Satellite TV in a Mud Hut

This past Saturday, the US lost to Ghana in the round of 16. When we drew Ghana, I was a bit concerned as Ghana is the only African team to make it out of the Group stages and thus, I assumed that even FIFA was keen to see an African team go through to the Quarterfinals...

But I figured, drawing Ghana would be better than Germany. Either way, the US and England were f-cked.

Before the match - I was quite excited (evidenced my smile and the wearing of blue sunglasses with the US flag on the sides). I fancied the US chances and believed that we would pull something good out. I mean even Pres Clinton decided to stay a few extra days in South Africa so he could watch the US team play again.

I was down at a beach this past Saturday called Mama Beach, at a new 'hotel' called Eden Park. Eden Park did not yet have a TV, so I grabbed a member of the staff who was from the local village and we headed out of the complex on a little dirt path to the village of Mama Beach. After about a 20 minute walk with eyes fixed on me (as the only white man to go through these parts in a while - I surmised) we got to the 'Cinema' as Wilmot (the man from the hotel) described it.

The 'Cinema' was simply a mud-brick built hut, with no windows and aluminum siding for a roof. It was an easy building to spot as it had three large satellite dishes attached to the roof. Inside were long wooden benches facing a little 15 inch TV on one side and a 23 inch TV on another side (also with wooden benches in front of it). After paying 1000 leones (or about 25 cents US), Wilmot and I popped inside. We missed kick-off, and Ghana had already scored their first goal. About 60+ men were sat tightly in this blisteringly hot hut - with all eyes fixed on the 15 inch TV - yes, the football match was relegated to the smaller TV. Managed to get a decent seat and quickly caught up with a few of the locals about the game so far.

As the only America and white guy in there, they all assumed I was cheering for the USA.

They were right.

Every time the US did something good or bad, I ofcourse reacted. This pissed off a few guys and made others laugh. At one point some guy yelled at me "We only cheer for African teams in this hut". To which I responded "Thats great! I only cheer for American teams in this hut."

All in all - in was a great viewing experience and nice to watch with real Sierra Leoneans and not members of the expat community. The most comical thing however, was that during the second half, another group of people (men, women and children) popped into the hut to watch the other 23 inch TV. When they first turned it on, it was about 10 minutes into the second half. I assumed they would also put on the match and therefore accommodate another 50/60 people willing to pay 1ooo leones.

But - as usual in Sierra Leone - I was completely wrong. Instead, they played an old Jackie Chan movie from the 80s. The film was in Chinese with English subtitles and featured a scene where a sort of soccer-like sport was played. For about 20 minutes of the second half, more eyes were on the Jackie Chan film than the USA-Ghana match. In fact, whenever someone scored a goal in the movie, the cheers were louder than when anything good happened in the Ghana-USA match.

The USA - Ghana match ended with Ghana victorious and the locals apologetic to me. They all believed that the USA was a good team and that we would do better in the future. But ofcourse, many of these guys got a little cheeky and made sure to emphasize their delight in seeing an African team beat a 'Western' team. Although the USA never colonized Sierra Leone, I found this comment to be interesting:

"Its nice to see an African team do well in the Cup. We used to be your slaves. Maybe if we win a few more games, you will become our slaves."

We agreed that if Ghana won the Final, that I would return to the village and work for this man for a week.

Wilmot told me later that he hoped that Ghana would not win the Final for my sake. When I asked him why, he explained that the man I made this deal with was responsible for take care of the outhouses in the village.

The Rains...

The rainy season is finally here. (See picture). I (like many other rainy season virgins) was quite excited for the arrival of the rains. I figured it would cool things off, clean up the streets and be exciting!

What I didn't think about was that after its been raining for 48 hours straight, with no end in sight, rain loses its excitement and fast!

Luckily the rain has just let up after a couple of days of non-stop deluge. The weekend however is looking pretty moist and we expect it rain non-stop for another couple of days from tomorrow.

So far, I've been pretty lucky with the rain. I've not been caught out on the street. Not lost power for more than a few hours and not had any leaks or electrical problems (unlike many of my colleagues and friends).

