There is a thin line
between fruit and football. At least, that seems to be the case here in
Khartoum. Yesterday I walked along the side of the road and passed several
fruit stalls and their salesmen. The oranges looked extremely juicy and, with
the afternoon sun still shining brightly and happily, I decided to buy some of
these nicely looking fruits to ease my thirst. The salesman put a couple of
oranges in a plastic bag and asked me where I was from. I expected, the next
step was to talk about the price of the oranges, but as soon as he heard which
country I was from, he started smiling and naming all the Dutch football players
he knew. “But best one is the man with little hair!” he said determinedly. He said
he couldn’t recall his name, so I guessed it could be ‘Robben’. This apparently
was the right guess because he started smiling. After I had paid, he put an extra
orange in my bag and winked his eye: “I hope your orange team will win the Germans
tomorrow!”
