14 juillet 2006
ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER !!!!!!!!
The world cup is over. Zidane - despite his headbutt - was celebrated the best player. Some say the ambiance was hot in France during the whole show, especially during the days just before the final. Here is a GREAT song, some kind of joke about all the players, but the whole thing is about : ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER, ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER!!! (Zidane is gonna score, Zidane is gonna score). Even if you don't speak French, it's definitely worth listening to.
http://mapage.noos.fr/angesetdemons.blog/fichiers/Zidaneyvamarque.mp3
Allez, on finit cette coupe du monde en beauté. Ecoutez donc ce morceau d'anthologie. Une merveille.
ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER, ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER, ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER, OOOOH ZIDANE Y VA MARQUER.
13 juillet 2006
oh no!!!! he did it again!!!!
well I guess this time, Zidane's headbutt is completely justified!
là au moins, on est sûr que le coup de boule de Zidane soit complètement justifié!
12 juillet 2006
Play with Zidane - Jouez avec Zidane
Are you tired? Stressed? Fed up with people surrounding you? Do like Zidane. Click here and play until the end (using left click), you shall know what card you'll get...
Vous êtes fatigués ? Stressés ? Marre des gens qui vous entourent ? Faites comme Zidane. Cliquez ici et jouez jusqu'à la fin (avec le click gauche), vous saurez quel carton vous aurez...
11 juillet 2006
Revenge!!!! - Vengeance!!!
Frenchies are not happy. They felt they could have won the match and become champions of the world. So Jacques Chirac - French debilitating president - is trying to regain some popularity. He removed his terrible glasses, put some new clothes on, and here he goes across the Alps avenging the Frenchs! Watch out Italians, this guy is dangerous!!!
Les français ne sont pas contents. Ils se disent qu'ils auraient pu gagner le match et devenir champions du monde. Alors Jacques Chirac - notre président sénile - décide de tenter quelque chose pour regagner sa popularité. Il a retiré ses lunettes de grand père, mis un nouveau costard, et le voici près à franchir les Alpes pour venger les français humiliés. Attention messieurs les italiens, cet homme est dangereux!!!
10 juillet 2006
And the winner is..... - Le meileur ne gagne pas toujours !
There are quite a lot of Italians in Goma and Bunia. But quite a lot of French too... So imagine the ambiance with world cup final looming... We actually all behaved like civilised people during the week-end, saying generalities like "let the best team win", etc. But as the lights vanished, we all went our separate ways. Italians went and saw the match in their house, too nervous to share this with others. As always, we went to Coco Jambo - our favourite bar - to see the game.
Italy won.
The Italians are champions of the world.
As we were congratulating our italian friends by sms, I received this reply "Sorry. France was best. Victory without pride." I think it's just that. But hey, that's just football right? Life goes on!!
One thing we noticed though: the very strong anti-French feeling. Just to illustrate this: it was hard to find people supporting les Bleus. Whereas the huge majority of the French squad are of African origin, all congolese and other africans we met that day were supporting Italy. I guess French politics in the region did not help much. As for the Belgians, they all were against France too. Talking to some of them, it appeared like some kind of complex towards their big neighbour. It was weird looking at all those people making fun of us after the game because France lost.
I guess it's just another fun aspect of human nature...
Zidane lost his nerves at the end of the game. I prefer when footballers are nice to each others...
Il y a pas mal d'italiens à Goma et Bunia. Mais pas mal de français également... On s'est croisé bien évidemment tout au long du week-end, et chacun essayant de cacher sa tension par des généralités du style: "Que le meilleur gagne", etc. Mais alors que la journée se termine, chacun va dans ses quartiers. Les Italiens restent pour la plupart chez eux, trop nerveux pour partager ce moment. Pour ce qui nous concerne, ce sera le Coco Jambo, là où nous avons vu tous les matchs jusqu'à présent.
L'italie gagne.
Les italiens sont champions du monde.
Alors que nous envoyons des sms à nos amis pour les féliciter, on reçoit la réponse suivante "Désolé. France Meilleure. Victoire sans fierté". Je ne pourrai mieux dire. Mais bon, hey, ce n'est que du football. La vie continue !
Une chose que nous avons pu constaté cependant : le sentiment anti-français très important. Par exemple, il était difficile de trouver ici des gens qui supportaient les bleus. Alors que l'équipe française est composée en majorité de joueurs d'origine africaine, quasiment tous les africains ici supportaient les italiens. J'imagine que la politique française dans la région y est aussi un peu pour quelque chose. Les Belges également étaient tous contre les français. En parlant avec eux, on pouvait très clairement ressentir une sorte de complexe d'infériorité, mal assumé, vis-à-vis de leur grand voisin. Cela faisait drôle de les voir après le match se moquer de nous parce que la France avait perdu. Un autre aspect amusant de la nature humaine je suppose...
05 juillet 2006
Suuuuuuuuuuuupercell !!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's not much ads on this blog. I guess it's time to do something about it.
Yesterday was the worldcup first semi final. To be honest, we don't care much who wins. Just another occasion to spend some time together (and there's not much things to do in Goma anyways...) We don't want a TV, so if we want to watch the game, we head to Cocojambo bar, who has become our local headquarters. The game is not great, and becomes quite boring. I am sure Congolese must feel those things and they probably decided to do something about it. After 15 mns, someone starts shouting on a microphone: "SUPERCELL, the super mobile phone network. Dear subscribers, come and play with us, send us a sms and give your pronostic. Tell us who will win the game. Loads of things to win: TV, radios, cellphone cards, etc.)". There's barely 30 people in the bar, nothing to make a fuss about. Five minutes later, here we go again: "SUPERCELL, the super mobile phone network. Dear subscribers, come and play with us, send us a sms and give your pronostic. Tell us who will win the game. Loads of things to win: TV, radios, cellphone cards, etc.)". Mmmmmh, okay, looks like he really want us to send his bloody sms. Barely 5 mns later, thinking we may not have understood, here we go again, but this time in Swahili (sorry, I am not going to write that here). He has barely finished, that a woman takes the microphone, and starts in English this time (with all the MONUC around, she may have thought people did not understand the first two annoucements in French and Swahili). Another time in French after this, and another one in Swahili.