The rain does have a terrible effect on the common Sierra Leonean, who typically leaves in a pretty shotty building or poorly constructed shack. Freetown is built on hillside, so a lot of these places wash away in the rain. Sadly, this results in an unnecessary loss of life and only serves to exacerbate the poverty situation in the country.

Beyond this for expats and NGO workers, the rainy season means DVDs. Often the rain is so bad in the evenings, that people are reluctant to head out and thus they spend weeks watching movies, TV shows, etc on DVD.

To this end, I've made a list of a number of TV series that I've never seen. First up will be the West Wing (yes - I've never watched the West Wing). I had figured I'd watch all of the seasons of 24, but after watching the first season (in which the daughter gets kidnapped three times in one 24 hour period), I decided I'd give the other seasons a pass.

On another note - tomorrow is a big game - USA v Ghana. Ghana is the last African team in the World Cup, but f-ck that. I'm hoping Team America comes out strong and makes it to the quarterfinals, even if that means steamrolling Africa's only chance of making a run to the finals...

On the Road to Kenema

Wrote this rather quickly so apologies in advance for any missing words or misspellings....

I've been back in Freetown for about a week now after spending about 10 days in South Africa. Thus, for those curious here's a few stories from my trip to South Africa, which was obviously heavily influenced by the World Cup - Go USA!

I arrived Cape Town on 5 June, yes, my birthday for those of you that didnt know it. And yes, it was a big one, my 30th! With the 20s behind me I arrived customs with a sense of seniority, maturity and an abundance of grey hair on my chin. Luckily, the rest of my hair in more important areas is still dark brown. And what did I do with this new level maturity earned through 30 year of experience - I told the customs guy to 'fuck off' in Zulu (by accident). We were having normal Customs guy chit chat and then I was trying to say some proverbe but instead told him to fuck off by accident. I made the mistake of saying this before he had stamped my passport and officially welcomed me to the Republic of South Africa. He explained to me politely that he had 'absolute authority' to send me back to the UK at which point I realised something was not right. After a few mins of explanation, he laughed about it, taught me another way of telling a person to fuck off and stamped my passport.

The plan for the first weekend was spend a few days with a good friend of mine and his family in Cape Town. Saturday was a beautiful in Cape Town, so we played with his kids, made breakfast for everyone and then went out for a round of golf at the country club he had just joined. My buddy is Kenyan, and was basically the only 'black' face at the country club, that was amusing in itself. But we had great fun, despite me almost killing a 70 year old man with a drive that landed on the wrong fairway - which luckily grazed this man's shoulder and not head. We played with another member who my buddy did not know. He explained that the golf club was one of the oldest in Cape Town and that the owner, who was once a famous SA businessman had opened the club up to Blacks and Jews years ago when that sort of thing was unpopular. My buddy and I, a Black and a Jew, immediately laughed and upped our game from there.

The next couple of days were a littler quiet with my buddy having to go out of town last minute for work. So I assumed the 'father' responsibilities with the kids, although I didnt get the benefit of sharing the bedroom with his wife :-(

After a couple of days of fun and GREAT food, I made my way to Joburg.

Its important to point out that most of the new infrastructure built for the World Cup was not completed before I left SA last October. So even the airports were a treat for me. Cape Town airport is amazing and new and Joburg was the same way. I arrived Joburg and collected a rental car, disappointed that I was not taking the new Gautrain - which is this high-speed train that goes from the airport to Sandton, the main suburb of Joburg. The Gautrain had literally started operating that day, 8 June and has received amazing reviews. The only problem with it is that there are no signs in the brand new Joburg airport that show you were to go for the Gautrain. But of all things that could go wrong I guess this was a little one.

So anyway, I hopped in my little Kia, made sure I had some South African Rand ready to bribe a police officer if pulled over and headed to my good friends house (will call them the Smiths). The highways had all recently been refurbished and were lined with flags of all the countries competing in the World Cup. More striking that this however, were the SA rainbow flags that seemed to be on every car. Blacks, Whites, etc were all showing their patriotism with great pride. I'm not South African, but having lived there for a little bit and having read enough about apartheid and understanding the divide that still exists - this was really remarkable and emotional. More on this later.

