June in Ethiopia is pretty slow, at least in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer. I remember it being slow last year, but this year the days just seem to drag by. I mentioned in a previous blog that June has turned into a waiting game. Students are having exams, which means I can’t teach my English class, and I’m not permitted to be on campus most days, even to arrange future programs. The money for my internet café project has yet to come in, so that is at a stand still at the moment. This leaves a lot of time for drinking coffee, eating injera, and watching the World Cup!
Not the world’s biggest soccer… er… football fan, but I’ve come to really appreciate the camaraderie of watching the matches with energized strangers. Cafes and restaurants with television begin to fill, together we watch the players take the field and arbitrarily we each choose the team we want to root for during the next two hours. Later you return home and look on your map to figure out where that country you yelled so hard for is located. Who doesn’t love it?
Ethiopians really love football. They don’t have a team in the World Cup but they sure do care about each and every match! It’s become something to do each afternoon, and evening for that matter, and I really do love the atmosphere. One fateful afternoon the local television cut out with just 30 minutes until America played! When power goes off in the neighboring town it cuts our television. Bad timing! I quickly got in a bajaj taxi and asked the driver, who is one of my friends, if there was any place in town that has the games by satellite.
Success came at a price—the only place with sports satellite is the hotel I’ve successfully boycotted for the past nine months, ever since they were the only place in town to refuse to donate to my HIV testing lottery program last October. I bit the bullet and found a cozy spot (not really, the chairs are plastic) next to some loud truckers and local sports fanatics. The crowd continued to grow since it was the only place in a town of over 30,000 people showing the match. Look at that, the World Cup bringing people back together—sorry HaHu Hotel for boycotting you for so long… (this is the part where they admit to being lame for not donating).
My favorite part (read: most awkward part) of that match was that with every exciting play (goal, yellow card, bad call, etc) everyone would turn around to catch my reaction. Needless to say I haven’t returned for another game there, although I am grateful there is a place in town with the sports satellite. Most games I watch either at my landlord’s house, a nearby restaurant that I go to all the time anyway, or recently in my compound with neighbor Yedelfree who just bought a TV!
I hope America is just as excited about the World Cup as Dangila is, even though I doubt that’s possible. Maybe in four years I can bring some football hype your way!
Not the world’s biggest soccer… er… football fan, but I’ve come to really appreciate the camaraderie of watching the matches with energized strangers. Cafes and restaurants with television begin to fill, together we watch the players take the field and arbitrarily we each choose the team we want to root for during the next two hours. Later you return home and look on your map to figure out where that country you yelled so hard for is located. Who doesn’t love it?
Ethiopians really love football. They don’t have a team in the World Cup but they sure do care about each and every match! It’s become something to do each afternoon, and evening for that matter, and I really do love the atmosphere. One fateful afternoon the local television cut out with just 30 minutes until America played! When power goes off in the neighboring town it cuts our television. Bad timing! I quickly got in a bajaj taxi and asked the driver, who is one of my friends, if there was any place in town that has the games by satellite.
Success came at a price—the only place with sports satellite is the hotel I’ve successfully boycotted for the past nine months, ever since they were the only place in town to refuse to donate to my HIV testing lottery program last October. I bit the bullet and found a cozy spot (not really, the chairs are plastic) next to some loud truckers and local sports fanatics. The crowd continued to grow since it was the only place in a town of over 30,000 people showing the match. Look at that, the World Cup bringing people back together—sorry HaHu Hotel for boycotting you for so long… (this is the part where they admit to being lame for not donating).
My favorite part (read: most awkward part) of that match was that with every exciting play (goal, yellow card, bad call, etc) everyone would turn around to catch my reaction. Needless to say I haven’t returned for another game there, although I am grateful there is a place in town with the sports satellite. Most games I watch either at my landlord’s house, a nearby restaurant that I go to all the time anyway, or recently in my compound with neighbor Yedelfree who just bought a TV!
I hope America is just as excited about the World Cup as Dangila is, even though I doubt that’s possible. Maybe in four years I can bring some football hype your way!
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