Happy Halloween!!!! (and a little pictorial of Durban)

Like my mom, there is one holiday that I find particularly stresseful. I think my mom has gotten over this stress now that it no longer involves spending countless hours sitting in front of the sewing machine, but the stress has passed on to me. I really love Halloween, but only once I have a costume. The process of deciding on and putting together a costume, I find it quite stressful.

This year was a little different. We had a party to go to, but as Halloween hasn't really taken hold in South Africa, I didn't feel the pressure that normally accompanies Oct. 31. I also decided that my costume could be a little more low key this year, being a lowly intern and all. So, by Saturday afternoon, Ellie and I had decided we were not spending any money on our costumes. We would take our extra bed shets and do what you do with extra bedsheets (other than cutting two eye holes and becoming a ghost) - make togas. It's funny in with all my years of university, I only once remember having to make a toga out of a bed sheet and I wasn't even in university at the time. It was six years ago when I worked at Valhalla Pure in Victoria. And there I had the expert advice of Elisa - the queen of amazing costumes. So, in not entirely knowing how to best make a toga, we turned where you turn for these things - youtube. You would not believe how many "How to make a toga out of a bedsheet" videos there are. We watched two, tried those methods, decided to turn off youtube and figure it out ourselves. After much winding, un-winding, re-winding, a few safety pins here and there, and a few glasses of wine, we had togas. I have to say, I think we didn't do too badly. We then had a discussion of whether togas are Greek or Roman. Catherine (a fellow LRC intern) and her man (GP) picked us up. They were not dressed up. Catherine is American and had no excuse. GP is South Africa, but dating an American, therefore no excuse in my mind. Once we arrived at Dave and Willene's Catherine found a wig. Slightly better effort. Dave and Willene were amazing hosts, as always. Willene really had gone all out on food and decorating (and Jell-o shooters). We had a great evening. Dave decided we were the Cleopatra sisters (we had not thought to include Egyptian as a possible option). We left their place with lots of candy and I have to say, it was definitely one of my more stress-free Halloweens. Sunday - after seven weeks in Durban, we finally went on the Rickshaw Bus, a city tour bus starts its tour right across the street from us. It probably would have been a good idea to do this about 6 weeks ago, ah well. So, here's a little pictorial of some of the sights and such of Durban. Many we pass everyday on the way to or from work, but I don't ever have my camera with me, so this was a good opportunity to get some photos.

Ellie and I live in an area of Durban called the Golden Mile. We live right accross the street from the beach and get to watch the surfers pretty much every morning. Between us and the beach is a stretch of sidewalk where you can pick up any curio you can imagine...The beaches are an interesting places. Under apartied, most of the beaches were whites-only. People in my office were telling me about memories of when the beaches became open to all and what a different atmosphere it was. The reality is now, the beaches are still, in many ways segregated, but now on an economic level. Certain beaches you can pay to get a spot, these are guarded by security and offer access to beach chairs and umbrellas. The other, more public beaches are generally jammed with people, particularly where the yellow and red flags connote a swimming area, complete with life guards. Durban still has many signals to its colonial past. Unfortunately many of these old buildings, which have been deemed historic sites have fallen into significant disrepair and just sit there. This is the origianal Addington hospital. This says something about Durban...people are logical and hoping to appeal to robbers more logical sides. In Durban, there is an area around Pointe Road (also known as Mahatma Ghandi Road). It is one of the extremely poor urban areas in Durban. But, at the end of Pointe Road, this is what you come to...It is an area of contradictions. The very wealthy and the very poor living within blocks of each other. Durban is a port city. It was originally 'discovered' by Vasco da Gama on Christmas Day 1497, giving it the name of Natal. The port is now the busiest container port in Africa. Sometimes you see interesting things when you are riding in a bus. Like people sitting with their groceries and eating their lunch in the back of a bakkie. This is one of the enterances to Warwick junction that I wrote about a while ago. I will get more photos when we go back with MK. This is the Juma Majid Mosque. The largest mosque in the southern hemisphere. I don't really understand, because it really doesn't look that big to me. These are taxis. They are generally considered to be very dangerous, whether you are in on or driving a car next to one. But they are the primary means of transportation in Durban. That, accross the road, that is th central taxi stand in the Central Business District. Lots of people trying to get places. This is Florida Road. I wrote about it a long time ago when Kathleen, Sean, Ellie and I went out for dinner. It makes me think of New Orleans. That is Moses Madhiba stadium. There are people standing at the top. I took this picture not for the church, but for the jacaranda trees on the left side of the photo. About two weeks ago, these were out in full force, just beautiful purple trees. On the left is Moses Madhiba, ahead is Kings Park - very useful having two stadiums right beside each other. So that's a little glimpse around Durban. Hope you enjoyed the Rickshaw bus.

