In the land of the Zulu

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of explanation today, I think most of the pictures speak for themselves. But, a quick background. Saturday was Heritage Day here in SA and also King Shaka Day. King Shaka is the celebrated Zulu warrior king who took on both Boers and British. Sept. 24 celebrates the life and death of this renowned warrior. It is very much a Zulu day and not aimed at tourists. In fact, other than our little group of five, we only saw two others that appeared to be tourists. It was a great day and we felt very welcomed into the Zulu culture.

A group of dancers and drummers let me try out the drum. Apparently I was terrible. But I had fun. And my drumming promptly developed a new dance circle. A different, more skilled drummer took over and the dancing (consisting primarily of high-kicks and stomping) started.

George (American/Kiwi) gave the high-kicks a go. I was impressed (apparently he had studied kung-foo). Again, people came running to see the white-man do high-kicks.

A big circle formed and this lady took over dancing for George.

And then Ellie showed everybody that a white-girl has some skill too.

Ok, great day at the King Shaka Day celebrations.

Sunday we spent at Umhlanga (pronounced Um-shlanga), which is a community on the coast just north of Durban. It is quite beautiful and the calmness was a marked difference from the day before.

The Legal Resources Centre...the real reason I am in South Africa

Although my love of travel will definitely play a major role in this blog over the next 6 months, the actual reason that I have made the move to Durban is to work at the Legal Resources Centre. The LRC is an NGO here is South Africa with four offices across the country. The organization has been a regular contributor to the development of South African law and some of South Africa's best legal minds have made their way through the LRC at some point in their careers including a former Chief Justice of South Africa.

The LRC is committed to using and developing South African law in a way to help marginalized and vulnerable groups who suffer discrimination based on one of the enumerated grounds in the Constitution. The cases that LRC takes on are often just the tip of an iceberg elucidating a problem that a great many others experience.

So welcome to the Durban office of the LRC...We are in the Diakonia Centre, which is a little centre that seems to house a number of NGOs, including the LRC and Ellie's organization, Lawyers for Human Rights.

In the Durban LRC office, we have five attorneys, a candidate attorney, our staff coordinator and three interns (American, Canadian and South African). My role here is to work with the attorneys in preparation of cases. For the most part this involves a whole lot of research and a bit of writing as well. In many ways, I feel like I am continuing on with a second articling term, but I have to say, when you meet the people whose files you are working on, it's a bit more rewarding as opposed to meeting the employees who work for your client. The reality is, the work the LRC does is potentially life changing for many many people, not just our individual clients. The practice of strategic litigation is definitely something very different from the course I was following previously.

My first couple of days at the office were really an introduction to how the LRC works and who we work for. Willene, an attorney at the office, gave me her most recent case reports just to have a read through and see if there were any cases in particular that I wanted to work on. Well, the scope and breadth of the cases was a little overwhelming, but I have to say, there were a few cases that were exactly what I have wanted to work on for quite some time. The reality though, like everywhere, the justice system in South Africa is not fast, and for some of these files, justice for our clients is a long ways off. Other cases are focusing on alternative methods of resolution; avoiding the courts, recognizing that the time it takes to go through litigation will just prejudice our clients too much. And finally, something I have never experienced before, having a case, but no client to move forward with. This is a reality of strategic litigation - we know this is a problem, we know that many people are suffering because of it, but we need somebody who's story and circumstances will serve the entirety of the group. Willene currently has two cases in that camp, great cases where somebody needs to be held responsible, but we need the right client to be representative of the group. It's good work and there is definitely one case that I am hoping moves forward soon as it is pretty much my entire "Health Ethics and the Law" class from third year, rolled into one case - I am a law geek and I have accepted that.

