The streets and highways of Johannesburg were flooded by thousand of soccer fans attending the first match, South Africa vs. Mexico. The Finding Madiba crew covered three points in the city of Johannesburg: Soweto, Soccer City, and a Fan Park.

Ryan and I arrived at Witz University with Chilli (our local friend), it was 11am and thousand of lucky “Bafana Bafana” and el “TRI” supporters with tickets where boarding busses that drove them to Soccer City.

As we walked to the fan park, vuvuzelas, hats, glasses and flags were everywhere. As we crossed the Nelson Mandela Bridge, Chilli bought the team a vuvuzela and so the party started. We entered a yellow flood of fans, and I was the only Mexican supporter! Buying a beer was an odyssey but after 40 min we achieved that goal and the game began.

The Mexican and South African national anthems were played. I’m not going to lie, Chilli and myself shared some tears. Maybe because our teams were playing, or perhaps it was just all the good vibes surrounding a park, uniting thousands of people. It was an experience of a lifetime, a great opening as well as a breathtaking match between the two teams, but for me, being grabbed by the “South Africa VIBE” was the best part of the day.

Jimena Grijalva Gallego
Producer

On a prior visit to Soweto, we met Musa. He was very excited and explained to us he was opening a new bar/restaurant. About a month later, we gave him a call to see if we could spend the evening at his new place - for the opening game of the World Cup. Musa, the friendliest sort, was thrilled to have foreign filmmakers and offered to pick us up from a halfway point, which turned out to be Witts University, where one of the Park and Ride lots for the game was located. Near the buses, the streets were packed with colors of people. Vuvezelas and other horns were going off every other second. It took us nearly were welcomed with open arms by his staff and wife which runs the bar and kitchen. The Place had a restaurant down stairs and a lounge up stairs. It was nice they had a DJ and two big flat screens to watch the game. So many people from Soweto came to watch the game their with their whole Bafana Bafana outfits on. All you see up stairs in Yellow and green except the crew so we defiantly stood out but everyone loved the fact we were filming. It was no Hassel at all to get the footage we wanted. All in all we had a great time their being with the locals for the game.

Lindsey Reese
Producer