IRB Junior World Cup (Rugby)

I witnessed my first mugging on Monday.  We have been taught to be very cautious of our surroundings and our belongings and to never walk alone at night. A group of us were at a free Wi-Fi café for dinner and internet and about to head home.  It was dark out.  I’m not sure how the girl was standing, but she was outside the door I believe on her cell phone.  She was holding her laptop in the other hand.  (Rule 1 is never ever let people know that you have valuables.  My laptop is always hidden in my backpack whenever I am outside so that you don’t know I have one on me.)  Anyway, she was holding hers and a black man with a hoodie up just strolled down the street toward her, grabbed her laptop, and took off running.  The manager of the restaurant hopped the bar and sprinted after him in a matter of half a second.  He did not catch the guy and we left as they were calling the police.  I guarantee she will not see her laptop again.  Purse snatching is also very common here, especially for non-locals. 

Tuesday night a huge group of us went to Cape Town Stadium where the FIFA World Cup 2010 was held to watch a rugby match.  The International Rugby Board (IRB) junior world championships are currently going on in South Africa.  These are the under 21 teams.  We saw the match between South Africa and England.  I had absolutely no knowledge of how rugby is played before the game began.  Fortunately I was sitting at the edge of our group by a 14 year old South African boy and the 7 year old boy with him (his dad’s friend’s son).  We had front row seats behind the goal post (not sure the rugby term).  Both of them proceeded to explain various aspects of the game to me including scoring, penalties, and the purpose of the scrum.  Rugby is a very physical sport and, unlike American football, fast.  They have two 40 minute halves with a 10 minute half time.  No timeouts, no stopping the clock (unless a serious medical emergency occurs), and they finish in less than 2 hours.  All of the players are very muscular.  At half time, similar to in the movie Pretty Woman, they have people go out onto the field and pick up the clumps of grass that have been torn up.  One of my favorite parts is when they throw in the ball from the sidelines and the players trying to get it are lifted into the air like gymnasts by their team members to snag the ball.  By the end of the game I knew when a good play occurred and to stand up and shout my support for South Africa of course.  South Africa won 28 to 15, keeping them in the running for the championship game.  Unfortunately most of the games are all sold out as they are being held at smaller venues including one at the University of Cape Town.  This match was moved from a smaller venue in Stellenbosch because the heavy rains we have been having along with the matches that were already played there tore up the field.

This week Vivian and I made a friend on our bus ride to work.  She is a South African woman who lives 20 minutes north of Cape Town in Table View.  She catches the same bus as us from the main city station and goes to work at some stop after we already get off.  She gives us advice on what to do in and around the city.  She also taught me how to buy weekly bus passes that will save me 10 Rand a week.  A highlight of my work week has been sitting in on an online live session from Harvard while they discussed Adolescents and HIV. 

The Encounters film festival is currently going on in Cape Town. They are screening a bunch of documentaries over the course of a couple weeks.  Last night I attended one at the NuMetro.  The first short one (about 20 minutes) was called Strong Bones.  It was about grannies from a small town playing football (as in soccer) to keep active.  They began playing to improve their health.  Lots of them had never played before or wore trousers so they played in skirts until they got more comfortable wearing pants.  They even had a match against the neighboring town’s grannies team which was hilarious to watch.  The second documentary was called Progress.  It was about a club rugby team from a town in the Eastern Cape.  They beat a team at a Stellenbosch which was impressive for their disadvantaged club against one with better financing.  However, they lost in the semifinals of the club championship tournament.  One of the people, either a player or the club owner (I forget), went to the rugby match while his wife was in the hospital having his child.  I would not be happy if my husband did that.