realistic expectations. The food vendors each had to pay R15,000 just to rent the space for the entirety of the tournament at the fan park. This included nothing–no tent, no water, no electricity, no refrigeration, no gas. (Bringing all this in cost Ibrahim R32,000, Mo brought in some of this for R10,000). The vendors were promised advertisement/marketing and people through the park. Outside of the first match between Bafana and Mexico–when 20k-30k people came to the park–they have had neither. Ibrahim said he is currently losing R6000 a day because his inventory is sitting unused for the most part. R100,000 in stock most of which he wont be able to save or get rid of.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUCjIOJQbHo&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

Part of the problem with the fan park that I experienced first hand is that there is no parking facilities close by to the park. The signs for parking lead you across the highway a good 5k’s away and in the middle of Alex. For those who do not know Alexandra is one of the roughest townships in Johannesburg. You park your car there with no security (none), say good-bye because it won’t be there when you get back. Twice I tried to park at the actual park and they would not let me, claiming only VIP’s and Disabilities could access the lot. Considering there were 20 cars parked where 5000 could park, I was left just a bit peeved.

What’s especially surprising is that at Melrose Arch, not an official FIFA fan park but an official Public Viewing Area, the place was absolutely packed for the Bafana game against Uruguay. Could barely move. I will return to see how it is for a non South African match, but considering that the Newton public viewing areas have been packed each night as well (second-hand knowledge, will confirm soon) FIFA has really soiled the bed in many ways.

On Tuesday I tagged along with Gumani for a meeting with a potential TEP client, the Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge in the Cradle of Humankind in the West Rand. I would classify the lodge as a small hotel (only 11 rooms) but the overall area as a medium-sized business of many small businesses linked together. For example there is a Bungee jumping concession on the property, a restaurant, and a leadership development/adventure tours concession. In addition, the owners Scoop and Dejong hope to expand their sporting offerings as they already have small sided rugby fields. Listening in on the meeting was interesting and the interview had a much more optimistic and positive bent. They had their criticisms of FIFA, especially the strangle hold over how the country can provide opportunities and how badly MATCH has messed up by returning many rooms to the various accommodation providers who signed up with them. Scoop told me that in the Johannesburg area there was an original estimate of 45,000 rooms/night shortage, when in fact that is probably the surplus number of rooms in the area.

However, both Scoop and Dejong really emphasized the longer term impacts that they feel the World Cup has provided to South Africa. They believe, given conversations with a few of their foreign guests, that South Africa is showcasing itself as a very good business and investment opportunity. People actually see that things can get done in the country, the infrastructure in telecommunications, roads, stadiums, etc… Scoop also mentioned something very interesting, he believes the world cup has proved invaluable for social integration. He pointed as two examples a recent “soccer festival” they held on the lodge property which brought out all types of people of every color creed and socio-economic class, and that during the super 14 rugby final, the Pretoria Bulls played the Cape Town based Stormers in Orlando West at Pirates stadium and the bulls fans (mostly white) were watching the game in Soweto. Dejong disagreed, he believed that the World Cup only highlighted the social integration that was already occurring.

Whatever the case it was an extremely informative interview and worth the drive all the way out there. I unfortunately could not find my camera in my bag so I do not have photos of the second interview but you can see all the photos from the fan park and at Hilton and Caroline’s here.

I have to say I had a lovely time staying with my first host family. They were so hospitable, generous, helpful and warm (even if the house was not) I had a great time. I was so surprised that my time with them had already come to an end. I am now staying with Nicci and Christopher, Luke, and Bongani at their house. I spent the first night borrowing Luke’s room and then moved into the guest room. Wow, their house is absolutely beautiful. If you’re interested in such things I think the design is French Countryside. I will post some photos of the house soon. Chris is an excellent chef and I’ve been eating quite stupendous dinners.

I will post a soccer related post later. Lots and lots of interesting experiences at that match. As a teaser I met one President and another passed right by my face…more details to come!!!

So Monday and Tuesday were my first two days at work. I’m writing this blog post Wednesday because it’s a national holiday June 16th to commemorate the student uprising in Soweto, but more on that later in the post.

My first day at work unfortunately nothing really was accomplished because my boss Mahandra is sick with the Chicken Pox (ow!) and all but one of his field operatives were taking the day off…So it was just me, Batu, and the office assistant Sandra. This was not all bad though as I didn’t make a bad first impression by forgetting to set the beeper on my watch…so my alarm sounded silently–flashing at me while I slept soundly away. I feel justified in explaining that away as Jet lag, it had been non stop go go go since I landed Friday, still adjusting to the 7hrs time difference. So coming in a little later than I wanted did no damage.

My second day at work was really my first as all the other field agents or BDC’s (Business Development Coordinators) were in the office, Ntokozo and Gumani. I had my first two interviews as Ntokozo took me with him into Soweto. We first stopped at a diner and lounge in Diepskloof called Sochila. Interviewed the woman who owned the place. Interesting responses to my questions, it seems FIFA wanted R50,000 from her in order to be an official licensed restaurant and would benefit her by…. She didn’t know how it would help, she said FIFA/MATCH were never clear, so she declined. She feels that the World Cup will not benefit her business. Yet she said she had been seeing more foreign tourists than normal come to her restaurant…didn’t know what to make of that.

We then headed over to the Hector Peterson Museum in Orlando West and looked around. Hector Peterson is famous because of his martyr status and the iconic photo taken after he was shot and killed during the youth uprising in Soweto. I also interviewed one of the street vendors across from the museum. Still working on my technique to get more detailed answers and have the interviewees speak more freely.

Then, after the short stop at the museum, and a drive along the road in Orlando West where the police opened fire on the student protesters, we had to make a quick stop at Ntokozo’s Uncle’s house. Well it just so happens that his uncle lives 2 doors down and across the street from Nelson Mandela’s childhood home. He personally knows the man! Crazy, anyway you can find the album of all of today’s photos here and the some video from around Soweto here and here.

I have to say, South Africa has by far the most stark contrasts of any country I’ve ever visited. Where I’m staying, if you subtract the electric fencing and gate, you could be in any nice old part of any city in the USA and the Maponya Mall in Soweto would not be out of place in Austin. However, fewer than 10 minutes down the road is a shanty town of immense proportion with houses constructed from whatever the local population can get their hands on. Including, according to Ntokozo, various World Cup related signs for stadiums etc.. that FIFA must continually replace.

That’s all for now, hope to update again soon. Photos should be posted by tomorrow.

I made my way pretty easily back to the bus, we had to wait forever for some people to show up, and we gained some fans as people riding on the other buses organized by Stevan, couldn’t find theirs so ended up on ours. I’m up in the front row of seats, sitting in a row of three with what seemed like a relatively normal and friendly couple. One guy was Irish but a US resident, big US fan, HUGE anti-british fan (absolutely hated them) and his seemingly normal, but an obviously way intoxicated girlfriend.

For the first part of the ride home (exceedingly slow because of the bumper to bumper traffic) she was sleeping. Passed out probably a better term considering she was strangely, every 5-10 minutes or so moaning “ow ow ow” until she just stopped or readjusted how she was sleeping. Her boyfriend was being nice, trying to but a bag under her head to act as a pillow, trying to quiet her down. We stop at a gas station for a restroom/snack break, and she stumbles off, but returns to the bus pretty revived, I don’t know how she altered so quickly but she did. Then as were going along, her and her boyfriend start arguing, I don’t know about what, I was listening to my Ipod trying to sleep. Now her boyfriend is not being the bigger man, he’s antagonizing her a little bit, holding his own in the argument, but just being verbal. Eventually it gets to the point where people ask them to act their age and shut it. Well it doesn’t end and she starts hitting him and threatening to throw his passport out of the window.

It’s getting very strange at this point, she has bit him on the arm as he was reaching up to keep the window shut. She refuses to give him (an Irish citizen but American green card holder) his passport. I finally stop ignoring the two of them and actually sit between them at the encouragement of my other flustered bus mates. This lady continues to try and open the window, so now I’m having to hold it close, as well as the nice honeymooners sitting behind me. The boyfriend is not doing us any favors by trying to rally people to his side, but really not saying too much or anything offensive.

Then all hell breaks lose, This woman loses her damn mind. Screaming that she wants to be let off the bus. Mind you, we’re on a dangerous road leading into Johannesburg at nearly 2am, to let her out we might as well have pushed her off at full speed because most likely no one would of heard of her again. We refuse, by now the people at the front of the bus are all involved. She’s screaming, yelling, almost crying, and then she stumbles towards the front of the bus and starts yelling at the driver and his assistant, the guy selling snacks and drinks. There’s a gap where two other US fans are sitting, essentially on the steps of the bus and the engine cover, because there are not enough seats. These two have also got up trying to explain to her that we cannot and will not let her off the bus. Then she tries to grab the wheel of the bus from the driver, while we’re at full speed. We actually swerve a little, and half the bus that can see what’s going on are yelling their advice and the guys at the front grab and try to restrain this woman.

Then as we’re slowing down to pass through the toll booth, still screaming and crying, she manages to open the bus door. The guy standing in front of the door trying to prevent this legitimate nut job from doing anything of the type grabs her and starts to fall out the bus, luckily he also has a hand on the door and manages to stay on his feet, running backwards while the bus crawls away from the toll booth. Three guys jump forward pull the lady and the guy back into the bus and try and restrain this loon. By this point, some people seriously yell that we should leave her, and let her out. Enough listen to reason and say we just cant. Unfortunately, by now there are no cops to be found anywhere. The young man who nearly went out the bus with her, is trying to talk some sense into her, first restraining her and then try and reason with her. after a while it seems we have calmed her down….but this is not the case. The guy guarding the window looks down for a half second, and while the guy is talking to her, she suddenly grabs something from her bag, and flings it out the window! She claims it’s the man’s passport, we’re not sure. This lady has serious issues.

Very scary, especially because for a little bit, the driver was stopped and reversing down the interstate as we look out trying to see if it was his passport. We then decide, this is stupid, passports can be replaced, we need to get home. It’s already 2am. Luckily the young man at front managed to keep talking to her and eventually convince her, after some more crying, that we’re too close to Johannesburg, let’s just get back and then you can get off with everyone else. Praise the lord, we made it home safely, at 3am. My wonderful host Hilton, was nice enough to wake up and come pick me up at the god awful hour. He of course expected me 2 hrs earlier, but thanks to my cell phone, I was able to keep him updated of our progress via text. So, overall a great game, the night a little more eventful in the wrong way, but the game trumps it all.