I know its been a while since I’ve last posted, but here we go. I’ll try and break it down by subject this time:
World Cup Games
Hillar and I ended up going to 5 world cup games (England v. Algeria, Cameroon v. Netherlands, Argentina v. Mexico, Brazil v. Chile, and Portugal v. Spain). The games seemed to get better with each one we went to with the highlight definitely being Spain beating Portugal at Cape Point stadium here in Cape Town. I’m praying that Spain wins the world cup now, as they really play incredibly as a unit – which makes sense since half of their starting team are players from FC Barcelona. Actually seeing it in person is even more entertaining. Its almost impossible to take the ball away from them, plus they have my favorite player David Villa. He’s everything you’d want in a striker...and Rooney certainly could have learned a thing from him during this world cup. I’ve been rocking my Villa jersey all the time and I hope he can get the golden boot over Klose. I hate Germany with a passion, I don’t even know why but I just do – probably cause they’re such a machine.
We travelled to Joburg in order to see the Argentina and Brazil games. The Argentina game was at Soccer City stadium and that is one of the biggest/craziest stadiums I’ve ever seen. It looks absolutely enormous from outside, but when you get in it actually looks a bit smaller than expected. It’s in the Soweto area, which is considered the largest township(s) in South Africa, but honestly there was nothing around the stadium really. The crowd inside the stadium was definitely pro-Argentina – although Mexico certainly had their share of supporters as well. The second Tevez goal was at our end of the stadium, and Hillar almost jumped out of his seat when it happened, since he’s a huge Tevez supporter. As a Manchester United fan, I want to kill myself every time I see Tevez score though...knowing that we should have kept him over Berbatov.
The Brazil game was at Ellis Park stadium, which is where the final for the 1996 rugby world cup that South Africa won was held (If you’ve seen Invictus, you’ll know what I’m talking about). The stadium itself is in the old downtown and it’s a pretty shady/sketchy area to tell the truth. Hillar and I pretty much only went from our lodge to the games and back as we decided it wasn’t really worth trying to check out whatever Joburg has to offer – we’ve heard not much. If you’re ever looking for a place to stay in Joburg, I definitely recommend checking out the Kwa-Mkhabela lodge though. We ended up booking that lodge the day before we left for Joburg, after reading reviews about our original hostel (Ball n Kicka) and how it was a complete scam. The Kwa lodge shows South African hospitality at its finest as the owner of the place Jamal drove us from the games and back, plus his family runs the place and it’s a really nice lodge.
Back to Ellis Park...as we were driving into the stadium – different guys in crossing guard vests would run by our car and tell us to follow them to a parking spot. One guy even yelled for us to follow him, as he was the VIP usher and he saw that we were in a BMW. I’m not sure what would have happened if we ended up following one of these guys – but probably nothing good. The game itself was awesome as Brazil put up 3 goals, but Hillar and I came to the conclusion that Kaka is probably the most overrated soccer player in the world. For someone who gets mentioned with the likes of Messi and C. Ronaldo, Kaka did almost nothing in the game really besides get a yellow for a reckless challenge. All in all, this wasn’t a good world cup for the superstars (Messi, C. Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka, etc.) – as it seemed that most of them were just frustrated playing on their national teams plus really tired from a grueling season that just ended before the world cup.
Lions Head
About a week ago we also climbed Lions Head, which is one of the mountains here in Cape Town. The original plan was for us to climb Table Mountain, but after leaving our apartment and going outside – it was extremely windy and clouds covered the entire mountain so we went after Lions Head instead. If someone can explain to me why the clouds are so low in Cape Town even though we’re at sea level..I would really appreciate it. We’ve tried to find the answer but have come up with nothing so far.
My buddy Max from BU also came to hike and I really want to thank him and his dad for taking us out to Mama Africa for dinner in Cape Town and around to Camps Bay/Lions Head the next day. If you ever end up coming here, Mama Africa is one of the first restaurants you need to go to and check out. They have authentic African music/food and it’s a great place to hang for a night on Long Street. Max and his family have also been in South Africa for a while – travelling around and going to world cup games. Check out his website www.maxcondren.com - as he’s made some incredibly cool movies/blog entries that really capture what SA is like. If the internet at my apartment worked properly, I’d be able to show you some cool things too but I think I’ll have to end up waiting till I get back to the States. Look out for a facebook album soon though.
The Lions Head climb itself wasn’t too bad as it took about an hour up, but it was the first time I’d done anything like it really since I’ve never hiked much before so it was cool. Getting to the top was awesome as there were some great views of the Cape Town area. You could even see Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela was held in prison before his release in the early 90’s. Hillar was decked out in some Annie Mulz gear so I’m thinking that might be a worthy picture for your website Matt O – I have a dope pic of Hillar repping Annie Mulz which I’ll try and post soon.