Okay, football comments on TV are useless, and seldom fly high. But I have to say that after dozens of Supercell annoucements, we start missing those seriously.
Half time. Two or three supercell ads again and the two teams come back on the pitch. That's where usually bets stop. Well... not in Congo. If the game is boring, the ads become VERY repetitive. 5 mns before the end of the game, our Supercell fanatics decide it's finally time to stop the bets. So we eventually will have half an hour (extra time) without an excited young congolese shouting in our ears with his awful microphone. Italy scores twice, and makes it to the final. Our 'friends' take the opportunity to thank all those who placed their bets (I guess there must have been 2 or 3 in total...). Of course nobody guessed it exactly right. But there shall be a winner still. And here we go for the 'ceremony'. The winner got.... a TV??? No way... a 10 usd card to recharge his phone and call his friends!! Ah that's great, thank you Supercell. Now, like the Oscar ceremony, time for the champion to deliver his speech: "euuuh, I would like to thank Supercell.... euuuuh, thank you.... euuuh I am happy to have won my 10 usd phone card". Then another winner shows up and makes a speech too. And then our two favourites speakers wrap this up: "SUPERCELL, THE SUPER NETWORK".
04 juillet 2006
France - Brasil
This may be one of our worst photos. But it tells something special.
It was taken in an open air bar, in Goma, as we were watching the game between France and Brasil, quarterfinal of the world cup. There are two main bars in Goma: one was full of fans of Brasil, the other one was full of French! You obviously guessed where we sit... So we watch the game, looking nervously at this big screen, but enjoying ourselves and cracking jokes. The game was not as beautiful as we expected but it was great to see our team of papys controlling the brasilians maestros.
So here we are in the semi final. We celebrated our way, going to a friend's house, dancing and drinking until late... Let's hope we shall do this again tomorrow!
La photo du haut est peut être l'une des pires qu'on ait prises. Mais elle a quelque chose de spécial.
On l'a pris samedi soir, alors qu'on regardait le match de football entre la France et le Brésil dans un bar en plein air à Goma. Il y a deux bars principaux à Goma. L'un était rempli de fans du Brésil, l'autre était plein de français. Inutile de vous dire où nous étions... Et nous voilà ainsi à regarder nerveusement ce match, diffusé en plein écran, mais s'amusant tout de même à imiter les commentateurs de foot.
Et nous voilà donc en demi finale ! On a bien fêté ça, en allant chez un copain, à danser et boire pour une bonne partie de la nuit. Espérons qu'on remettra ça demain !
28 juin 2006
football? a passion... 2
who said women didn't like football?
qui a dit que les femmes n'aimaient pas le football?
27 juin 2006
Football?? a passion....
Okay, football is not just about money. Millions of people are passionate with the game. But i's still a mistery to me how much people can talk about it, analize this and that, criticize any single move, praise this guy and hate another, and this for hours, days, years... Okay, I admit the game can be entertaining and the ambiance between supporters in Germany gives great moments.
But c'mon guys, this whole thing is now all about money, marketing, ads. And it's getting worse by the years. A pity other sports (like Rugby) are taking that route too.
At the end of the day,nothing's better than a good book! (we're reading a Loney Planet those days, we'll tell you more about our next trip soon....)
12 juin 2006
"FUCK YOU!!!"
So the world cup has started. We're not football fanatics really. But if you live in Africa, you simply can't escape it. And it can be fun, so let's enter the game then. Last Saturday, we head for one bar in Goma, where people gather to watch the game. Cote d'Ivoire plays against Argentina. We love South America and can't refrain from supporting Argentina. But we're the only ones in the crowd... So we remain discreet... But not our neighbours who have their special ways of supporting theoir favourite team... The game has barely started that we hear someone behind us screaming : "FUCK YOU", barely 15 seconds later comes another long and savorous "FUUUUCK YOU". With quite a pronounced Nigerian accent, he carries on "THIS IS AFRIIIIIIIIIIICA". Then a superb "IVOOOOOORY COAAAAAAAAAST". Well, this is just 30 seconds without a F word, I guess he noticed it, so here we go for another serie of Fuck You. He's really excited. Especially as Ivory Coast gives hard time to Argentina. But after half an hour, and our neighbour getting really skilled with the F word, Argentina scores. Silence. We cheer. But we're the only ones. Then twelve minutes later, Argentina scores again. Silence in the crowd. That's it. La messe est dite. Half time. Some comments from our neighbours, and some fuck you here and there, especially directed for the guys who scored. Second hald time. The game becomes boring. Argentina plays it easy. Ivory coast do not seem strong enough to come back into the game. And then 10 mns before the end of the game, Ivory Coast scores. A superb goal. The crowd exults. Everybody screams, chant, cheer. And my neighbour scream his beloved "Fuck you" all over the place. Even Drogba, the player who scored, venered as the best african player, will get his share : "FUCK YOU DROGBA". For ten minutes, the crowd want to believe they can score again. But it's too late. Argentina beats Cote d'Ivoire 2-1. The two teams were not impressive really. That was a nice experience. Though we're happy to leave our neighbour and his favourite sentence.
