Goodbye Harties

Now, just replace "Horses" with "Harties" and you're in business. Some final thoughts:

We will miss RSA, as scary and dodgy as it can be. We will miss Harties despite its electrical fence and echoes of apartheid and Anglo-Dutch repression. We will miss the moment in the supermarket when South Africa scored their second goal against France and everyone, black, white, American, Afrikaner, went ballistic with joy. Beyond all the guardhouses and running of red lights and poverty and fear, there is hope here. The people were wonderful and we were better for having met them.

Thanks to Noah, in a plagiarist but no less meaningful echoing previous posts. This would not have been possible without his planning and administrative voice. We can be disasters. So can Noah. On this trip, we remained confused and disoriented and he was well-versed, aware and prepared, all amidst the churn of thousands of words of journalistic copy everyday. Like the end of a public television broadcast, he gives full meaning to, "This was made possible by ...;" So we offer our thanks and continued admiration.

We will miss this US team. My teller at the bank today was from Ghana. He looked me in the eye and said, "It was joy to see Ghana win but it was sad to see USA go. They had real heart." Then he opened a credit card for me. I told him that Ghana's win was good for Africa but nonetheless crushing for us. He shook my hand and said, "We have so much here; we will be back." This statement was tough to read but reflected just how much "we" this US team engendered here. I don't know who he'll be rooting for in four years but, we will be back, hearts still full. See you in Brazil.