Goal!!!

My apologies for not posting anything in the past few days, but our Internet has been down. A lot of great things have happened and I could not possibly write about it all. Today is our last day of work, so we’re packing up the lab in preparation to leave. It’s been sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful people that we’ve become friends with.

We went to a football (aka soccer) game on Wednesday night. Ghana is hosting the African Cup this year, which is a huge deal. They just built three 25,000-people stadiums spread throughout the country, including one in Tamale where we’re staying. We managed to get tickets for the opening games! It was a double header with the first game being Tunisia vs Senegal, and the latter was South Africa vs Angola. The second match was especially intense. One team made it into the World Cup last year, and the other usually does as well. While I haven’t had much exposure to the sport living in the States, after seeing a few good matches I can see why people love it. Unfortunately Ghana is only playing in the capital, Accra, but I’ve seen both matches on television. Ghana won them both, and even up here in the North everyone went crazy. People run out of their homes and into the street cheering every time we score; it’s a lot of fun to participate in!

The crowds outside were really impressive. Here’s a picture of the new Tamale stadium from the outside.

Here’s a shot taken on our way into the stadium.

And here’s a shot of the South Africa v Angola game; this is S. Africa taking a corner kick.

And here’s a pretty good shot of the spectators.

Here’s a cool video of an “almost goal” in the South Africa v Angola game. This partly captures that intensity I mentioned before.