A sporting day

On Friday afternoon, Emma dropped me off after work to meet up with Ellie, a few of her colleagues and some of their families. They has already been at the venue for 2 hours when I arrived. Six and a bit hours later, we were finally leaving. Now, I love sport. There are very few games that I don't enjoy watching and even some of those that many argue are boring, you will find my TV tuned in to watch over the weekend (I will say that watching golf and roundy-rounds is entirely a product of being my father's daughter). But, I finally found a sport that is actually just too slow for me to be able to watch. Eight hours is just too long. Cricket is not my thing. Being from a former British colony, you would think one would have been exposed to cricket at some point, but I think Canada made a good choice leaving cricket behind in our colonial past (we can have a debate about the role of the Queen later, but I think this was a good choice - be gone cricket!). When I arrived at Kingsmead Stadium, I ran into Amy (who works at LHR with Ellie) and Paul (Amy's significant other). They had been at the game for two hours and were searching for sustenance (food and beer). I was told where everybody was seated and went to find Ellie, Sherylle (from LHR) and Sherylle's family, including her two little boys. South Africa was batting, Australia was bowling. I had done my homework and read the Wikipedia entry on cricket. We were attending an ODI (one-day international). Each team had won one of the previous ODIs here in South Africa and so the series came down to the match in Durban. I had learned that an ODI consists of 50 overs for each team. An over is made up of 6 bowls. So, calculating that means that, theoretically, the bowling team will have to throw 300 times towards the wickets in an attempt to hold the batting team to a limited number of runs. When I arrived at the field, I saw that we were 24 overs into South Africa's turn batting. They had made 115 runs. Sherylle told me this was not very good. I had also missed the really exciting part when the group almost got hit by a ball that had been hit for a six (you get six runs if you hit the ball directly out of the field of play, four if it hits inside of the field of play and subsequently rolls or bounces out). So, I was giving this game a chance to wow me; to understand why so many people seem to think it is such a great game. Six hours after I arrived, I understood the general rules and what to watch for that would make the crowd cheer, but I still fail to understand the love of the game and have decided that my impatient, North-American self will not be able to love such a game, no matter how much beer is consumed (which I have garnered, at least in South Africa, is a key to the love of the game - can't figure out how this works in Bangladesh). So, the other things (other than beer) which seem to be the exciting part of the game...the wigs and the flags (they were giving out South African flags apparently if you arrived early).When a batter from the home team hits for a four (special dance where arms are at shoulder height in front of you, and you kinda do a jazz-hands wiggle) or a six (another special dance where arms are above the head, similar hand motion to a four). Also exciting when a single, specific bar of music plays and everyone yells Ole! (and yes, I am in South Africa). It took me a bit to catch onto this one. A single bar of music was not sufficient notice for me. Another homage to the Latin influence, the Mexican wave (I still do not understand the reference to Mexico) - however, the wave here didn't go so well nine out of ten attempts, but when it did...excitement! Exciting that the referees appeared to be attempting to look like members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in dress uniform (good observation Ellie). Also exciting when one of the players in the field, if they happened to be standing near our little area, would take a little break from paying attention to the game to sign autographs for kids (and some not so kid-sized kids). The kids would yell and and then offer a sharpie and a little cricket bat (or whatever they chose was important to have autographed, which included a variety of things from a notebook to a cup). If the players did not oblige, they were booed