So I got to my friends house (made up of a father, mother, son and daughter) and had dinner. It felt like old times. The father and mother are both US diplomats and the kids are 17 and 20. The son, who is the 17 year old, is sort of like a little brother and the family overall formed a surrogate family for me while living in South Africa. Nothing compares to seeing mom, dad and Margaux ofcourse!!!

We started slow, but the next few days were to get better and better.

Wednesday was a pretty quiet day filled with a lunch, some errands and just hanging out with friends and then dinner. The only thing not quiet about Wednesday was the parade for the SA soccer team that took place in Sandton. Thousands of people poured into the streets to see 'Bafana Bafana' (the SA team) roll through in an open top bus. What struck me most about this was seeing all of these white people (young and old) wearing the yellow/green national team jersey. Some of you will know this, but soccer is not a sport of the whites in South Africa. Traditionally, only Rugby and Cricket are played and supported by whites, while football is the sport of the blacks. Thus, seeing all of these white people wearing the jersey, knowing that none of them had probably ever been to a soccer match, was incredible. Perhaps not as significant as when Mandela wore the SA Rugby shirt in 1994, but still an important sign and step in the reconciliation and evolution of modern day South Africa.

Thursday kicked things up a notch. Thursday started with attending a launch of 'Pele Sport' which is a new clothing line being launched by guess who - yes you guessed it - Pele! Got to see the guy in action showing some moves with a few kids and then shook his hand as he went from a dirt soccer pitch to a tent for a proper press conference. He's a really sweet man and carries a great smile at all times. It was amazing seeing him with kidz who despite their youth were naturally aware of who and how great Pele was.

Following this I had lunch with my old team from Citi and then onto a few drinks with a good friend. Then onto dinner back at the Smiths house to enjoy homemade pizza and to watch the World Cup Opening Concert. The best part of the evening was watching Mr. Smith watch Shakira dance and sing. He had never seen or heard of her before and was completely mesmorised!

Friday morning kicked off with some bad news as Mandela's great grandaughter died in a car accident on her way back from the World Cup Opening Concert.

But, beyond this, it turned out to be a really wonderful day!

We started off at about 9am at US Consulate in Joburg (in Sandton to be precise). There, the US Vice President, Joe Biden, gave a fantastic little speech to about 75-100 of us. Then he decided to walk through the crowd and greet everyone personally. Everybody had a name tag on, so he would approach and greet you by your first name. When he got to me, it was "So Ari, whats your deal buddy?" We spoke briefly and then he was on to the next person. Regardless of your political views, I must say, the Veep was impressive and personable. He got right in your space and made you feel (if only for 10 seconds) that he care about you. Yes, this is the make of all good politicians, but whats more important to note is that this little impromptu meet and great was not planned. He just decided spur of the moment - I'm gonna meet these people and not just disappear for the opening match.

Shortly thereafter, I headed off for Soccer City with the Smiths. Soccer City is the new stadium built for the cup. It will host the final match and is the largest soccer stadium in the African continent, capable of housing 94,000 fans. Really impressive structure and great views from everywhere! The situation in the stadium was amazing. The opening match was South Africa vs Mexico. No 'Ole Ole' chants broke out as the vuvuzelas blown by the South African fans drowned out all noise. But there was harmony between all of the fans and no fights broke out after either goal was scored. The game was pretty exciting but ended in a 1-1 draw. The best part about the match however, came in the second half when I watched a South African boy teach a Mexican man how to blow the vuvuzela. A lovely site and what the World Cup is supposed to be all about!

After the game, we headed back to the Smiths house to clean up and change as we had a party to attend! The party was hosted by one of the 'it' couples in South Africa. The husband, a billionaire and generally considered the wealthiest man or at least the wealthiest black man in South Africa and his wife, a former doctor turned fashion icon. Over the course of the evening I met several celebs, greeted the Prince of Monaco and had a rather enjoyable conversation with a beautiful tall woman. After answering her questions about what I do, I politely asked her what she did in South Africa. She responded "I'm Miss South Africa" My jaw dropped even further than it already was...The party was great fun and after several chats with a varity of people, we headed home at 2am exhausted sans Miss South Africa unfortunately....

