After visting MYSA and having lunch on Saturday, our group attended a soccer match at the Nairobi city stadium. Soccer’s a big deal here, and we were all excited to see what the hype was about.
Unfortunately I think our attendance changed the focus of the crowd. As soon as we walked in, it became apparent that a crowd of wazungu (plural of mzungu, white person) was unusual here. We walked passed the stands and were corralled by the fans of Gor Mahia, one of Nairobi’s most popular teams. They sat us all in a row in their section like their pets. One especially spirited fan taught us a couple of Swahili cheers, though I suspect we weren’t saying what they told us we were.
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| Now imagine this row extended to include all 26 of us |
Some of the fans taunted us and others merely teased us. A few joked about the vendors, who they said would cheat us or serve us bad drinks. One girl was offered two goats for her hand in marriage.
After sitting for about an hour and a half, we were ready to say goodbye to the honking vuvuzelas and rambunctious fans. We got up to leave and received tons of attention on the way out.
It was a unique experience, if nothing else. The excitement of the crowd was contagious (when they were watching the game rather than us), and it was cool to experience something so important to the people of Nairobi. But now…been there, done that, probably not going back. On the bright side, being teased builds character, right?
Gor Mahia ended up losing and there was a minor riot in the parking lot. Click here to see the article on it from the Daily Nation. Glad we got out of there when we did!
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