Zebra Soccer Madness

This weekend, to honor America without being in America, I took part in a few personal traditions.

1. I went to a Peace Corps party--it had been some time. A group was in town for their mid-service training, and one of the volunteers based in Gaborone was kind enough to invite us to the Fourth of July BBQ at a PCV's house. In true Peace Corps style, there were arts and crafts (patriotic face painting), organized activities (Train Wreck/Musical Chairs), lots of cheap liquor, and a dance party at a local club to wrap up the evening.

2. I went to a soccer match, something I try and do in every country I live in for an extended period of time. On Sunday, Botswana faced off against Iran at the University of Botswana stadium. I am not certain the field was regulation size, but spirits were high and zebra jumpsuits were plentiful (Botswana's national mascot is the zebra). I got to practice my vuvuzela horn, a Southern African soccer staple, and got all kinds of free goodies at the entrance: a Botswana flag, noisemakers, and a program which featured the following inspirational, historically inaccurate, and grammatically incorrect message from the team's executive officer (and I quote):

"Friends in the good spirit of football fraternity, it's once more a great pleasure to have this opportune moment to communicate with you regarding the product that we cherish, nurture and embrace i.e. football.

One great writer Julius Caesar once said 'there is a tight in the affairs of man which taken to the fort leads on to a fortune, omitted its voyages are bound in shallows and miseries.' Football is at the crossroads, we must then decide which way to go, left or right, its our choice.

If we want to remain where we are we will keep left and if we want to make an impact and changes, we need to move right, to move right we need a paradigm shift, we need to think Big and make bold decisions. Thinking big requires resources and we must take a quantum leap to achieve our desired goals.

A self transformation, self motivation and self empowerment exercise needs to prevail in football, together as a team we can bring the desired changes and be proud of our natural team. We need to create an environment that resonates a persona of success, aspiration and a culture of ethnicity of achieving targets and desired goals. We are more than delighted as Botswana Football Association to bring Iran to Botswana. Iran is the powerhouse of the Middle East, Ranked number 52 in the FIFA Coca-Cola World rankings. We are indeed playing a strong footballing of nation. This is the fourth team from outside Africa to play Botswana after New Zealand.

I wish you all a very exciting game and once more welcome Iran National Team to Botswana. I thank everybody who played a part in making this game a success especially player number 12.

Fans! Fans! Supporters!
Zebras ke yone!"

As riveting as that was, perhaps my slideshow may be even more entertaining:



The match ended up tied at 1-1. Apparently I wasn't paying attention during the first two minutes, because I didn't know Iran had scored, and thought Botswana had won when the game was over. I couldn't understand why people weren't more excited.

3. Another thing that seems to happen around this time of year is that someone I know (and sometimes it's me--ex. Pamplona) gets robbed. This time my purse avoided any pilfering. But at a bar on Friday night, I was out with a few friends, watching a local (very good) hip-hop band. Two guys started dancing with my roommate, and a few minutes later, she noticed her open purse and missing wallet. I told her to watch the two guys (one who had been bugging me earlier), and I went to get security. Security came and kicked the crap out of one of the guys (in security's defense, he was really confrontational)--the other one had disappeared after my friends had searched his jacket. The whole thing was a fiasco--the police came, the two guys we were accusing were making up multiple B.S. stories, and of course the wallet wasn't being produced (we were certain they passed it off). My roommate chose not to open a case--we learned later that if she had, and the local chief had found the men guilty, she would have been able to watch them receive a lashing, which is apparently the punishment for petty crimes. I have some qualms about this, but as a Motswana friend explained to us--"why should you put bad guys that do these little things in jail and have to pay to feed them better than the good guys?"

Instead of dealing out more punishment than the swollen lip security had already given one of them, we just went to our friend's house to use the internet and cancel the credit cards. This was mildly amusing as she worked over a poor skype connection to explain her situation to a very confused, very concerned customer service rep:
Lauren: "I'm calling from overseas--Africa"
Bank rep: "You're calling from AFRICA?"
L: "Yes, my bank card's been stolen."
BR: "Your card has been what? Stolen?"
L: "YES! I need to cancel my card"
BR: "You need to what?"

It all got sorted out in the end. In fact, the bar called this morning to say her wallet had been found in the men's bathroom. She went to pick it up, and it kind of smelled like urine. Time to get a new wallet.