Watching the Cotton Bowl in Madaoua

On New Year's Day, three serious University of Nebraska Cornhuskers football fans here in Madaoua (well, two were extremely serious, and the third was faking it a little) greatly anticipated watching the Cotton Bowl college football game on a computer monitor later that evening. The bowl game pitted the Huskers against the Auburn Tigers, and we would receive the telecast via our host's Sling Box, set up at his parents' house back in the States.

Alas, 5:50 PM rolled around, and there was no football to see. Unsure of the reason for the problem, we tried contacting the source in America, to no avail. We also could not locate any form of broadcast, either video or by radio, over the net. Our last resort became checking with my daughter in Saskatoon.

My lovely, technologically proficient daughter set up a makeshift transmission, with her web cam focused on her widescreen television, but with no sound. The jerky picture was less than satisfying, with incomplete passes almost impossible to discern. But, we boys watched anyway, to the bitter end, as the Huskers were just not quite able to pull out a victory. This was disappointing indeed for these dedicated college football fans.

Speaking about dedicated, on a previous occasion in the pre-Sling Box era, my host and his son wanted to see the Huskers play, and so travelled to Niamey, a tough seven hour trip along Niger's East-West highway, that is dotted with some brutal potholes. Upon reaching the capitol city, they were told that the system was down and there was no game to behold. After expectantly watching a blue screen for the next three hours, the disappointed Nebraska fans made the sad return trip home.

However, their diligence did not go unrewarded. Upon hearing about this episode, a University of Nebraska official arranged for the Niger residents to attend a soldout Cornhuskers football game the next time they were back in the USA on home assignment. How appropriate.