This is Africa

          This is the story of my trip to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

(At soccer city in Johannesburg, opening match of the tournament Mexico vs. South Africa 1-1)

The year was 2002 and I was 12 years old. It was june and the FIFA World Cup was about to start! There was one bad thing about the world cup being held in Asia, which was the time difference. I had to get up really early to watch my beloved Mexican squad play, but as a true loyal fan I got up to watch every game. The Mexican squad made it to the second round as usual, but once again they fell short this time they were eliminated by none other than their arch rivals the U.S.A.  The Final match came, the game was as good as it had been anticipated, it was a hard fought game, but in the end Brazil won 2-0 with Ronaldo scoring both of the goals. I was very happy Brazil had won, but at the same time I was overcome with sadness because the tournament was over. That Sunday night as I lay in my bed and looked out the window I thought to myself, this World Cup captivated my feelings, it made me fall in love with the sport of soccer, and it happened by just watching the games through the t.v. I was thousands of miles away from all of the action, but I still fell in love with the sport. I wondered how different it would be to actually be there and see everything with my own eyes. That was the moment that I decided I would attend a FIFA World Cup. 

On December 4th 2009 the group draw for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was held in Cape Town South Africa. (I had been anticipating this draw because I was going to see which group Mexico would be put in, and as soon as I knew which group they were in I would put in my request for the tickets.)  I didn't have to wait long, Mexico was the first country drawn so that meant they were going to be playing South Africa for the opening match. That day was a pretty good day, not only did I find out which group Mexico was in, the weather that day was lovely and later on that night Kobe Bryant would hit a game winner against the Miami Heat. I put in my request for the games that I wanted to see and all that was left to do was wait. On February 5th I received an e-mail from FIFA telling that I had beat the odds and I had been awarded 6 tickets to 3 matches. (The tickets weren't free, you have to apply on FIFA's website to get the tickets, they do a random draw and that is how the tickets are obtained.) This day was one of the happiest days of my short life. My dream of going to the World Cup was slowly coming together. 

 The plan was to go the to WC with a good friend of mine, we had been talking about it since were in high school. Unfortunately he backed out on me so I was stuck with 3 extra tickets. I thought about my situation I didn't want to go alone but I really wanted to go through with my plans. There was only one thing left to do so I started looking for other people to go with me, I asked a couple of other people some they would always say yes, but one by one they kept bailing on me. I thought about my situation long and hard, finally I told myself, "Charles this is a once in a lifetime oportunity" so I went ahead and bought my plane ticket for June 6th, (by far the most expensive purchase I have made in my life). That was a huge step in reaching my dream. I still needed to get my visa for South Africa and find a place to stay. Finding different places to stay was the next step it was a little bit difficult since half of the world was gonna be there a lot of places had been booked already. I managed to book a hotel in Johannesburg 4 nights for $800 usd. (when I told my mom about that she flipped, she almost made me cancel my trip). At the time I was working for the Enrollment department at Union College, doing Campus Hosting to be exact. There was a new lady that had just been hired and to my luck she was South Africa when I told her I was going to be going to South Africa she offered me a place to stay with her family that lived there. Her family lived in Durban and one of the matches I ended up going to was in Durban so I did end up taking her up on her offer. The third city I was going to be staying was Polokwane, it was hard to find lodging but I eventually found a place. When I booked the hotel they tried charging my card but it gave them problems so that situation was more iffy than the whole Michael Jackson case. I went to Chicago and got my South Africa visa, that was the final step and I was now good to go. 

June 6th came around and my dream was closer to being achieved than ever. I had a 5:30 a.m. flight to NYC so I was of to JFK. I stopped in Atlanta and Pittsburg before I got to NYC. Once I got to NYC I had a couple of hours to kill so I walked around JFK airport and I met a guy from Iowa and chilled with him for a couple of hours, we found a restaurant and we got some burgers. I checked in and went through security as early as I could, bucause I wanted to watch game two of the NBA Finals. I found a bar that was showing the game so I went in and watched the game. During the half time I got bored so I left and I walked around the terminal. I could tell that I wasn't the only fan going to South Africa because people were repping their countries hard core. While I walked around I saw this guy with a Mexico sweater on so I decided to talk to him. (It tourned out to be one of the best decisions of this trip). He had booked a room for 2 people in Johannesburg and it tourned out that his cousin wasn't going to come to Africa until a couple of days later. I told him my situation and he offered to let me stay with him. I finished watching the game and before long I was on Emirates flight EK 202, bound for Dubai. I had taken this route before when I went to India and I can honestly say that even though Emirates planes are amazing and their crew is really nice, I'm not a fan of being on an airplane for 13 straight hours. After 13 long hours we finally landed in Dubai. When I got off the plane I forgot to wait for the guy and I just made my way out of the plane. I looked for the guy but I couldn't find him, I wasn't worried though because I had a 9 hour lay over so I had more than enough time to look for him and besides he was on the same flight as me to Jo'burg. I had walked around for a while and I met this guy from Ivory Coast, he was trying to teach me some French words when this guy I had talked to earlier spotted me and asked me if I had gone to the buffet yet. I responded with a no and that I didn't know anything about a buffet. He informed me that all Emirates passengers had access to a free buffet with the proof of your next flight, he showed us where it was and when we got there it was closed, we just had to wait for an hour but I had time. In the the mean time I found the Mexican guy I was looking for and after the hour we all had supper/breakfast. 