by both the children and the adults in the area. I will give a special shout out to Johnson from Australia. He seemed to be able to sign many autographs, pay attention to what was going on on the field, and to top it off, he was quite good looking. Cummins (one of the Australian youngins) didn't do so well with the crowd and got booed. I must say, that although he did not sign autographs, he got points with me for being cute. The South Africa, Morkel, he was the worst: did not sign autographs and was not particularly cute. When this was all going on it made me think, what would North American baseball players do if, while playing outfield, they were bombarded with children yelling for autographs all while play was going on. Or hockey goalies, play is at the other end of the rink, could you sign this stick for me? I feel like they would take the Morkel approach. After another 26 overs, South Africa had scored, what was pointed out to be, a paltry 222 runs. Again, 222 runs seems like a great score to me; not so in cricket. So, Ellie and I went to get staples - beer and food. I stopped myself from getting the mini-donuts, as here they are not only the little deep-fried goodness that I love at the Stampede, they are also then smothered in chocolate and sprinkles. I decided I was not up for running those off. Ok, Australia is now batting; South Africa is bowling. We were 4 hours into the game and, at least theoretically only halfway through. Australia had to make 223 runs from 300 bowls in order to win the series. They wasted no time in starting, scoring a number of fours and sixes (none came in our direction, lacking excitement). The second half seemed to go on for a really long time, I guess that may have had something to do with the fact that I had only sat through half of the first half. Ellie and I tried to entertain ourselves. Sherylle commented that she had told us to bring a book. Sherylle's sons shared their mini-donuts with me (something about having them shared with you, rather than purchasing a whole 'serving' for yourself makes it a little more justified). They were yummy. People around us become more obviously drunk, making some much more amusing, others much more annoying. The Mexican wave failed at every attempt. Morkel continued to refuse to sign autographs. The Oles! did continue, but that was really the only excitement (and I eventually caught on). On top of that, South Africa was not doing well at all. The only hope would be to win on wickets. Although they were giving up a lot of runs, they were doing quite well on wickets (this is where the batter fails to protect the wickets and the bowler successfully gets the ball past the batter to knock one of the wickets or when a batter hits the ball in the air and it is caught by one of the fielding team's members before hitting the ground). In fact, South Africa was doing well enough on wickets to get down to the bowlers in the Australian batting order (each team gets to decide their batting order, you put your best batters first, leaving the better skilled bowlers (who tend not to be such great batters, to the end of the rotation). On a side note - the cricket score board, most complicated score board ever. But it was all for not, with Australia taking the match with 3 wickets and 15 balls remaining (they reached 223 and South Africa still had 15 balls to bowl). Eight and a bit hours after the game started, the fans left the stadium in a reasonably orderly fashion. And that was the end. No enraged calls saying that the refs had made the wrong calls. No arguments saying that the Australian team had played dirty. Nothing. Even when we passed a few Australian fans, they just seemed moderately satisfied. So, that is my story of the cricket. I can now say that I have been to a match. I understand the rules (even leg byes and leg before wickets). I understand how a game can last for five days and still end up in a tie (I understand, I do not condone). I understand the different roles the players have (bowlers and batters and bears oh my!). What I still don't understand is the love of the game. It is lost on me. But, to each their own. With my short attention span, I think I will stick to games that move a bit quicker. And on that note - Go Sens Go!!!!!! And a final note - just remember, no pitch invasions.