One other thing that is quite impressive about LRC, is not only the people who have worked here at various points, but also the people who are "friends" of the LRC. For instance, this morning, while sitting in my office working, Mahen (our office director) popped his head in to introduce me to "Judge". Now, I didn't get a full introduction and all of it, so I couldn't tell you that much about this man. However, I did figure out that he is a retired judge from the High Court of Durban. Apparently sometimes he just pops in to have a chat, or use our library, or some other excuse to say hello. We have tea around 10:30 every morning, and Judge joined us today. His stories and thoughts were great to hear. I also had to laugh a bit to myself when he was lamenting the fact that he does these sessions with high school students at the Holocaust Centre here in Durban and he was quite dismayed by the fact that students now a days don't know their world history (reminds me of somebody...). It came out that these students who had been around last week, couldn't name the US President during most of WWII (for those of you who don't know - FDR). Thank goodness my dad has made sure that I am well-versed in American history. He was particularly impressed when I knew what the S. in Harry S. Truman stood for.

Now, I just have to tell you, the the main difference in working here - work hours are much more to my liking - 8 to 4. You can't leave much past 4:30 before the area around our office starts getting a bit dangerous, good excuse to go home. Plus, there just seems to be some much more day when you leave around 4, rather than 7.

I will also say, I feel like I am having to learn to research all over again. Different search engines, different court structures. I feel like I am starting at square one, but hopefully it won't take too long to get the hang of it over here. Anyways, below is a picture of the courtyard at the Centre. I think it is quite lovely and it feels like a little oasis from some of the chaos outside.

A weekend to explore

A little slow on this, but decided it needed to get up before the next weekend comes... Last weekend, Ellie and I decided to get to know Durban a bit better. Started Saturday morning with a Springboks game (have I explained how much I am enjoying being in a country that loves rugby?). The we decided to take a little walking tour of downtown Durban. With one of our trusty brochures (you should see how many we have), we were off on a little adventure. Durban is a beautiful city, with every type of architecture you can imagine. You can definitely see the various periods and influences in different parts of the city and many of the buildings in downtown Durban speak to the British heritage of the city. Little history lesson...on Christmas day in 1497, Vasco da Gama sighted the natural port as he sailed from Portugal to India. He named the area the Natal after the Portuguese word for Christmas. It wasn't until 1824 that British forces established a permanent settlement in the area. The city was named after the governor of the Cape Colony Sir Benjamin D'Urban. Fast-forward through many skirmishes between the Afrikaners and the British, and you arrive in today's Durban, the third largest city in South Africa, the busiest port in Africa, and one hell of a beautiful place. Ok, so on to our Saturday adventure. We started with a quick stop at the new International Convention Centre that has already hosted a number of large events, and later this year will be hosting COP17 (the latest round of UN climate talks). I have a sneaky suspicion our trip to and from work will be a little more hectic during that time. Anyways, I think the best part of the ICC is actually the rhino out front. Johann and Deiter also liked her. From there, we wandered past the memorial recognizing the impact HIV and Aids are having on South Africa. The memorial was built when Durban hosted the 2000 International Aids Conference. Next to the park is a mall called the Workshop. It's a pretty amazing old building. Ellie and I also realised that we are going to come back to Canada with many more sandals than when we left. I just can't get over the selection of sandals. It's amazing. We wandered through one of the many many many markets of Durban (haven't braved the Victoria Street Market, but we will soon). And then we found ourselves in front of City Hall. City Hall is truly an attestation to Durban's colonial history. It is a beautiful old building and reminds me of a number of provincial legislatures back home. Inside, however, is something no legislature back home can compete with. We convinced a security guard to let us have a little look around, and he took us into what is now Durban's largest concert hall. When I walked in, I could just imagine the grand balls that used to take place here. There is a beautiful pipe organ on the stage, a grand dance floor and theatre seating at the back. Apparently the philharmonic plays here on a regular basis taking advantage of the great acoustics. The ballroom floor is then covered in seating, and I imagine it must be quite the event. I will have to sort out a cultured night out sometime soon. Anyways, beautiful (my pictures from inside are very mediocre, thanks to poor lighting and no tripod, so just imagine). Oh, I also found out that day that Johann loves birds of paradise (Amanda - you definitely found me the right travel buddy). On our tour, we also stopped in at the Old Court House (a must for law-geeks like myself), wandered past the Playhouse, the Old Post Office and to Tourist Junction (the old railway station, now serving as the main visitor's centre). We picked up more brochures and I am pretty sure we have until the end of February booked with things we want to see/do. Saturday night we met up with the "Durban Welcoming Committee" (aka Kathleen and Sean). Kathleen is a Vancouverite by birth who has since been transplanted to South Africa. Sean is a native South African. They are wonderful and take in all kinds of Canadian interns who make their ways through Durban, which I must say is very much appreciated. We had a wonderful Italian dinner on Florida Road, the cuisine hotspot in Durban. It is a very busy street and the architecture makes you feel like you've been swept away to New Orleans. A wonderful night out learning more about living in Durban and the best things to see and do (the list keeps growing).

