The World Cup: Game On

I knew I had arrived at the World Cup when I heard the sound of a vuvuzela bounce off the walls of Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport. The noise of the long plastic soccer horn wasn’t widely recognized outside South Africa until this year’s World Cup. But now every soccer fan knows a vuvuzela’s call is like a foghorn or a donkey braying, or—when blown in unison—like a nest of loud angry hornets. To many fans, the vuvuzela’s call is an aural safety hazard and an annoyance. But it sets off pure, unadulterated excitement in me, especially when I heard it moments after landing in South Africa.

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