The Client

No, I am not reading John Grisham right now. I am in fact reading World Without End. Apparently I have read it before, but it wasn't until after I bought it and was about 50 pages in that I realised this. Meh well, reading it again. But that is not actually what I decided to write about today. I have to admit, most of my blogs, well actually all but one, have focused on the more travel side of my time here. There are a few reasons for this. First, there are often pictures of the travel side, not so much of the work side (and I think pictures make blogging more interesting). Second, work is work, and I often forget to write anything about my thoughts and observations. Third, I basically work at a law firm, it is focused on rights, but one of the main things anybody who paid any attention in professional responsibility can tell you - we must respect the confidential relationship between ourselves as lawyers and our clients. However, today I thought I would share something generic about clients here at the LRC. In the past couple weeks I have experienced something that I never experienced at Blakes (the big corporate firm that I articles with). Wait, there are many things that fit into that observation, but this time I am talking about the clients, the way clients become clients and how we move forward. LRC is a human rights focused legal NGO. We argue the case of protecting individual and group rights. For the most part, our arguments are generally made based on the rights guaranteed under the South African Constitution, arguably the most progressive constitution in the world. But getting back to the clients. We seem to have two ways that people become clients, first, like any law firm, some people approach us with an individual wrong, something affecting them personally. This is the way that I have been used to having clients come into my working life (although their issues are a little different than the corporate clients I dealt with back in Ottawa). But it is the second stream of clients that I have found to be intrguing and has really got me thinking. The second stream of clients is what I think of as issue-first. What I mean by this is that before a 'client' is identified, an issue is identified. This is, in many ways, the essence of test-case litigation. Now, the issues are identified in a number of ways, for instance, we may read about something in the newspaper, or we may be approached by another NGO who service a particular community, or we may be alerted to a wider problem when one individual comes in with their specific problem. It is after these issues are identified that, for me at least, the really interesting process begins. If litigation is the chosen approach to battle the identified problem, we need a claimant. We need a claimant who will clearly put the problem before the court; a claimant who shows just how much of a problem the identified issue can be; a claimant who, ultimately, is sympathetic. It sounds terrible, but in many ways, it feels like we are shopping for the right client. This seems harsh, I agree. But the reality is, if we are trying to push the law in a certain direction, because of the precedent system, we better go forward with the best case, and inherent in that, the best client possible in order to ensure that the precedent that is set, is helpful to all others who are similarly situated. Believe me, my mind has battled with this. And I have had a few conversations with family, friends and colleagues about how this works and how I feel about the approach. But I have to admit, as much as I find it somewhat difficult to accept, the reality of our system is that we don't want a negative precedent set, we want to help as many people possible with a positive precedent and the so-called right client is one key part of that. So how do you go about finding this client? Well, the first step is information. And currently I am working on two cases that are in the process of finding 'the' client. We know that there is a problem, and we want something done about it, so we are moving towards litigation, now for finding the client. In both cases we have local NGOs who work in the affected area and in both cases, these NGOs are our point of contact and our way of finding a client. So, to find the client, there are certain personal characteristics and experiences that the potential client must have. For instance, in one case, the potential client must be under the age of 18, they must have certain medical conditions and they must have a certain life experience that is part of the chain that has caused the medical condition. So, how do we find these people - personal questionnaires. Thanks to the partner NGO, we have access to the community. We develop a questionnaire that gets to the heart of the matter, gets the information that we need. Once we have these questionnaires, we are able to identify a few potential clients and move on from there to interviews. Sometimes we are able to find one claimant, sometimes a few, but the process focuses on finding the best claimant to put before a court hoping that this will be one step in a successful claim, which then sets a positive precedent, which hopefully can be used to help others who are in similar situations. Again, I am still coming to understand this process and accept this process. And I have to admit, it makes me think of Canada, and all those Supreme Court cases that I read in Bill Lahey and Shiela Wildeman's first year public law class focusing on rights. For instance, when Tawney Meorin challenged her dismissal as a firefighter based on physical exams that were not directly relevant to the job, was she the 'ideal client'? Did she represent a group of other similarly situated women, but she was identified to be the most sympathetic? Or was she a one-off who decided to fight back? And in fighting back change the face of Canadian equality law? I don't know the answer to this, but it is in the back of my mind. I know that there are cases of both in Canada, just like there are both here in South Africa. There are also instances where Canadian law was changed, not by someone directly affected, but because someone, who was somewhat on the perifery, decided to take a stand for what he believed in, to take a stand for those he believed were so stigmatized that they were unable or unwilling to stand up for themselves. The client is just one part of the strategy when working in human rights, but it is the part that I feel like I am currently confronting the most. Whether changes happen, and peoples rights are truly respected is what matters. But it making sure that this happens, the client is a very real and very important consideration. So, that's my little observation about The Client at a human rights NGO in South Africa (or, as I believe to be true, anywhere around the world).

