Had you not come for the World Cup, what other reason would you have for coming to South Africa?” During the last two weeks a Spanish newspaper asked this question to almost all players from Spain’s national team. “I would come on safari, for a game ride in the national parks”, was the answer of all of them. Nothing strange about it, since South Africa is a leading tourist destination. Thanks to this world sport event the country is expecting to attract more Western tourists who will come to enjoy their beaches, their game reserves and their exclusive luxury resorts. But for the last two weeks a group of Spanish youngsters, boys and girls, has been going through an experience that has plunged them into South Africa’s reality much more than the best tourist package: they have lived together with some South African youth from Finetown and Ennerdale (South of Jo’burg), two of the country’s poorest townships.

“It is great to be getting on so well”, they say in their blog http://conectandoafrica.blogspot.com, where they express daily their hopes and joys, which have not been in short supply. Like the day they went for lunch before coming to watch Spain play against Chile and they took the waiters by surprise singing “Shozoloza” –the popular black hymn- they have learned the day before. At the end of the meal even the cooks came out to dance with them! They only have one regret: having to return to Spain this coming week end, because –as they put it- “even though we miss our families and friends we wouldn’t want this great time to come to an end”. And a word of advice to their parents: “please, do buy us peanut butter to eat with bread (known as “Mandela sandwich”), because we have become addicted to it”.

This journey has been organized by Red Deporte and their local partners, the Salesians of Don Bosco, who implement an education project in Ennerdale supported by this Spanish NGO. Sony and Play Station –together with Madrid and Valencia regional governments- have sponsored the trip. The twelve Spanish youngsters were chosen after taking part in a solidarity competition in their schools that lasted several months.

These Spanish and South African youth have visited places that have helped them understand better the country’s recent history, like the apartheir museum and the Mandela house in Soweto. But the most interesting part has been the direct contact with places like “The Love of Christ Ministries”, a reception center that cares for orphans that was started by a small family and now has become a sizeable center that supports vulnerable children. “We came out from there with the desire to do something similar in our lives”, the boys and girls say in their blog. Also, almost every day they have had time to play some sports together and take part in games and sessions of learning better about each other’s problems and cultures.

A visit to Mamelodi –Pretoria’s biggest township- was another highlight of the journey. There they were welcome by the youth of St. Daniel Comboni Catholic Parish. Their Parish priest, Fr. Jaime Calvera –a Catalan missionary with many years of experience in the country- explains that “in this place more than half of the population are unemployed, and there is a very high HIV rate of infection”. Despite this gloomy picture, the Spanish boys and girls realized where lies Africa’s strength in these trying situations: “Here it’s so different from our churches, here people sing and dance and exude such a joy that you can feel… when you come out you can sense happiness in the air”. The Parish choir –who toured Spain last year- welcomed them with their best hymns, and the youth performed a play about the 1976 students’ uprising in Soweto, one of the landmarks in the struggle against apartheid. “These youth would badly need funding for a sport ground”, they say in their blog. “At the moment they have nowhere to play sports and it would be so important for them to have a proper field”. This phrase surely sounds as a good desire so that this experience does not end at the airport terminal after returning home. Hopefully, they shall try to continue supporting their new South African friends from their schools in Spain.