When Lerato told me that someone in Tsoeneng had a television where I could watch the semifinal between Germany and Spain I jumped at the chance. The idea of watching two European powers play World Cup soccer from an African village that had no electricity was irresistible.
I had experienced World Cup 2010 matches in a variety of places already. The opening match I spent surrounded by the 85,000 other lucky people in Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium. I watched Brazil lose to Holland from the stands of Port Elizabeth's cricket stadium, which had been set up with a giant screen down on the pitch. I listened to one Japan game on a Sesotho radio station while driving. I remember the announcer saying so many times two of the player's names as they passed each other the ball: Honda, Endo, Honda, Endo.
But watching a World Cup game in Tsoeneng, the village where I once lived, promised to be a very different viewing environment. I arrived at dusk and then it got dark, really dark. I was shocked by the blackness of the night that enveloped us. How quickly I had forgot what it is like to live where there is no electricity, especially during the weeks when there is no moon. I knew that there were a hundred village houses around me, but I no longer saw them; I couldn't even see my feet. Lerato lit the ground with his cellphone, and I followed closely behind as we walked up the hill to his neighbor's house, to the television.
First we heard the rumbling of the generator, then we saw it in the cellphone's light, and then we followed its electrical cord to the front door. "Koko," and we were told to come in.
I liked that I would finally be watching a match around people I knew. I also liked that I would be experiencing the World Cup around the people who originally got me interested in soccer. It had never been a sport I paid attention to until I moved to Africa, where it's really the only sport men play, and I began playing with my students after school. I knew at that point that I would have to come back and visit during the 2010 World Cup. In the house now were five of my former students. Besides Lerato there was Lefike, Relebohile, and the sister and brother who lived in the house: Tahleho and Retshelisitsoe.
Retshelisitsoe was standing on a chair adjusting the antenna which hung by a shoe string from a ceiling rafter. The television sat below it on a metal cabinet, and from the fuzz emerged the picture of a soccer field. As Germany and Spain began to play, Retshelisitsoe took a poll and found that of the dozen people in the room, seated on benches and chairs and the floor, support was about split equal between Germany and Spain. I remembered that Retshelisitsoe had long ago cheated on one of the vocabulary quizzes I gave his class, but I had forgiven him, and we were now aligned in our desire to see Spain beat Germany.
The game was controlled, and the first half ended with no goals scored. Around me everyone wore blankets: boys around their shoulders, girls around their waists. Over and over, they asked me if I was cold and could they get me a blanket; they refused to believe that I was comfortable without one. Basotho seemed to always feel cold.
I had brought a chocolate bar, and I opened it and passed it around. Once it was finished, the mother of Tahleho and Retshelisitsoe told me that she had just slaughtered one of her pigs and would like me to choose a piece of meat that I could cook in the pot in the corner while the game was on. I appreciated the offer, but declined. I wanted to closely watch the game, and I hoped the second half would provide more action.
The soccer of the second half was also very controlled though, and no goals were being scored, and I began to think that describing the game as controlled was a euphemism for boring. That combined with the darkness inside the house made me feel sleepy. My eyes burned as I strained to focus them on the small bright screen.
Around the 70th minute, at last, Spain scored. I woke up enough to cheer with Retshelisitsoe and the few other Spain supporters. Then the generator puttered out. The room went all black without the television on. Cellphone lights lit it temporarily, until Retshelisitsoe put more fuel in the generator and the game came back on. But he needn't have. The game itself puttered out until it ended at Spain 1, Germany 0.