Africa: Part One

As my countdown hits one week, I thought I'd share a little about my first internship in Africa. Last year, I went on a four-month internship through Canadian Lawyers Abroad with Journalists for Human Rights in Ghana. JHR is a Canadian NGO dedicated to raising awareness of human rights issues in Africa by providing African journalists with the tools to report accurately and concretely about human rights issues. The rationale is: "Before human rights abuses can be stopped, people must know what their rights are."

I was stationed with a fellow intern, Leemor, in Accra (the capital city of Ghana) but we travelled all over the country. The law took on concrete, and often overwhelming, dimensions as we learned about the legal and human rights issues that people face day to day. Highlights include:

• Assisting with a JHR workshop on women's rights in Accra.
• Visiting Buduburam Liberian Refugee Camp, which was being dismantled by the UNHCR at the time, and speaking with the dedicated Liberian journalists who took part in daily JHR workshops there.
• Doing public outreach about domestic violence with the ARK Foundation at Agbobloshie and Newtown markets in Accra -- we witnessed some intense debates between market vendors about domestic violence and whether "marital rape" exists.
• Meeting the chief of Gambaga, and learning about the sad stories and human rights abuses inflicted on the women in the so-called "Gambaga Witch Camp".
• Witnessing community-based mediation initiatives in the rural areas near Bolgatanga with the Centre for Sustainable Development Initiatives (CENSUDI). Community members invited us to a funeral and presented us with a white chicken -- "a white chicken for white ladies".

Not to mention epic tro-tro rides, fabric shopping at Makola Market, dancing the high life at Bywells, glimpsing the hellish past at the coastal slave castles, retreating to the crashing surf at Axim, and elephant watching at Mole National Park.

At the end of the internship I journeyed with a friend, Brenna, to the magical country of Burkina Faso, where I got henna'ed, jammed on African instruments in Ouagadougou, slept under the stars in Gorom Gorom, and rode a camel into the desert... where it rained...

Counting Down...

Two more weeks, and I'm off to Grahamstown, South Africa for a 26-week internship through the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). I will be working at the Legal Resources Centre, a South African legal human rights NGO which operates as an independent, client-based, non-profit public interest law clinic using the law as an instrument of justice. According to my LRC supervisor: "We are doing a huge mix of work -- environment, children, and land stuff on the boil right now -- we will have plenty to keep you busy"!

This experience started with an application, an intense phone interview, and an offer that arrived by email. My heart leapt out of my body as I read and re-read the email and realized I had really been selected. Then, it was off to Ottawa with the other interns for our CBA/CIDA orientation where we triangulated to instantly become "interculturally effective persons". Well, not really -- but we did bond over shisha on Sparks Street, meet our fearless leader Al Cook (director of the CBA Young Professionals International Program), and learn about patience, diplomacy, and culture shock. And who could forget the ball, brick, and cup of coffee?

So in just two weeks, I will leave the protective cocoon of my windowless office on the secure side of the British Columbia Supreme Court (where I have been clerking for the past year), and head for an unknown apartment in an unknown country to work as if I were a full-time qualified lawyer in the LRC office. My nerves are calmed somewhat by the knowledge that last year's Canadian intern is still there -- which means: (a) she must have loved it, and (b) she'll be there to help me adjust -- and by my memories of the (albeit West) African sky. I couldn't be more amazed and excited!