Sunday was a rugby morning for me, cheering on Canada with their solid effort against France. Although I knew their chances were slim, I was very impressed by the effort and really agree with so many commentators, the minnows of rugby are getting so much better, they might need a new name. In the afternoon, Ellie and I headed down the beach to Moses Mabhida Stadium. The stadium was built for Soccer World Cup last summer, and, as far as I can tell, sits pretty empty most of the time. It's a beautiful stadium, but showing extreme wisdom, the government failed to negotiate an occupancy agreement with the Natal Sharks (rugby), who play at an old stadium right next door. In building the MMStadium, they failed to build enough corporate boxes to accommodate the Sharks current corporate contracts. Oops. So, it has hosted some soccer matches, a few international rugby fixtures and a few cricket matches, but doesn't have a team based out of it. Too bad. Anyways, we went on a tour just to see it. Apparently, however, the grass is "special" therefore, when you are on the tour, you can't step on it. Ellie broke the rules.It was a good weekend of getting to know Durban, and I definitely have got my bearings a bit more. And now this weekend it will be off to explore north of the city.

How to fit in while in Durban

I have now been in Durban for just over a week. I have observed a great deal and I have realized that there are certain steps you can take to fit in as a Durbanite. Many of these observations have to do with language, but some are behavioural as well.

So, step one, you need to accept that fast food comes in two forms, Bunny Chow or KFC. I have yet to try the Bunny Chow, but I now have a recommendation for the best in Durban (thanks to a fellow Canadian who now makes Durban her home). I will not be assessing the quality of fast food at KFC, although they are a very prominent landmark in Durban and I figure there are more KFCs per square kilometer in Durban than Tim Hortons in any Canadian city. I will admit, I had a soft ice cream there yesterday, it was pretty good. So, accept that fast food in Durban has some bonuses (great curries) and some negatives (KFC in general).

Step 2 to fitting in…learn the lingo. My three favourites are the term “Shame”, the phrase “Is it?”, and the different use of the term “robot”. So, for the word shame, it is used in the sense of “that’s a shame” not “shame on you”. However, it can also be used in a slightly ironic manner. I definitely have not completely figured out the use of this and haven’t tried it in speech just yet, so I’ll let you know how that goes at a later date. But it is around all the time, so I don’t imagine this will take a whole lot longer. Now, “Is it?” easily fits into Canadian speech patterns, as you can essentially replace “eh?” with “is it?” It’s not a perfect fit, but it’s pretty close. Basically, it’s a question of confirmation where the person being spoken to doesn’t necessarily need to respond. I like it. Haven’t perfected the use, still observing, but it shouldn’t take too long to take up. Finally, traffic lights, they are robots. “Go through two robots and take the next left.” Every time somebody talks about the robots I picture a version of R2D2 directing traffic with a little police hat on. Unfortunately their robots look just like our traffic lights (but are on the wrong side of the road – see below). Step 3: being a pedestrian. First, an observation, people drive on the wrong side of the road here. The right side of the road is the right side, not the left. In order to fit in, and a direct result of the observation above, make sure you look to your right when you are trying to cross the road, otherwise you might almost get hit by a bus. Second, do not expect a vehicle to ever stop for you, they will not stop, particularly the mini-bus taxis. Third, wait for the green man. Yes, the green man (and call him that too). Even then, make sure you take into account the previous two steps. I feel like the green man is merely a suggestion that it might be safe for you to cross the street, but then again, it may not be.

