Guess who's back, back again, Tori's back, tell a friend

My apologies for neglecting my blog, but if most don’t know by now, I’M BACK!! It’s been a wild time trying to catch up with friends and family, especially when I’m still on South Africa time and fall asleep at 6 p.m and wake up at 4 a.m, but I’ve made pretty good progress since arriving home on Saturday.
I didn’t realize that I never posted anything about my experience while watching the final match and my last week in Africa, which is what I’ll tell about in this post. I’ll have another post that is a bit more profound to wrap up the trip’s significance and how it has impacted my life.

July 11 2012: FINAL GAME! A few others and I decided to go to the Fan Park really early to ensure that we got good seats. Upon our arrival we noticed the influx of people on the boardwalk like we had never seen before, and street performers that seemed to line up along the sides one after another. To pass the time we went to the mini-theme park next door and rode the chair lift and got an awesome view that gave us a good view of northern Durban city limits (we could see the stadium really well) and literally passed over the Fan Park. Thousands accumulated and stormed the gates when they opened, a moment that reminded me a lot of waiting for Walt Disney World to open when I was a child.
The fan park filled up very quickly (45,000 people!!) and everyone watched with great reverence as the World Cup-the event South Africans had waited four years to come, was projected as a mere collection of memories during the closing ceremony. The dark clouds overhead sprinkled the crowd with raindrops but that just made the moment more intense as we watched Spain take the Cup. Fireworks went off on the nearby pier and an overwhelming electronica laser show started off the night of celebration. The moment was surreal, for the life of my I couldn’t grasp the fact that the whole event was over and the electric atmosphere was going to dwindle into nothing by the end of the week. And when I say dwindle, I mean to extremely regress.
Four days after the cup, on our last night in South Africa, a lot of the group went out to Florida Road, a place with a lot of restaurants and bars that was always packed to the sidewalks during the World Cup. To our surprise we got out and there was maybe 5 people we saw walking down the strip. There were maybe 10 people in the bar, and 20 people in the large restaurant next door. I had the chance to talk to a waiter at the restaurant and he said on a typical game night he was bringing in R6,000-R7,000 ($800-$900). Towards the end of his 10-hour shift that day, he had only made R50 ($7). This is the sort of sad reality that faces host cities. The economic impact is only temporary until they are able to attract investors that create jobs and provide an economic stimulus. But other than that shocking conversation, the night was pretty good and I was able to hang out and relax with some really great people I got to know over the course of the program.
The entire last week had been devoted towards school projects: a group visual essay titled “Youth of Africa: How they are overcoming adversity and are the future hope of this nation”, and my research paper where I talked about the World Cup’s role in combating South Africa’s (and other developing countries’) most preventable social issues, which involve reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV, AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. All I have to say is that if you think writing a research paper during the school year is hard, try writing one during your summer vacation, with minimal access to the internet, a broken printer, and in Africa of all places. If I ever complain about a paper, I have first hand experience in knowing that it could be worse.
I left for the airport on Friday at 6 a.m. and was all set to go but had to go back into the center to say goodbye to a few people. Arriving to the airport I went to get out of the van when I realized I was missing something very crucial- my luggage! Leaving the largest and most important piece of any traveler’s belongings seems to be something I would definitely do, sheesh. Luckily I had an extra hour to spare before my plane boarded. Other than that, my travels back to the states went smothly, as all of my flights were on time and went by in the blink of an eye. When I woke up with 5 hours of my 16 hour flight left, the couple in my row commended me for sleeping in the positions I slept in for 9 or so hours. In Atlanta I immediately resented being in the states because of the hot and humid weather I had so thankfully missed for 6 weeks. I went to get a drink at a shop and for a brief second though that I was going to buy a juice for R2.95. –A sign of missing Africa already.
Being home I am trying to take care of business that I missed and catch up on what’s happening in the world and in my community. I’m already noticing changes in how I live, but will post more about Africa’s impact and lessons learned early next week, if not later this week. Have a good one!