On Saturday evening four of us decided that we wanted to go to a South African soccer game. I mean this just adds to the South African experience. In order for us to get to the game we had a few adventures in the making. The game was in Johannesburg, which is about an hour away, and our only transport there was the taxi bus. Let me back up a few steps. To really immerse in the culture I wanted to paint my face the South African Flag. After my face was painted and we were ready to go, I realized I would have to spend in hour in the taxi bus with my face painted. We already stood out enough because we were white, but now we stood out even more. We were told that in order to get a taxi headed towards Johannesburg we needed to find the Bosman taxi stop. This sounds easy right? We didn’t know exactly where the stop was so we had to start asking people on the street. The first guy we asked said “go to the left then turn right at the robot (stoplight) and then go down the alley. At this point I started to have a flash back of all the things we were told not to do while studying abroad. I’m pretty sure going down a dark alley at night was one of them. But concentrate Caitlin we have to make the game. To double check we asked a few more people and the directions were all the same. We headed down the narrow alley that had high walls and was full of trash; if we wanted to escape there was no way of climbing the walls. There were many puddles we had to cross, and we kept hoping that they were only puddles of water. Then BANG right in front of our eyes were a group of about 15 or 20 men. They were standing in the middle of the alley drinking and blocking the walkway, and to add to the scene one of them was holding a lantern (about the only lighting in the alley.) At this point we all kind of went cold but had to continue walking. We then saw that we could turn right, so right we went. There was the taxi station. We then were told we needed to take a taxi to Johannesburg and get off at the Park Station. The cab ride there was hilarious. The driver was blasting Celine Deion and we were going at a nice fast pace, which made us think that making the game on time was possible. As we entered Johannesburg it was now completely dark outside. Nathan the only guy with us saw a sign Hillbrow and said “guys I remembering reading that this is one of the most dangerous blocks in South Africa.” Our driver pulled over and told us that this was our stop and we needed to get out and walk a few blocks. Perfect! Everyone watch your bags. Explaining this neighborhood is almost impossible, to explain it simply, shady characters crowded the street. We then had to catch a train to the stadium, but once we got the station the last train had already left. The only way to get there now, was by walking back through the neighborhood about 15 minutes to the stadium. Just remember two of us had our faces pained. We didn’t stand out or anything. Finally we made it to the stadium. All we could do was laugh. We had survived the trip. The game was great and people kept asking to have their pictures taken with us because of our faces. We were kind of a big deal. The score was 0-0 and then in the third minute of extra time Bafana Bafana scored! The stadium went nuts. You could feel the stadium vibrate, which was incredible!