And the final step to becoming a Durbanite and living in North Beach, get two dogs, one a Great Dane and the other a Miniature Dachshund (any variety, longhair, wired-hair etc.). In going for my run along the beach, I have noticed an unusually high concentration of these two types of dogs (on Sunday I saw 6 Great Danes), often being walked together. My favourite was a Great Dane, I shall call him Winston, and his little dog friend (not a Dachshund, but about the same size), I shall call him Neville. Neville and Winston were leashed, although similar to my aunt and uncle, their owner took a rather liberal interpretation of the rule. The leash, on one end, was attached to Neville, and on the other end, there was Winston. They seemed very happy. Neville would bounce around in front as Winston would saunter along a nice gentle pace. I thought it was a great idea.

So, I figure in six months I will achieve competency with some of these, and others will just have to be left for another time (I don’t think I am a Great Dane kinda person and I know I am not a Miniature Dachshund kinda person). But I am working on enjoying the Bunny Chows, learning the lingo and becoming a more competent pedestrian. So, it’s a work in progress, but those are the observations so far.

The Ups and Downs of Durban (or really anywhere)

So, 5 days of settling into Durban, and there have been some ups, and some definite downs.

I will start with an up thing – our Caribbean work out video. Well, not actually. We live about a 10 minute walk from the beach-side Casino here in Durban. We were told by a previous intern about the free fitness classes offered there every evening. So, we decided on Monday to go see what they were like. Well, I don’t think I have worked out that hard since Michelle’s old step classes at UVic. I was dying! And then when the instructor started making us do squats, I though she and Michelle would very much be kindred spirits. Anyways, the best part about this workout is that the classes are actually held on the lawn between the casino and the ocean. Beautiful. Ellie commented that it felt like we were in one of those Caribbean workout videos. Now, hopefully by going to those classes we will look like we belong in the Caribbean work-out videos by the end of our time in Durban. Here’s hoping. (This was a picture from yoga day, but you get the idea)

Ok, now downer. I decided not to start work until Wednesday in order to take some time to look for a different apartment. The apartment that was arranged for us prior to arriving definitely leaves a few things to be desired, but probably the strangest thing is the window between Ellie’s room and mine. Although there are curtain’s it’s a little strange. The great part about it is the view, which is amazing. Anyways, looking for an apartment has proven much more difficult than we thought and Tuesday evening I had had it. Ellie had also had a rough day at work. We were dedicated to the new work-out regime, so off to Zumba. It was terrible. That instructor was nothing like Michelle and was terrible at giving instructions. It was like we were supposed to read her mind. We left after half an hour. Ergh. At home, I was feeling sorry for myself and I could tell Ellie was too. It was just one of those days. So – up side – we went over to Zak’s (which may become a regular spot for us) and had beer and brownies. It made things a bit better.

Ok, the real reason I am here – the Legal Resources Centre. I started work yesterday and I have to say it was pretty quiet around the office. It made me a bit concerned. I met everybody who was there yesterday, and then hung out in the library for today. I really could have been sitting at Dal in the basement, or at Blakes in the library. Anyways, I sat down with one of the junior attorneys, Willene, who went through her current cases with me. This made me much more excited. Some great, interesting, wonderful cases, or at least in the sense of law-geek great, interesting, wonderful cases. In actuality, many of them are extremely upsetting and show just how wrong things can sometimes be. There are a few health related cases that I am particularly excited about working on.

Everybody left a bit early from work to head out to a colleagues house for a birthday/going away party. Although not everyone was at work, it seems that everyone was at Kamala’s party. I really enjoyed myself and it was nice to get to meet everyone in a more social setting. Also, Kamala’s mom definitely out did herself in the food – yum yum yum. I love lasagna, but it made me miss my mom.

So today was a bit better. Started doing some research at work in regards to interpretations in the Special Pensions Act. The Act was set up in order to recognize that many people that fought for a non-racial, democratic government in South Africa, gave up a great deal in order to support the cause. One of these things was access to any type of pension in order to support them as they aged. The Special Pensions are supposed to be provided for those individuals who worked for a banned organization for a minimum period of time as well as meeting some other criteria. In the administrative application of the Act, a number of these criteria have been interpreted in ways that have excluded a number of potentially deserving individuals, as well as limiting the amount of support received by others. The piece of the puzzle I am working on is looking into the traditional, as well as some not so traditional, tools of legislative interpretation in order to determine if the administrative branch tasked with managing the Special Pension system failed to interpret the criteria in the proper manner. Anyways, enough legal talk. I think I will quite enjoy the projects here. Because LRC is often looking for true test cases, it feels like we are working on the kinds of cases that you might have to read during law school, and I am enjoying that.

