Waka waka... (posting from the road)

One of the most frequent questions that I encountered prior to my departure was whether I intended to attend the World Cup. As awesome as that would be, sadly my travel plans existed far from South Africa. I thought with the given distance that the festivities would have little impact on my vacation...in fact it is quite the opposite.

The entire continent has been embracing the world cup with an amazing amount of gusto. The billboard with the slogan "Our Flags are different but our dreams are not - Africa United" have dotted all the major roadways that we have travelled. Tiny isloated towns have notices scrwaled on old blakcboards or scraps of paper announcing upcoming matches. We have camped in places that do not have running water but will have somehow found a small black and white television for all to sqeeze around. Larger cities have crowds surrounding the windows of television stores, just like in the movies. Match results are spread by word of mouth in just a few minutes.

I have only heard two songs since arriving here; "Waka Waka" by Shikira and "Waving the Flag" by K'naan. And those songs are everywhere - background music for bars or commercials, even cell phone ring tones. These songs have been the backdrop to my day for several days now.

My travel group is also closely following the tournamanet. We have a flowsheet of the matches pinned up and many an hour has been spent on the bus debating who will qualify and the heavy card hands of the refs. Given that Canada has not qualified for the Cup this year I am left with a dilenma on who to root for...given that Africa has been my adopted home for the past few weeks, I will join the continent and cheer on Ghana.

(Sad note - shortly after writing this Ghana went on to lose and was elminiated. I was in Tanzania for the World Cup finals - nice job Spain, I was cheering for Netherlands of course...
But Stacey - you were correct. The continent was shaking the night Ghana beat the US!!)