Saturday was a real nice day as well. Had my first hamburger in months, courtesy of the good people at McDonalds. More importantly, we had tix for the Eng v USA match in Rustenburg. Rustenberg sits about 70-80km or so from Joburg and is ruled by a tribe that's become quite rich due to the large deposit of platinum that was discovered to be running through the town. After a warm sunny day for the opening match, the Eng v USA match was played at night under much cooler conditions. And more importantly it included English fans which were sure to make things more interesting.

When we got in the stadium, it was clear that English fans outnumbered USA fans by at least 3-1, but by possibly as much as 4 or 5-1. The English flags and fans were everywhere and anywhere, especially in the large and disorganized lines for beer. But despite all of this and the concern of violence or hooliganism, things were pretty safe, fun and comfortable. Only three fights broke out around us. In one of them, two men started pushing each other until one of the dude's girlfriends took her vuvuzela (the horn) and started smacking it over the other guy's head. To be honest - I wasnt bothered by this at all, as at least it was one less person blowing a horn... The Smiths had not been around English football fans before, so for them it was quite an experience. They could not get over how a middle aged man with his 10 year old daughter sat next to him, could scream 'you fucking cunt' or 'you fucking twat' so many times during the game. Exciting game, and the US were a bit lucky - but hey we'll take a 1-1 draw.

We headed home, I made another McDonalds run and passed out.

Had brunch the next day with Smiths and some friends and then flew out in the evening.

It was a GREAT trip. Unfortunately, my bag was lost by British Airways and I'm still without many of my clothes, birthday gifts and World Cup mementos. I think the staff purposely lost my bag after discovering I was American. But then again we Americans do love a good conspiracy theory.

A

The World Cup

As most of you know, I'm on a little vacation down in South Africa (Sowth Affriiikka as the white afrikaners say). Its been about 8.5 months since I moved out of South Africa and I must say it feels GREAT to be back.

Whats really amazing to me is that despite all of the concerns, despite all of the supposed corruption, despite all of the strikes, South Africa has delivered. They massively overspent ofcourse (as almost every host nation of a World Cup or Olympics does) and yes, some of that money could have been spent on schools, housing, etc for the majority of the population which still lives on less than $2 per day.

But this is the price (no pun intended) of wanting to host one of the most significant (if not thee) sports events in the world!

The Cape Town Airport and Joburg Airports are completely different from when I left. They are absolutely incredible and hopefully will assuage concerns of visitors on arrival. This country is serious about tackling its problems, and weak infrastructure was one of those problems.

Dad: By the way, they did manage to finish the Guatrain - which connects the Joburg Airport to Sandton, Johannesburg. 15 minutes!!! Not even NY has a direct train from Manhattan to JFK that takes 15 minutes!!!

Now obviously if scratch beneath the shiny white surface, you see that the problems that have infringed on SA's development are still in fact there. Quite honestly, if all the money had been spent on social development and housing for the 25m+ in poverty, it would have been helpful, but I gather it would have still not solved many of the problems that SA still faces.

But instead of getting into the argument of where the money could have been better spent - I'd rather just talk about what having the World Cup means (on some level) to both South Africa and the broader continent of Africa.

When I left Sierra Leone last week - the excitement was already building. With Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Algeria, etc all in the World Cup, there was a sense of joy and excitement as some of the be continent's best footballers would be able to showcase their stuff on a world stage, that was for the first time, in their own continent!! Africa is filled with tribal differences, 47 different countries and religious differences. But Africans still rallye behind each other when the opportunity presents itself. Obama galvanised the continent, not because he was Kenyan, but because he was AFRICAN-American.

And I guess in an Obama-like way - the World Cup being in South Africa has provided one very significant emotional outcome. It has provided HOPE. Yes, its cheezy and yes it sounds a bit stupid, but in many ways, thats what this continent needs.

No country, no individual is just going to fork over billions of dollars and be able to fix everything.

But at least for a month, people can get excited by something, which will hopefully be the first of many other World Cups in the continent. Tickets remain expense for the average South African, but at least the games are taking place in their backyard and at least for a month that is usually quiet and slow (economically) things will be exciting.

Africa is the new frontier, not India, not China, not Russia, not Brazil. There are more problems than anyone is willing to admit - but hopefully South Africa's World Cup will be a good one and at least show the world that the continent is serious about business, serious about advancement and serious about becoming a player the world of the future...