Kickoff

Being in Kenya, we’re pretty disconnected from a part of the fall that we really enjoy: Football. After a few weeks here, I received an email from Williams-Sonoma (don’t judge me) inviting me to a cooking class to prepare various autumnal treats; apple cobblers, pumpkin tarts, roast meats. This of course reminded me of football and tailgating and I had a mini breakdown because it dawned on me that there would be no crisp, sunny fall days in Boston, drinking a beer before noon, having a pulled pork sandwich for breakfast, eating a delicious jam cookie, and heading into the stadium for the game. Alas, we chose this path.

We had pretty much given up on watching football for the year, save maybe the Superbowl, which I think is broadcast in Antarctica. However, we discovered that DSTV (the local satellite provider) had ESPN on certain packages, and we found a bar just down the road that carried it! We quickly looked online and the OSU-Miami game this weekend happened to be on ESPN. The planets aligned. The 3:30 kickoff made it a 10:30 PM start here, so we called the bar and the manager gave us the green light (fortunately there were no big “football” matches that evening). We headed to the bar at 9:30 to stake out a good seat near the TV, ordered a few beers, and began the countdown. On the couch next to us was a guy who was sleeping off what we guessed to be some serious day drinking. All the while, the bar was filling up with Europeans on holiday, very few looking older than 20, ordering shots and beers, which are impossibly cheap compared to in Europe and the States.

Two young British gentleman sat down across from us, the one on the right obviously more intoxicated than the other, but both quite cheery. They said that they had just finished up a few week stint in Uganda doing some volunteer work, and now were on the coast for a week to relax. We asked about what kind of work they were doing, and they said that they helped paint a mural. Now, I’m not anti-art; it can be beautiful, improve one’s mood, etc. However, seems to me that when things such as clean water and food are lacking, two university students painting a wall seems off-target.

Anyways, 10:15 approached, so I asked a man working at the bar to change the channel to ESPN. Within a few minutes, we saw an ad for the NFL on ESPN, and one saying that “College Football Lives Here”. Glorious, a slice of home. Then we saw tennis. I was hoping that it was highlights, but it continued. First set. “OK, well maybe they’ll just cut off the match at 10:30 and start the game”, we thought. 10:30 came and went. I asked the manager if there was perhaps another EPSN, and he said no, but that things were delayed an hour here. Alright, so it will be on at 11:30. We hadn’t planned on staying up watching football until 3 am, but so be it. We ordered another Tusker each and settled in. 11:25: Still in the second set. 11:35: Third set. At around 11:45, we threw in the towel.

While it’s unconscionable to an American (ok, mostly male Americans) that a #2 v. #12, a rematch of the controversial 2002 Fiesta Bowl, a game with big BCS implications, would play second shrift to a couple of Euros knocking around a ball while wearing their tennis whites, that is indeed what happened. This is the reality of living in Africa: No one cares, at all, about American football. We’re happy to expand our horizons in most arenas but the Ravens and the Buckeyes are pretty sacred in our house and I doubt that’s going to change any time soon.