We enjoy the Soccer World Cup!

I'm taking things deliberately slow these few weeks -not only because it's winter and damn cold, BUT it's Soccer World Cup time here in SA, as I think everyone would know by now! Everything in SA has come to a standstill for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - and that includes 4Knowledge and the SA Intelligencer! We will start in earnest again on 14 July with our next course!

My boys are soccer crazy, although the sport has not yet permeated the Afrikaans schools. Armand's primary school has done a great deal: each day had a discussion of the countries participating, every class representing on country, with flags, soccer matches between the classes etc. Above is a photo I took of the 2 of them with hubby when we watched the Argentina/South Korea game last week at the magnificent Soccer City near Johannesburg. The calabash form was an excellent architectural idea!
They are off to watch the match between  Italy and Slovakia this afternoon, and like the previous times, will take the train from Pretoria to Johannesburg, Now this might sound like old hat for my European and American friends who are used to taking the metro, but for us who are used to our poor public transport system and take the highway with our own cars, this is a novel experience.  The train took 2,5hours but it was clean, safe and we chatted endlessly to an Ecuadoran woman who have stayed in SA for the last 3 years and say we have the most beautiful country and people in the world. AMEN and AMEN on that!

This is Armand with his favourite team's flag...Tomorrow they will watch the Spain and Chile match here in Pretoria, and next week the whole family is off to watch the match between the winners of Group D against runner-up in Group E.
In the meantime, we hope Ghana will fly the flag for Africa to the semi's...