A weekend in

So Ellie and I have spent the last couple of weekends away and decided that we should stick around Durban this past weekend to enjoy some of the great things going on here. We were also invited out to a colleague's place for Friday night. Willene is an attorney at LRC and is the person I do the majority of my work with. She has some super interesting cases and has very much taken me along since I arrived a month and a half ago. Willene and her husband Dave live in Kloof, a town on the edge of the eThekwini municipiality. It is technically in the Valley of 1000 Hills and is a pretty spectacular part of the region.

Their home is just beautiful and in particular takes great advantage of a spectacular view over one of the gorgeous valleys with a beautiful deck. It truly is a little escape from the busy side of Durban. The primary hazards of living out in Kloof are (1) never wanting to come back into Durban and (2) the monkeys. Apparently sometimes they get inside the house and cause some havoc.

Unfortunately Dave was sick on Friday, but that left us to have an impromptu girls nights - wine, food and lots of chatting. Willene introduced us to some of the wonderful foods of South Africa. We helped make Bobotie, a meat dish with lots of lovely spices, and milk tart for dessert (yum yum). It was a lovely evening and I was very thankful to Willene for inviting us out.

The other real treat of heading out to Kloof was getting to head for a little walk in one of the many little nature reserves in the Valley of 1000 Hills. The area is spectacular, with rolling hills and dramatic gorges. I didn't have my camera with me - sorry. But, really, the very best part of our morning walk was the zebras, particularly the little baby zebra. She was clearly still not super stable on her legs. At one point she was trying to scratch, and lifted one foot off the ground (Robin - picture Peggy trying to scratch), that did bad things for balance and she tipped right over. It was just too cute. And you all know how much I love baby animals (side note - for those of you that I have not introduced to zooborns...go check out zooborns.com, it will make your day better no matter what is going on in your life).

(Picture courtesy of Dave).

After our walk, Dave and Willene took us back into Durban where Emma (one of our candidate attorneys or in Canadian "articling students") and her dad picked us up to go to the Natal Sharks game. It was Currie Cup semi-finals against the Bloemfontein Cheetahs. Now, if you don't know, this is rugby. I was pretty excited to get to the game and I have to say, they did not disappoint.

At first things didn't look good. The Sharks kicking was terrible, but everything ended great and the Sharks are on to the Currie Cup final this coming weekend. Unfortunately, the final will not be here in Durban, so that is the end of the season until Super League starts in the new year. This would be a Sharks try...

By the way - this is Sharkey.

And, one of Ellie's favourite parts of the game (ok, maybe mine too), was the little truck that brings the kicking tee or sand out to the kicker.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet and involved a lot of reading and watching more rugby (yeah All Blacks!!!!). But it was a good weekend and I definitely am quite lucky work with some fabulous people who have helped me and Ellie to take advantage of some of the great parts of Durban.

And by the way - happy Diwali!!!

