World Cup . . . rh

The 60+ matches of the World Cup begin in South Africa this week. There are new and refurbished venues all over the country to host the games. When we told people that we were going to South Africa, many of them replied with some comment about the World Cup. We told them that we would likely not be involved as spectators at any of the matches. Several weeks ago, Pres. Poulsen encouraged the couples (but not the young missionaries) to try and get to one of the matches. The US – England game is not too far away and on a Saturday as well. I decided that it might be a good idea to go that particular one with some of the other couples. I checked prices and the cheap seats were $259 per person. Well, $500+ to see a game that I really don’t care about just to say I’ve been there is a bit much so we scrapped the idea.

Just last week one of the young missionaries said that he heard that ticket prices had dropped greatly. He said that tickets could be had for 40 Rand (less than $6) each. I checked online again and found out that the US – England seats had indeed come down, but only to $150 per person. We’re still not going. Yes, people will ask us about the World cup when we get home and we will have to confess that we didn’t see any of the games. I understand that we may be able to see some on TV at the CES building on the same property as our mission office, but I’m still not interested in watching soccer (it IS called soccer here in ZA) – grass growing is just about as interesting to me, unless one of the grandchildren is playing!