Ya gotta have faith, Africa does.....

I live in Africa, have done so for the last third of a century.

Gives me a degree of understanding, experience and depth of belief in what Africa has in store for our visitors, especially those who next month come to witness the FIFA Soccer World Cup. They will arrive in their thousands, close on 400 thousand I am informed. Sjoe, that's a couple of tons of quivering flesh aimed at absorbing some of the very best football imaginable in ten of our top cities from way up north to my back door, Cape Town.

These good folks will arrive with their friends, family and colleagues looking to support and motivate their home country and for the few, witness a culmination of matches on the road to the final in Egoli ( The place of Gold ) in Johannesburg.

So what can these fans expect in my country ? Smiles, loads of smiling faces. A traffic jam or too for sure, we are good at these, scenic beauty of gigantic proportions and stadiums so well designed and positioned that they will be forgiven to believe they are back home at their national stadium.

We have had our fair share of doubts as to our ability to host you folks, but this is behind us now. We are now applying the final coat of WELCOME paint, running off our last few thousand vuvuzelas ( elongated trumpets ) and by the first week of June will be awaiting your arrival. You are all WELCOME !