In Dubai having dinner/breakfast

After the meal, we hung out for a little while longer and then we all went on our separate ways. I went to my gate a couple of hours early, I ended up meeting a couple of people there and I had a great time talking to them, (one of the guys that I met lives in Germany, and I'm suppose to go visit him soon.) a couple of hours later I was on flight EK761. This flight was 8 hours, towards the last hour I couldn't sit still anymore I was anxious to get there. When we finally landed I waited for the guy I was suppose to stay with, we went through customs and then we got found by our ride. I couldn't stop taking pictures on the way to the house, I was so intrigued by everything I was seeing. We got to the house and we got settled in, it was a nice place, and what made it better was that the hosts were so nice. We had our priorities set, and the first things we wanted to get were our game tickets. So we went and picked those up.

Picked up my match tickets

Later on that day we learned about the opening World Cup concert, that was gonna happen that night when I saw who was gonna be there, I told George I wanted to go and he said he wanted to go as well, so we bought our tickets and that night I had one of the greatest nights of my life.

At the concert found some Lakers fan

With some new friends I met

Mexican fans

June 11th came around and the start of the World Cup was just a couple of hours away now. We were dropped off at the park and ride and we got in line for the bus. I felt like I was in a heard of people I had never been in a place so crammed. After waiting for a while we finally made it into a bus. The traffic that day was so bad, we had to go through down-town and that took us forever to get through. At one point I for sure thought we were going to arrive way late. I even started to pray for the traffic to get better, we finally made it out of traffic and the stadium was in sight. The bus dropped us off like 2 miles away from the actual stadium so we had to hustle to get to the stadium. When we finally got there we met up with some friends. I sold the extra ticket I had and we made it inside in time for the match, even after being interviewed by Univision. This was my first soccer game ever and for it to be the first match of the World Cup, that made it even 100 times better. It was such a great sight to see, I was in disbelief, I still couldn't believe I was there I had FINALLY MADE IT! The teams came out and the anthems were sung, and finally the game was under way! 

During the Mexico vs. South Africa game

The first team to strike was Mexico, but the goal was nullified right away. I was dissapointed but there was still a lot of game left. I wasn't too worried, that is until South Africa scored against us that whole stadium erupted, I had never been somewhere so loud. That goal against Mexico devestated me I began to lose hope. Half time came and I decided to walk around and take more pics. 

So the game was back on and Mexico was looking good, they were doing well. They kept getting close but not close enough finally they scored and there I was celebrating getting drenched in beer, but the euphoria was too much that I didn't care. The game came to and end the final score was Mexico 1- South Africa 1. When we got home I had lost my voice and I was dead so I went straight to bed. 

My next match was in Durban, so I had bought a bus ticket to get there. I walked over to my bus and I noticed this guy standing next to the bus, he was the same guy that had approached me the day before he had wanted to buy my extra ticket but he wanted to rip me off. I ended up sitting next to him the whole way to Durban we had a nice conversation. The bus ride was 8 hours and boy was I glad to get off that bus. I called the people I was suppose to stay with in Durban and they came and picked me up. These people were so nice I was so thankful for them. I asked them to drop me off at the beach during the day and I had a blast, meeting new people, playing soccer and splish-splashing in the ocean. 

View from the pier.

Playing soccer in Durban.

Some cool Australians that I met

The second match that I went to was Germany vs. Australia. It was a fun game because the Australians were wild people, but also because there were a lot of goals scored. Germany ended up winning 4-0. Also I love the city of Durban because it was so warm the whole time I was there I was wearing short and flip flops. My stay in Durban came to and end because I had another match to go to in Polokwane. So on Wednesday morning I flew out of Durban into Johannesburg. I had a big problem, the night before I had called George to see what he was planning to do, he and some friends were going to Durban the same day I was leaving, so I had no one to pick me up from the airport. When I got to Jo'burg I walked around a little bit and I happened to come accross a Mexican guy, his son, and one of his friends. I talked to them for a while, they tourned out to be from Iowa and Nebraska. I told them that I lived in Iowa and I went to school in Nebraska, I asked them if I could join them and they were cool with it. We rented a car and we were on our way to find some lodging. We found a place to stay and there were a lot of Argentinian people there, they were really nice and fun to be around. After one day we left for Polokwane the city where Mexico would play next. We left early in the morning on Thursday and we drove for a couple of hours, we stopped at some gas station and a Mexican band happened to be there so we took pictures with them. We finally arrived, but our priority was to find a place to stay. After a couple hours of looking we found a place way out in the middle of no where. We got to the park and ride and we took the bus to the stadium. Once we got there one of the guys I was with realized that he had left his ticket at the hotel, so he bought mine. I checked out the seat we were suppose to sit in and they weren't bad, but the guy I was with found some that were even better! So we sat really close to the Mexican bench. This game was great not only did I find great seats we ended up beating France 2-0.

We got back to our hotel and I had one of the coldest nights of my life. The next day we retourned to Johannesburg and went back to our usual "hotel" by now my days in South Africa were coming to an end so I just kept on enjoying my stay there. June 21st was my departing day, I didn't want to leave but I had no choice, some minor things got in the way but I still managed to make it out of South Africa. I made it to New York City and my boy Demion was there to pick me up. I stayed at his house for the night and the next day I retourned to good ol' Iowa, but not before meeting, Chucky Kaplow. 

Chucky Kaplow was one of Michael Jackson's dancers.

My last supper in South Africa

Got to drive in South Africa it was fun! 

I had the time of my life on this trip, I learned many things that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I thank God and my parents for making this possible. Truly I am very blessed.