Trip to the Rainbow Nation
• 6th June to the 13th of
July
Me
• Hi my name is Astrid Van Utoy.
I’m from Netherlands but if you
see my passport, you’ll notice
that I am a citizen of the World.
I was born in Amsterdam,
Netherlands but I spent most
of my childhood and teenage
life in Port Harcourt, Nigeria as
my dad has been working for
sixteen years now as an
engineer for Shell Petroleum.
Back then, I went to a French
School because my father
wanted me to speak several
languages So I speak Dutch,
French, English and Spanish
which I Iearned at school
My studies
• It might not seem really useful in Nigeria or
in the Netherlands but it really helps when
you’re in the United-States, you have lost
your way and there’s just a group of
Hispanic people who are like “No
comprendo Ingles” when you come to
speak to them.
• I’m currently studying Anthropology at
Michigan State University.
Different Aspirations
• . I came here with my two little twin
brothers who are still in High School back
in Nigeria. They really, really like soccer as
we say in America. Their principal
motivation to go to the World Cup is first to
meet Ruud Vannistelroy THE Star of the
Dutch Team and to find tall blonde
girlfriends from Sweden. Mine are all
different. I would really like to live as
average South African people do.
Paris
•
As my vacation started in May, I
decided to go to see my father
and my junior brothers in Nigeria
which is not the cheapest solution.
It’s not everybody who knows that
plane tickets to Africa are damn
expensive even though it’s not
that far and people are generally
poorer. It might have something to
do with supply and demand. This
is why I paid for a 2700 USD ticket
from Detroit to Port Harcourt. We
transferred in Paris and OF
COURSE I went shopping in the
Duty free shop which kept me
busy during the four hour transfer
time.
Port Harcourt Airport
• . I arrived in Port Harcourt the day after with huge rings
under my eyes. When you fly to Africa, you have not
entirely arrived until you’ve been through Customs
which is really hell. I brought lots of American food and
of course clothes for my brothers and my dad who
really needs to ring the alarm in terms of style. So I had
to give 2000 Naira, the equivalent of 15 US dollars in
order not to spend the night at the airport. My dad and
my brothers came to pick us up at the airport.
Dilemma
• . As the World Cup starts on the eleventh of June, we
decided to leave Port-Harcourt on the 5th of June. The
problem is my brothers still have school until the
eleventh. My dad said it is no big deal as the teachers
are already used to seeing the Van Utoy leave at least
three days before the holidays without even telling them
so that’s what we did. Since there are no direct flights
from Port-Harcourt to Johannesburg, we had to fly to
Lagos to get one with a local company. Nigerian air
companies do have a bad reputation. There’s a company
which caught our eyes called Virgin Nigeria, a subsidiary
of the huge corporation so we decided to try it. We paid
10 000 Naira each , sixty five USD. The plane seemed
alright and we arrived safely in Lagos.
• . We paid for a 1 500 USD ticket from Lagos to
Johannesburg. During the flight, we decided
which games we were going to see. It seemed
obvious that we were going to see the match of
the Dutch, the Nigerian and the French teams.
So the first thing we did when we arrived was to
buy tickets for the game of France versus
Uruguay, Nigeria versus Argentina and
Netherlands versus Japan. Those would be
great games I’m sure.
• So we arrived in Jo’burg on the 6th of June.
Most Europeans who go to this city are shocked
by the high crime rate but after living in Nigeria
which I think equals South Africa in terms of
crime rate, I’m used to it.
• As the first match in our schedule we decided to
stay there and go sightseeing n Johannesburg
• Nobody needs to be a genuis in economics to
know that in this kind of event, prices rocket in
hotels, this is why we decided to rent a villa for
the time we’ll be in South Africa
• So ten months before the event my dad
decided to book this villa for forty thousand
rands which equals five thousand dollars
a month while some people are going to
pay this sum for a week in a hotel
Jo’Burg
Social analysis of Joahnnesburg
• During the days in Johannesburg what
really shocked me is the gap between rich
and poor. Some people in this city can
afford a month’s stay in a five-star hotel
while others are struggling to have enough
to eat. A visit to Soweto permitted me to
see that there are still huge inequalities
between blacks and whites even though
appartheid has been finished for almost
twenty years.
