Tuesday June 15

Tuesday June 15

I had originally planned to leave Pretoria this morning, but I decided I would stay til Thursday morning cause South Africa was playing Uruguay in Pretoria on Wednesday night. I didn’t really want to spend two more days just kickin it Pretoria, I relaxed for the morning trying to decide what to do with this free time, and ended up calling Pastor Washington, he had invited me to come up to the township area he lived in. I met up with him as he was leaving work and hopped on a rowdy public taxi. There was a woman who cut up the entire 40 minute ride. I guess on trains a Pastor will basically have church on the train cars. This practice has been around for a long time. The woman was imitating a pastor, leading our taxi in songs and encouraging her small congregation. The entire taxi was thoroughly entertained, I had to wait til we got off the taxi to learn what all the fun was about.

P.W.’s house is very nice. He lives with his lovely wife Nikki, her brother Lincoln, his two kids and his niece. I had fun with them, we watched Brazil and North Korea. N.K. was very impressive, they may be the best example of how to compete so far. The talent gap is massive, but they gave Brazil a challenge by preparing well, sticking to their tactics, and fighting every minute of the match. I still think they will be hard pressed to maintain that level for their other two matches, eventually they will get broken down. Well done Korea DPR.

Before the match, the power went out for about almost two hours for no reason. The family was saying the country’s electricity was stretched by all the stadium lights. We went for a drive and came back at about 8. The lights came back on around 8:20, ten minutes before the match. It was like they electric company decided they could turn off all the lights between matches and no one would get too mad.

We had a very tasty meal of chicken, rice, and something else that is slipping my mind. Lincoln gave up his bed for me, I would have liked to argue, but I think that’s the way it had to be.