A visiting donor and cow heads

On Monday, LRC hosted two board members from one of our UK donor agencies. Organizations like the LRC face a difficult reality - their work is extremely important to a large number of people and often impacts the everyday lives of people beyond just our clients. However, in order to do this great work, there needs to be financing in place and often those doing the on-the-ground work, are either too busy, or just not as good at the fundraising as others may be. This is where people like Jill come in. Jill is a board member with one of our major donor organizations. She believes in the work of the LRC and works along with other organizations to ensure that the LRC can continue the great work done behalf of the most marginalized and vulnerable members of South African society. One of the things that the LRC likes to do with visiting donors is to show them, in real terms, what the work of the LRC does for our clients. One of our clients that we have worked with on a number of problems is the informal traders of Warwick Market in downtown Durban. This is an area that I have wanted to see since coming to Durban, bu because of certain realities in society here, it has so far been off-limits. But Monday was different. In order to show Jill and her husband the work of the LRC, we were hosted by one of our contacts at the market and given a tour. The Warwick area has been host to a market since the 1880s and it has only grown bigger since. The market area as a whole employs approximately 100,000 people and everyday, more than 400,000 people make their way through the area. It is hectic to say the least. A tour guide is essential both for safety and to ensure you don't get lost. First stop - the Bovine Head Market. Yep, cow and sheep heads. I think Emma (one of our candidate attorneys) and Celeste (an attorney at LRC) are both going vegetarian for awhile. The head market is basically like a food-court, serving one type of food. Apparently if you are there over lunch, it is crazy hectic. The Zulu men will stay and sit at one of the many small tables; the women have their meals take-away. The women who have their stalls in the Bovine Head Market faced eviction a number of years ago and being informal traders had very little bargaining power. But with the help of organizations like the LRC, they were able to lobby the municipal government to provide a more protected area only a short distance from the previous informal market, as well as rectifying some of the issues with the previous location including ventilation and drainage problems. The women were able to keep their businesses open, continue serving the many many people who make their way by everyday, and most importantly, continue to be able to produce an income in order to provide for their families. The women now pay rent on a monthly basis in order to keep their little table/stall open, and with this have gained a security that was lacking under the previous structure. After recovering a bit from the site of an axe and a cow head, we were on to the fruit and veg market - The Early Morning Market (that was still buzzing well into the afternoon). It is in this market that the LRC has its most recent case. The Early Morning Market is made up of more informal traders who are primarily Hindu. I only note this to point out a previous disagreement between traders from different areas within the market, as opposed to a disagreement with the municipality. In this case it was between the Bovine Head Market traders and the Early Morning Market traders - vegetarians versus meat eaters (everything was eventually resolved). The Early Morning Market, a permanent structure, celebrated its 100 year anniversary last year but are still having to battle on a number of fronts, from the provision of certain services, to the upkeep of the market floors, to just keeping the market open. The current problem is potholes. Now, I know that doesn't sound like a huge problem, but you should see these potholes (Dad, they make the Paradise Canyon Road look like it is in perfect condition). The issue is that the potholes are so big that the carts taking the fruit and veg to the stalls can't actually get past, making it virtually impossible for the traders to trade. Also, people are falling into the potholes and getting seriously injured (including some serious head wounds). So, the current project is advocating alongside the informal traders organization to force the municipality to maintain the property, including filling in the potholes properly in order to ensure that the market can continue. After wandering through the Early Morning Market, we passed through the music market (sooooo loud) and onto the Herbalists' Bridge. The bridge is actually two abandoned freeway portions that are linked to the surrounding markets by footbridges. At the stalls there are all kinds of herbs, roots, plants and animal parts. You can find sangomas (traditional doctors) who will identify whatever ails you and then onto the inyangas who will get everything you need for the concoction to fix your ailment. It is an amazing, wonderful, overwhelming place. My only moment of panic was when I saw the snake skins, but I kept trying to tell myself, at least they are dead - one less snake in the world is always a good thing in my opinion. We also stopped at the clay market where you can buy red clay from sunscreen, white lime for various rituals and ceremonies and impepho, a dried plant that is burned in order to communicate with your ancestors. Unfortunately the Brook Street Bead Market is only open on Fridays, but MK (our intern from the University of KZN) promised he would take me back one Friday to go there. So a wonderful experience getting to see what the work of the LRC does on the ground for some people. I think I also better understand the role the LRC plays in situations like this. It is not that we are championing the case for the affected people, rather we are helping them champion their own case. Helping them to access certain avenues and helping formulate arguments where need be. Empowering those affected to champion their own positions and needs. I should just note - I didn't have my camera with me, but hopefully when I go back to the Bead Market with MK, I will bring my camera along and you too will be able to enjoy he sights of the Bovine Head Market (and maybe some of the other great things to see at Warwick). But...I did get some pictures from our rugby tournament from Ellie, and thought I would throw them on here now... Sabrina was learning to play. It's not a particularly intuitive game. I scored a try!!!!!And celebrated. Mat seemed to be getting the hang of it. Intense action... Part of the LRC Levellers - Rufus, me, Richard, Mathieu and Tim.

23 hours on the bus and totally worth it

Last weekend with everybody in Hluhluwe was a lot of fun. In fact, Ellie and I had so much fun that we were convinced by the Grahamstown crew to take the very very very long bus ride to Grahamstown this past weekend. We got on the bus at 5:00pm in Durban. And, eventually, 12 hours later we arrived in Grahamstown where Sabrina met us at the bus 'station' (a spot on one of Grahamstown's two main roads). She took us back to their place and Ellie and I both crashed for a couple of hours.