Durban...for seven months.

Hello all.

I arrived in Durban on Saturday evening and was met at the airport by Ellie (the other Durban intern from the Canadian Bar Association) and a friend of one of the previous interns. Jan (the friend) took Ellie and I back to our temporary accommodation. It definitely leaves something to be desired, but the view is amazing.

We are currently living beach-side and it is quite gorgeous and is making me want to learn to surf. There is something about seeing those surfers out there every morning and is very appealing.

Yesterday Ellie and I wandered down the beach to the soccer stadium built for the World Cup last year. I can't figure out what is going on there now, as there doesn't appear to be a sports team that is using it. However, right next door is the much more important rugby stadium where the Natal Sharks play. Hoping to get to a match in the near future (Currie Cup is going on right now). Oh, and rugby. As some of you know, rugby World Cup started this week and it is everywhere on TV and tons of jerseys. LOVE IT!!!! I have accepted that I will be cheering for the Boks in their pool, although yesterday's match had some split loyalties as SA was playing Wales and generally I would be cheering for Wales. In the Canada pool though, I will be cheering for Canada loudly and the South Africans seem to be good with that, as it seems to be an attitude of "Anybody but the All Blacks".

After our wanderings, we headed out to the suburbs where a co-intern of Ellie's (Amy) lives and invited us over for a Braai (South African BBQ). Amy's fiancee is doing his post-doc here in Durban researching HIV/Aids, and invited a number of his coworkers over as well. Mostly American's doing medical research involving HIV/Aids or TB. Mostly very interesting. It was great to get out of just our little neighbourhood and see a little more of Durban and made me feel just that much more settled in. Today has involved some apartment hunting and researching, but I plan on

having only one more general settling in day and then start work on Wednesday. Excited for that.

And because none of you helped with the naming of "Yet to Be Named" Ellie took the initiative and has named him Johann. My guess is he must be a fairly musical penguin, so that adds some interest to our traveling group.

Officially on my way. I left Ottawa at 5:00 in the afternoon on Monday and flew to Toronto. At 9:40, after a beer with a few random people from Saskatchewan, I got onto the never ending plane journey. I was pretty proud of myself as I made it through the 13 hours without too much fuss.

Once I arrived in Dubai (Tuesday evening), Barb picked me up and the airport and then we had a good catch up over wine and cheese (yummy). I was able to get a good night's sleep, except for the two hours in the middle where my body refused to comply with my desire to sleep. This afternoon Barb and I took off to the Mall of Dubai which is apparently the largest mall in the world. We watched the feeding at the gigantic aquarium for awhile, had some lunch and did some shopping.

The highlight of the afternoon, however, was the skating adventure. Apparently Barb has wanted to do this for awhile but my uncle refused to go. So being a good Canadian girl I put on a pair of skates and out we went. There were some funny moments and I have to say I was impressed by the skating abilities on display.

Still trying to get my body to comply with the new time zone, so the goal is to stay up until 9:30 tonight...see how that goes.

I would also like to introduce you to my new travel buddies. As Andre decided last summer that he had had enough of traveling with me, I needed to find somebody new. Lucky me, I was able to find two buddies willing to travel. Some of you may have previously met Dieter as we met in New York on my birthday. Dieter is a dragon who wants to travel the world. I told him we could be friends. So he has joined his first overseas adventure. The second travel buddy arrived from northern Alberta last month. He hasn't told me his name yet, so I am taking suggestions. Right now, I have had some ideas - Otto, Diesel, Robert...but I am willing to take suggestions or let me know if you like one of these names. As you can see from the picture, yet to be named travel buddy is a penguin. He also informed me that he would like to see the world and his big goal is to get to Antarctica, clearly he was meant to be my friend. So that is all, talk to you all soon and welcome back to my blog!