“Hey neighbor! When are you going to hang up your flag?” Ray shouts across the street. In the Mercuriuslaan in the Eckart district of Eindhoven they are busy preparing for the World Cup. The street is full of streamers, orange sails and flags. But if you look closely, you will see that this is not just about the Dutch national team.
Turkey, Morocco, Suriname, Brazil, Mexico or France: all kinds of things are flying above the street. The idea comes from Jay Manichand (40), born and raised in the neighborhood. “Everywhere you only see orange. But as soon as the Netherlands is out, the atmosphere is often immediately gone,” he says. “So I thought: if we hang up flags of all the countries, we can enjoy the World Cup until the end!”
Jay himself flies the Surinamese flag. “Those are my roots. Suriname may not be participating, but they did participate in the qualification. So that flag is also part of it.” According to Jay, everyone is welcome here to come and watch the World Cup and help decorate it: “Many more flags will be added: a large Moroccan, Croatian, Turkish, Antillean, Iraqi and also an Iranian flag. The intention is that the entire street will be full.”
At the roundabout, signs with ‘Oranjestraat hier’ will soon point the way. Slowly more and more color appears in the street. Neighbor Rachid thinks it’s beautiful. “Football brings people together. If no one does anything, it gets boring here. At least something happens and people become more positive. Not just work, sleep and work again, but also get together more. That is important.”
Neighbor Roanne is also enthusiastic. “I think it’s great, really great fun. When you drive up here by car, it immediately looks cozy and it really is that way for everyone.”
For Jay, that’s exactly what it’s all about. “People used to come out here a lot more during the World Cup. I missed that bit of connection. I want to give people the feeling: ‘we are part of it too’.”