ENJOYING A SOCCER GAME AFRIKANER STYLE

While in Johannesburg South Africa I became acquainted with a most unusual method to enjoy a soccer game. It was a national championship game in which only the South Africans could play because of apartheid. As we were going into this huge stadium I could see stacks and stacks of nachees (sp), anyhow tangerines, in orange net sacks and huge paper sacks full of billtong(sp), jerky that was made out of wild Bucks of all kinds. I figured that the nachees and billtong were refreshments and snacks because while watching the games we could be there for hours.

 We were eight in number, 4 Afrikaners, 2 British and 2 Americans an I figured that one of the big sacks of billtong and a couple of sack of nachees would be more than enough.  However to my amazement the Afrikaners loaded us down, and each one of us had two sacks in his hands with four dozen nachees in each and one sack of biltong that we would all share.

Inside the stadium there were 30,000 people, + or – a few, already shouting and hollering encouragement to their favorite team.  As I looked around, the stacks of nachees were like a sea of orange with people sticking up out of the sea everywhere. “MY GOD!” I exclaimed, “These peoples got to be the world champion tangerine eaters,” and again the Afrikaners laughed at me.

 In the early minutes one team broke loose and while passing back to the man that was comin around, then again and aging all the way down the line  and as they crossed  the midfield line the crowd was on their feet and a nachee whopped me upside my head.

Of course I had no idea why and maybe a little angry and shocked I wondered why someone was chunking me.  As I turned around looking, the runner crossed the goal and suddenly air was full of nachees. They were flinging nachees at the players, the referees, and at each other. And that was what the nachees were for.  

That has been year ago and while watching a football game I often imagine how much fun a nachee flinging would be in one of the huge stadiums here in the States, if we could do like the Afrikaners did without getting mad.