Any of you who have watched the Soccer World Cup matches are now familiar with the continual drone of thousands of vuvazela's [straight plastic trumpets] a sound heard without pause throughout the games.
Today I got a picture from a former student from my Peace Corps days school in Swaziland. There he is, second from right, with friends and armed with their vuvazelas.
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Vuvazela has become an international word overnight and will long be remembered as the distinctive sound that sets this world cup apart from the others.
Now I have a real life ‘old school’ vuvazela story for you. They appeared here decades ago and were soon largely banned at sporting events. I might have had a tiny role in that.
While in university, I had one of the first ones at my school [I think we called them blasters] and took it to a basketball game. The game went into overtime with our team ahead by a point with a few seconds left but the other team had the ball with a chance to score and win. I happened to blow my vuvazela, for no particular reason, which also happened to sound very much like the period-ending horn.
The visiting team thought the game had ended, stopped playing, time ran out and the period-ending horn blew a few seconds later leaving them confused, upset and protesting. I and my vuvazela got kicked out but our team won. My university banned vuvazelas after that game.
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