Living in Johannesburg, we feel very lucky to be fully immersed in the World Cup experience. We are rooting for South Africa of course, and for all the other African countries - we would love to see at least one of them do well! We are also rooting for Italy (we are of Italian descent)
All South Africans are so exited, and the atmosphere here is fantastic. There are so many fans visiting from all over the world, many from the US!
As I am currently on maternity leave, I have signed up to work as a volunteer for FIFA, and have been assigned to "language support" - which is fascinating, as we are working with all the departments (protocol, media, information services, spectator services at Soccer City, among other things).
There are quite a lot of volunteers who have come from other countries (Italy, US, Germany, Brazil, Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire...), and who will be in South Africa for the whole month to help. Some of them volunteer for every world cup, and there is even one Dutch gentleman who has already worked as a volunteer for the 6 previous world cups!
I watched the match in Soccer City last night - Brazil/Cote d'Ivoire, and I must say that the sound from the Vuvuzelas (trumpets) was not so bad - it sounds worse on TV... Although there were so many Brazilian fans at the stadium, there was a lot of support for Cote d'Ivoire from all the others, including South Africans... Sadly, they still lost...
God help us.