The First game
• Our first game as spectaros, Nigeria versus Argentina took place in
Johannesburg at Ellis Park Stadium. Down there, we met three
American Girls who seemed to be from Latin America. Oh my gosh
they were so stupid. And even though they were wearing designer
labels from head to toes they still looked as if they had got their
clothes from Wallmart’ They were typically the stereotype of the
Nouveau Riche spending 5 000 euros on the ostrich-feathered Muse
from Yves-Saint-Laurent and booking their hotels two days before in
order to spend more money. I was so happy Nigeria beat Argentina.
Though, my junior brothers were interested in them and they tried
with minor success to take their numbers. This slightly rose my
estime for them as accepting my junior brother’s advances is like the
cheapest thing a girl can ever do
A day in a National Park
A day with the Nature
• As my dad is really interested in flaura and
fauna. We went to Golden Gate Highlands
National park which was really beautiful. We
woke up at 5 am in order to avoid the traffic
jams. The trip lasted four hours, We had hired a
car with a driver and a guide for the day. All
those services cost us three thousand Rand. We
spent the whole day down there
• We saw all kinds of animals. and we left at 6.
pm. We were exhausted. Luckily we had the
driver otherwise we would have had to stay in
Bethlehem overnight.
My Philosophy about travelling
• On the 25th of July, we went to Durban to see
the Round 16 as the Netherlands is playing. The
ticket was not that expensive as my prudent dad
had bought them six months ago knowing that
the Netherlands would finish on top of the group.
He had bought four business class tickets. Even
though we can afford it, we HATE travelling first
class because first class is always full of
eccentric Russian Nouveau Riche. So it cost us
2 000 USD for everybody.
Durban
• I really liked the city of Durban and the hotel we paid for
cost us like 4 000 Rand a night which went up to 20 000
Rand as we stayed there for five days. We went to the
beach and visited townships.one more time the occasion
to experience the social inequalities. I wanted to stay
there overnight but just when the sun went down, a
group of three people coming and telling me in pidgin
English « Gi mi ma phone » and I was like « what
phone » and they grabbed my purse and left. I grabbed a
cab and begged him to drive me to the hotel.I was so
traumatized. When I got back home I gave him a
hundred dollar tip.
• The Netherlands was playing against
North Korea. North Korea was like the
surprise guest in the final phase of the
World Cup. I wonder how they managed to
leave their country. If I were them, I would
not go back to North Korea! Anyway, The
Netherlands beat Korea 8-0 which was an
ecstatic moment.
Cape Town
Fortunates and Unfortunate
reunions
• We stayed in Durban until the 1st of June and then we took the train
for Cape Town because the Dutch team qualified for the semis and
the game will take place there. The fare cost us 1 000 Rand a
person We have friends in Cape Town. For historical reasons,
there’s a very large Dutch community in Cape Town formerly
Kaapstadt which does sound Dutch. They are college friends of my
mom who died seven years ago. It’s always good to keep in touch
with them. They have this huge villa on top of a hill with a great view
over the bay. What I really liked about Cape Town is the
demographic diversity. In this city, you can be understood speaking
Afrikaans as well as Dutch or English. We played against France
and in the stadium, I met a girl I had known from High School. As I
don’t want my diary to be vulgar I will spare you the vulgar adjective
I want to use to qualify her. Just to let you know that this word starts
with a S and ends up with a T.After all, that’s what she is, she stole
my boyfriend when we were in 1ère and she still acts like we’re
bestfriends… tsss. I am so happy the Netherlands won this game.
Unfortunately, we won’t be able to go to the final in Johannesburg
because I don’t want too die trampled.
The Victory
• On the 12th of July, the day after the Dutch
victory all Dutch citizens in South Africa were
invited to a reception to the Embassy in Pretoria
to celebrate the victory and guess what ? My
brothers finally met Van Nistelroy. They were
overjoyed and took lots of photographs
• The day aferwards, we headed back to Port
Harcourt for two weeks and we went to The
Hague, the Netherlands for holidays