Once we were awake again, we were taken on a little tour of Grahamstown. I emphasize little only because that is what Grahamstown is, little. According to the Lonely Planet, there are 120,000 people. That is a lie. I mean, Lethbridge is definitely bigger. No question. Anyways, Grahamstown is little and I loved it. It's in the Eastern Cape, a beautiful part of SA. The town centers around Rhodes University and I get the impression that living in Grahamstown is a bit like living in Antigonish or Sackville. Very much a uni town where students come from all over the place. So, the real draw for me for the weekend in Grahamstown was an invitation to come out of retirement. About ten and a half years ago, I played my last game of rugby. I love the game, but a few concussions in my rather short career seemed to suggest that I might not be cut out for the game. However, when I was invited to play on the Legal Resource Centre Levelers in a co-ed ouch rugby tourney, I thought it would be great. Our expectations weren't high though, as our team was full of people who at one time in their lives played rugby (with my career being the most recent) and others who had never even touched a rugby ball before. So, low expectations. Mathieu's goal was one win. My goal was one try for the team, and once that had been reached re-evaluate the goal.

We arrived at the field on the Rhodes campus and went over to the sign-in table. The guy looked at Sabrina and I and was like "oh, you have girls on your team". Apparently the co-ed part had been lost on most teams and only one other team had any girls on it - and because of the pool divisions, we never got to play them. Well, after a bit of a warm up and watching two matches (only 7 minute halves), we were up. The boys we were playing against were clearly a bunch of 19 year old res kids. It was pretty amusing. We lost. However, I met my goal when I scored out team's first and one of only two tries for the day. Yahoo me! Haha. I think it may have had something to do with the other team really not knowing what to do with a girl playing and you could have suggested that the ref was generous in his call, but I will take it. I re-evaluated the goal for the day and decided that a win was too ambitious and stick with a try for the day. Goal met.

So we played two more games, and were given beer in between (bad decision). We lost all of our game, but I had a wonderful time. It was a beautiful day. Lots of sunshine and the perfect day to spend at the rugby pitch. I am now back in retirement and my body seems to be happy with that decision.

We had a great rest of the afternoon with team beers on a patio and dinner out with Ellie, Mathieu, Sabrina and Tim.

Sunday's mission was elephants. Although we had seen them in the distance last week, we were determined to see them up close at Addo Elephant National Park. It looked to be a great day when from the highway we saw giraffes, zebras and hartebeests (for those of you who don't know what a hartebeest is, take a look at this...www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlPszRbVqVA). So, good start.

When we arrived at the park, we were given a map, which also included a checklist of animals that can be seen in the park (I like checklists a lot, so was quite happy). Addo is the only park in the world where you can see the Big 7 - elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard, southern right whale and great white shark. We were in the land part not the marine part, so no chance with the last two, but we were looking for a big day of sightings. Sabrina's first request was to see a kudu. Now, did the park ever deliver. We rounded our first corner on the game drive and there was a kudu. And another and another and another. So, we decided everybody needed to make their requests. Ellie wanted elephants, Mat picked some random hare, I picked warthogs, and Tim picked the flightless dung beetle (one of the only places in the world you can find them). So we were on the lookout. It was an amazing day, and we were slowly checking off the wish list...my warthogs...

Shocked to actually see the hare Mat decided on. And luckily saw a few flightless dung beetles that Mat was able to avoid on the road. We had t be out of the park by four to make it back to town for Ellie and I to catch our bus. At about 3:15, I was directing us back towards the entrance when we came around a corner to a watering hole. Well, did Ellie ever get her wish - elephants galore! There was a family of females and at least 4 males, one definitely more senior and 3 adolescent boys. It was great.

As we were taking pictures, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a tortoise. I really like him too. I just felt bad for him and all the elephant poop he had to get around. He wandered off into the grass and it was back to watching elephants.

So great day. We ended up checking off 12 of the animals on the list. Only one of the Big 7, but it was a great day. So thanks to our wonderful hosts (Mathieu, Sabrina and Tim) for a wonderful weekend in a great little town. Tim, we will miss having more adventures with you as you take off to Ghana, but have a wonderful time!

11 hour bus ride back to Durban and back to work.