theres nor way that norway can win!l

view from signal hill

the title of this post refers to the banter that the sports mentors and older sports outreach kids were having with me before the bafana bafana game in cape town's greenpoint stadium last night, however for those of you who follow international football (that's the real european type, sometimes wrongly called to as soccer, and not the american style 'football', which is more like rugby with padding!) then you will know that in fact the little country of norway turned the tables on the south african national team and did indeed beat them 1-0.

can i take a picture

the game was of little importance as a sporting spectacle due to the fact that it was only a friendly, providing some much needed match practice for the south african team before they host the african cup of nations (similar to the european championships and not to be confused with anything which might be referred to as a world series, which would only include one country!) later this month. but saying that it was of great importance to our band of sports mentors who had never seen their countrymen play in the flesh before.

watching the warm up

although the game didn't start until 8.15pm, later changed to 8.30pm for some reason or another, we set off in rob's trusty land rover and the village of hope's hyundai H1 at around 3 o'clock and picked up 14 boys and 2 young ladies from the various areas, informal and formal settlements of grabouw, and set off down the mountain to cape town to enjoy an afternoon of fun before the big event.

another corner to bafana bafana

it is a real privilege to take these young adults anywhere, many of them have a very limited knowledge of anything outside their home, or home town, so to show them the sights of cape town, the magnificent table mountain, the harbour, beaches, tall office blocks and the waterfront is somewhat eyeopening on both sides.

our first view of the greenpoint stadium was from the rump of lions head, commonly know as signal hill, this little tourist spot provides a wonderful vista over the beaches of sea point towards robben island, of which the boys seemed very pleased to see as well! we then ventured down into cape town's waterfront where we enjoyed a meal at mcdonalds. all of this was a revelation to some of the boys who were keen on taking photos of each other eating their quaterpounder with cheese meal!

after the meal we had one of the most memorable experiences, we had entered the first floor restaurant via the stairs but as we left to go down towards the stadium two of the boys created quite a scene when confronted by a moving staircase (an escalator to me and you) which they were very skeptical to step onto. it's incredible to think that these older teenage boys had never taken the ride down an escalator but that in a way is the conundrum that we live with in south africa. for a few it is a country of western standards which people take for granted, for the majority it is a land that basic housing, sanitation and services are something to long for and things that one takes for granted are new, exciting and sometimes scary to others. (for further experiences please visit our previous posts entitled supporting mentors and sports mentors united in cape town)

excitement was building as we entered the stadium, we found our seats after being searched at the security point which was another point of hilarity, and the boys faces lit up as they saw their hero's warming up right in front of them.

the game was a bit of a mixed bag and you can visit sports sites to read up on what the reporters had to say about the tactics, the abilities and perhaps the prospects of bafana bafana in the upcoming tournament, all i will say is that south africa had all the possession with little fire power upfront, norway played well, shut down in midfield and scored with perhaps their only real opportunity of the game.

our journey home was almost as eventful as they boys were keen to stay together, never being in such a large crowd my hand was gripped by a 17 year old boy who was so worried about getting lost in the dark in the middle of a big city (and rightly so), the bright lights of the city reflected in their excited eyes, win, lose or draw they were going to have an amazing time and i feel honoured to be able to serve these guys who support our work week in week out as we try to bring a little highlight into the lives of the 200 or so children we work with via our sports outreach.

a great time was had by all, arrived home just after midnight where many boys went back to their simple shacks and the conundrum started all over again as i dropped them off into those homes with no electricity or running water knowing that my house was just up the track and a security light would brighten my way to my soft bed.

we wish bafana bafana all the best for the cup of nations and we hope to be able to provide other children with experiences like our 16 mentors had last night.