Peace and Blessings be with you.
The Khayelitsha Public Viewing Area started filling up at least 3 hours before the game that would see Bafana Bafana bow out of one of the biggest sporting spectacles on the planet, in the Universe!
Early arrivals.
People arrived in full flower, kitted to the 9’s with their Makarapa’s ( i may not have spelt this correctly) which is a construction workers hard hat, ingeniously cut to have an automatic head bound banner showing the team that you support.
Mkarapa on head:check! Vuvuzela on lips:check!
We were very fortunate to be Blessed with a sunny day, which bode well for us if one were into omens and he like, good to see then that people came prepared with their sunglasses, even if they made it them selves!
Oh what beeeeg glasses you have Grandma!
The national pride expressed by the crowd that fateful yesterday was touching, regardless which camp you belong to, ie. the ” bringing our nation together” or the ” how can they spend all the billions on all the preparations for this one month long event and still have hospitals without sufficient ambulances”.
Prrroudly South African.
The beginning of the game saw people flooding into the O.R.Tambo Hall, the cheering and Vuvuzela’s at the scoring of the first goal was truly deafening!
The crowd at full tilt.
In the end the boys won the game, a little too late for to secure a place in the next round. I can tell you that there were many a heartbroken supporters in the crowd. The victory of South Africa was only overshadowed by the departure of the host nation from the competition.
Unabashedly Mzanzi.
May we continue to host our visiting guests with helpful courtesy, sincere friendliness, and the rest of the qualities that South Africans are famous for, regardless of the reason they are here!
Salaam.
Yasser
As part of the commentary around the final match, I heard the sportscasters talk about how much it cost to get a seat in the stadium. I don’t remember the amount now, but it sounded astronomical to me. How sad that such an accessible sport (in terms of equipment and venue) could be so exclusive. Still, so wonderful to see the joy of the South Africans at the wonderful World Cup.
And such wonderful portraits you’ve captured, especially the last one… so haunting, so much depth in those eyes. Excellent work.