Sorry for the delay, we've had some power issues and/or connection issues up here in the northern part of Malawi.
The second day of our tour started off well...we slept in and got close to getting on the right timezone.
We watched the first game at home with Dumi's dad, the same man who was uninterested about the World Cup the day before was front and center at the TV to watch South Korea beat Greece 2 - 0.
We were determined to get to Lake Malawi's beautiful Nkhata Bay for the day's games, one of Oli and Dumi's favorite spots on the globe. The area had been without power the day before so folks were anxious to catch up with the games.
The town center was full of people but they were excited about something else: a real football tournament between local teams vying to make it to the regional level (see picture).
Did they know Argentina was playing and the Messi-ah was strutting his stuff on the world 's biggest stage? They did know but they had other priorities. Awesome.
We watched Argentina vs Nigeria game at a cine-sports bar called Golden Dog, aka, Anfield. When we walked in it looked like a small crowded bar with the game on a small TV in the corner. But, upon deeper entry into the cavernous bar was a door that led to a much larger and darker cement theater-like space. This had a cinema atmosphere with an entrance fee and a large projection of the game. The crowd was seated upon rows and rows of wooden benches and was clearly pro-Nigeria. But they weren't immune to Messi's magic as the room was abuzz every time he touched the ball. Toward the end of the match, folks were definitely getting more annoyed with the missed opportunities upon which the Nigerians could not capitalize.
We were happy to watch Messi almost do his thing and all in all it was a good match.
As we had a couple of hours to kill on the lake, we headed out of town and out to the more touristy spots on the quiet side of Nkhata Bay. We walked along the beach until we found an accommodation televising the pre-show to the USA v. England game in their restaurant bar.
This location was quite sleepy outside as fishermen were heading out to catch, but inside the locals had already parked it in the best spots and were flipping through football magazines when we arrived. This lanky, middle aged American guy was obviously eager to watch the game as his seat was prominently placed in front of the smallish TV. We took up some less-than ideal stools next to the bar, but took advantage of our position to drink beer and eat homemade chicken, greens and rice. At halftime two kids who had fallen asleep were kicked out and voila! we instantly had the best seats in the house.
Whatta game for the Yanks! Although some folks sported English jerseys, the crowd was evenly split between teams. And, despite our inability to understand the Chichewan dialogue spoken around the room, I think we were all pretty impressed with the American team. Go USA!
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