The latest news is that we have all become World Cup fanatics, probably to the surprise of many of you. On Thursday night Tim, Bree and I placed dibs on our preferred teams, with Caitlin getting the leftovers since she wasn't there. (Sorry Caitlin. Again.) My teams are Costa Rica, England, Cote d'Ivoire, Angola, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Spain. Caitlin got some of the unwanted colonial powers because we are sensitive to that sort of thing right now and tried to avoid them. So far, I have one win and three losses, but I'm optimistic that my underdogs will prevail in the end.
On Friday Musa and Denis took us to a big restaurant-bar where they were showing the first game (Germany v. Costa Rica — am I writing that like a court case instead of a game?) on big screens. Unfortunately, the screen closest to us was delayed by about three seconds, so every time there was a shot or a goal the other half of the room erupted in glee or disappointment. Eventually another screen came on even closer to us and we could watch in suspense again, but I admit I did enjoy the excitement of knowing when something was about to happen.
A lot of people were rooting for Germany, including Musa and Bree (it's one of her picks), and there seemed to be lots of Germans in the crowd. We had wondered if people here felt any resentment towards Germany because it was the original colonial power in Tanzania (England took over during WWI), but they assure us all that matters is how the team plays soccer. Which is fair enough.
Our Adventures in Tanzania 