That night we ended up going to the Purple Turtle again to see USA play Ghana and honestly I don’t want to say much about it. Losing to Ghana twice in consecutive world cups really sucks, especially since the USA team could have easily made it to the semifinals this world cup. Either way I’m proud of our boys but absolutely baffled at the starting line up we put out for the game. I mean Ricardo Clark over Edu? That was the biggest mistake we could have made, as the first goal Ghana scored was definitely Clark’s fault. All in all I’m pretty happy Ghana lost to Uruguay in the QF, although I felt bad for the manner in which it happened.
Other Highlights
Other than those two things, I’ve been going out with kids at the program and having a good time. Nate's older brother Andrew came and visited for one night a few days ago and we went to Royale for dinner, which is considered to have the best burgers in Cape Town and possibly South Africa. I was hoping to get an ostrich burger, but they were all out of ostrich so I went for the lamb. Overall it was a pretty low key night, but just wanted to thank Andrew for dinner as well. The craziest part of the night was while we were hanging out on a balcony at Stones watching people in the street, a small fight broke out across the street and a huge group gathered around. We ended up hearing from one of the ladies watching that a kid had run out of an alley and she said when he lifted his shirt, it looked like he'd been stabbed. We saw a group of kids carry a person into a taxi and speed off...and about after 20 minutes a ton of police showed up and they had two kids kneeling against a wall. We couldn't really see the entire thing though because it was mainly happening behind a gate in an alley. Safety is a priority here but I think its also exaggerated at times, as long as you are smart and aware you're usually alright. Number one rule: Don't walk into sketchy dark alleys.
Work has been great as well, as I was able to check out another hospital called Karl Bremer last Thursday and see how things are run there. I sat in on some infant visits and I pretty much played with little kids as the main doctor talked to the mothers and did check ups. Karl Bremer is considered a secondary hospital and their sickest patients or patients they don’t have room for – are transferred to Tygerberg hospital, which is where I actually work. Tygerberg Hospital is one of the biggest hospitals in the Cape Town area and Karl Bremer was a bit smaller/more specialized. I’ve found out that there is a huge discrepancy bettwen public and private hospitals here in South Africa, as they level of care is much different. About 95% of this country is medically uninsured though, but if you do have Medical Aid – then you go to a private hospital. Tygerberg and Karl Bremer are both public hospitals though, so they deal with the most/sickest people.
One of the main questions I had was: how do patients decide which hospital they are going to – especially when it’s a public hospital? I found out that each hospital is assigned a main area, which it covers and Tygerberg’s area is Khayelitsha, which is the biggest township in Cape Town. I also did some ward runs at Karl Bremer and learned of an interesting program they run called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC). They do the program with premature infants and infants who aren’t growing to expected standards. What they do is they make sure the baby and mother have skin contact so the baby stays under the mother’s clothes (like a Kangaroo pouch) and they’ve found that this causes the babies to start growing and developing much faster. It was a treatment that I had never heard of but something that I found quite interesting. I’m also hoping to get to some clinics in the townships soon, which should be a great thing to do as well.
Yesterday a group of us went to Mzoli’s (look it up), which is kind of this tent covered restaurant and party area in the Gugulethu township. We took a mini-bus there (my first time), which was quite an experience as it was packed with more people than it should have been and only cost 9 rand (taxi would have cost over 100 probably). How Mzoli’s works is when you get there you choose what and how much meat you want (that is all they serve, sorry Vegans/Vegetarians) and then they cook it for you over a Braii/Fire Pit area. Once it’s all cooked they bring it in a huge bowl to your table and then you just eat it with your hands. We ended up waiting like 2 hours for our food to come so by the time it did, we absolutely beasted on it. It was pretty savage haha – as they don’t give you utensils or napkins. While this is going on people are just partying and dancing as there is a DJ in the tent too. It’s like an enormous tailgate but pretty impossible to explain if you don’t experience it yourself. The fact that its in the townships makes it that much more of an experience as its both tourists and locals just mixing and having a good time. The area is not somewhere you want to be travelling/walking in by yourself, but on Sundays its like a huge party where everyone just is together and having fun. I think we’ll definitely end up going back again and hopefully I can take some pics/videos of the place next time to show you guys.
That’s it for now, pretty pumped for Spain v. Germany and Netherlands v. Uruguay. I’m hoping for a Spain v. Netherlands final but we shall see what happens. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a couple sayings so you can understand some South African lingo – remember to say all of this in a South African accent:
Howz it? – means: Whats up?
Iz it? – means: Is that true/Oh really?
Now Now – means: I’ll do it in a little bit
Cheers,
Prabhat
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