For weeks now, people across the country have been wearing football shirts to work on a Friday in support for Bafana Bafana, the national football team. You even see news reporters on TV in football tops and a scarf, pretty weird when they are giving all the latest on the war in Afganistan etc etc! All the members of the South African government go to their version of the House of Commons in their Bafana shirts which I think is pretty cool, can't see ever that happening in the UK. Then there is the vuvuzela, which for those of you living in the dark ages, is a kind of horn thing that is a huge part of the football culture here – all the fans take them to matches and they make SO much noise. Even a single vuvuzela is loud, especially when someone is blasting one outside your bedroom window at 5am...Needless to say, Sam and I are not the biggest fans of them. Either way, in recent times, the sound of someone playing a vuvuzela has become as much a part of the background noise in Zithulele as the crickets, Rambo's morning tunes and the barking of the Transkei dogs!
There are also two catchphrases that people just take it upon themselves to drop into conversation [or yell at you from the side of the road]: 'Ayoba!' and 'Feel it! It is here!', both of which have some ambiguous meaning to do with the awesome World Cup vibe that is going about. Thabo [who works with me in the pharmacy] feels it is necessary to shout 'AYOBA' any time he hears a vuvuzela...so that's all the time then!
The build up has been impressive and has continued for a pretty long period of time – I remember when the countdown on the TV was well over 100 days – so you can imagine how crazy it was here on June 11th, the first day of the World Cup 2010. It's a real testament to the spirit of the thing that it's penetrated even the deepest and darkest parts of rural South Africa [or a testament to the power of modern day advertising, depends how cynical you are]. Zithulele was a changed place that morning, such a buzz was going around that it was hard not to get involved in the excitement. It was vuvuzelas galore as we ventured into the hospital, oh how the sicker patients must be dreading the coming month...
OPD was a sight to behold: as we've rigged up a TV in the waiting area, everyone had come along to get seats for the opening ceremony later on so it was packed, meaning morning prayers were insanely loud, and on top of it, Sandile [a rather outgoing male nurse] was dancing up and down the front entrance playing a giant vuvuzela in time accompanying the singing – it was great to see everyone having SO much fun :) Somehow we struggled through a working day to the soundtrack of a community gone wild on the World Cup – I must have been told 'Feel it! It is here!' at least ince every two minutes by various staff members, patients and even a crazy woman dressed in a Bafana shirt on a far away hill marching up and down with a vuvuzela, repeating 'FIFA World Cup 2010! Feel it! It is here! Ayoba! Bafana Bafana!' over and over again alllllllllllllllll morning!
For the opening match, Sam and I decided we would stay in OPD and experience the inevitable chaos and excitement that went on there. The place was packed out: all the waiting benches were full and a crowd was crammed into the space at the back and all the patients who were waiting overnight for treatment were sleeping on the floor at the front [I doubt they got much sleep!]. As the match got underway there was an enormous roar and lots of shouting at the screen. As soon as the South Africans got the ball everyone would start cheering and yelling in Xhosa and even if they passed the half way line, you'd think they'd scored from the outburst of noise that came from the crowd. If the goalkeeper saved a shot or there was a piece of good defending [or if the Mexican team made a mistake] there was a huge round of applause. And of course, whatever was happening, there was the constant blast of numerous vuvuzelas...
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| The crowd assembles in the OPD waiting area |
When the time came that Tshabalala made that stunning shot and scored Bafana Bafana's opening goal, the place exploded – I've never seen anything like it. There was complete chaos. The uproar was deafening, screaming, yelling, cheering, clapping, singing and somehow the trumpet of the vuvuzela even managed to double, actually no, triple in volume. Everyone was hugging and dancing, jumping up and down, waving their arms and some people got so carried away that they bolted down the corridor of OPD in complete hysteria because they were SO excited. It was hilarious, crazy, ridiculous, brilliant....so much fun to be a part of it and let yourself get carried away with the patriotism.
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| The OPD crowd, still cheering 10 minutes after the goal! |
The match went on and on like this and everyone got more and more worked up – the nursing sisters were coming in and out whenever they could [the theatre sister was even in her scrub cap] and the hospital managers [a group of four rather feisty women] were celebrating for a large proportion of the time by waving a blanket in the air, fun times all round! Even though it ended as a draw, everyone was so proud of their team and left in high spirits, it was such a brilliant start to the World Cup and the beginning of a month of football madness in Zithulele :)
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