Friday, June 11, 2010

what a world

This morning, our steady Mexican laborer, Rolando, appeared at our house around 7:30, as Karen was leaving for work. Normally he comes by on weekends, and we always have work for him to do, and he does it well.

He does yard-work for several folks in our neighborhood, and he was desperate to find someone with cable, to watch the Mexico vs. South Africa World Cup game.

I told him we don't have cable, but I may be able to find a free stream on the internet. While he nervously watched, I spent several minutes trying several sites, before, magically, I found one, where the commentators were either Russian or Polish.

So, we sat in my kitchen - I made him coffee and toast - one American and one Mexican watching as teams from Mexico and South Africa played soccer, with the audio and video coming from half a world away, on a wireless connection to an old laptop. It's the modern world!

Rolando's joy when Mexico tied it 1-1 was great to see - he stood up and was almost dancing around the room. In the final minutes, he had to get up from his chair and pace nervously. When it was over (1-1), he smiled broadly and left, to go on his way.

I felt lucky to share in his excitement, and am glad I don't have to watch any more soccer for the time being.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

A tip for round two: mirabile dictu, ESPN is streaming the games live, unlike the Vancouver Olympics, which NBC time-delayed by three hours EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE IN THIS TIME ZONE. Yes, I'm still bitter. Even better, the commentators this morning were Brit and Aussie, so they actually knew the game.