The entire month of the World Cup was a jol.7 I don’t think I slept very much. But I certainly ate, drank, and breathed every moment of the Cup. I was also a lot younger and, at 29, could function with copious amounts of alcohol and little sleep!
My job that year was focused on the security preparations for the World Cup and monitoring for any threats against players and fans. This is how I got to watch most of the matches as part of my responsibilities (a dream job, right?), scanning the crowds pictured on the screen for any sign of a disturbance. It meant long hours at the office. Days started at 6 am and ended after the last game of the evening, often at 10:30 at night.
There was an official fan park across the road from my office, so most nights, instead of heading home for some much-needed sleep, I’d walk across to the Fan Zone and meet up with friends who had been there for several hours already, drinking and striking up friendships with the tourists who had come to experience an African World Cup.
One night I arrived at the designated pub to find that my pretty Kenyan friend, Pauline, had five Argentinean guys lapping up every word that came out of her mouth. Except they didn’t speak much English and she didn’t speak any Spanish! One of them was making a poor attempt to seduce her by telling her that he “make big sausage” while pointing at his genitalia.
Pauline motioned for me to walk with her to the bar. “How do I get rid of them?” she asked me.
“Tell them to piss off,” I suggested.
“Eish, no, let’s make them pay, especially the one, you know, ‘Sausage Guy’,” she laughed with a wicked glint in her eye. Pauline could be impulsive at times. But also dangerous. Whatever she was planning was not going to end well for the Argentineans.
“Nee, man, Pauline. Let’s dump them and go somewhere else.”
“No way! They came here looking for an African experience! I’ll give them an African experience!”
“What are you up to?” I asked, intrigued.
“Watch and learn,” Pauline retorted with a naughty smile.
She made me buy beers for the group and take them to the table with the promise that she would soon be back. “Tell them I’ve gone to organize an African treat for them.”
Armed with beer, I rejoined our other friend Dave who clearly didn’t have the Argentineans as enthralled as Pauline had. Dave looked at me and mouthed: “Where’s Paulie?”
I rolled my eyes: “Getting a surprise for our friends, apparently.” Dave looked at me and winked. He knew Pauline well.
Meanwhile, I tried to keep the Argentineans talking. I speak Spanish, so communication wasn’t a problem. But they weren’t interested in me. “Donde está la negrita?” Sausage Guy asked.
“Está preparando una supresa para ti,” I said. That got his interest. His friends egged him on, making crude sexual jokes.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
7. Party.
Series – Evanescent
January: If Something Can Go Wrong…It Will – Jonay Quintero Hernández (Spain)
February: The Planet of Pleasure – Nane Sevunts (Armine Asryan) (Armenia)
March: Evening with Jackie Chan – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
April: Vuvuzelas, Walkie-Talkies and Madiba Magic – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
May: Remembering – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
June: 5-4-3-2-1 – Talia Stotts (America)
July: Getting Ready for Newborns – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)
August: Regrets – Kate Korneeva (Russia)
September: A Hollow Pursuit – Diana Haidar (Syria)
October: The Test – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
November: The Writer’s Daughter – Lauren Voaden (United Kingdom)
December: Translation Perfect – Zhang Lu (China)
Special: Catching Water III – Javier Gomez (Argentina)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Cover photo: Soweto, South Africa – At the festival 2 – Sunshine Seeds (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed