A Lekker Day at the Cow Farm

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve joined Grahamstown’s hiking club. The hiking club is not only a good way to socialize and see the country, but it’s also great bang for your buck. It’s generally difficult (and can be unsafe) to get around South Africa without your own car. The club organizes group hikes (safety in numbers) and provides carpool transport for a small (very small) fee.

On Sunday, I went on my first hike with the club. I made my way to Pick & Pay at 7:40am where I found an eclectic group of people that ranged in both age (from single digits to a few grey-hairs) and nationality (Swedish, Swiss, and another Canadian, whose husband sported a "Hockey Night in Canada" hat!). We drove 20 minutes out of town to Radway Green, the farm of Rodney and Leonie Yendall. The Yendalls had a pineapple farm, but switched to cattle farming a few years ago because pineapple farming was no longer sustainable. Their farm was surrounded by game farms. Leonie, who has lived in the area for 20 years, guided us on an improvised interpretive walk.

It quickly became apparent that I was, for the first time since arriving, in the midst of several Afrikaans speakers. Afrikaans developed from the High Dutch of the 17th century but has also incorporated vocabulary from French, English, African, and Asian languages – it’s a strong and very expressive language. South Africa is very colourful linguistically; it has 11 official languages! They are (as listed in section 6 of the South African Constitution): Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu. Languages are clearly an important part of the culture as they are one of the founding provisions of the Constitution. It’s incredible the rate at which people switch languages, both in real life and on television. Accents also abound.

We roamed around the Yendalls’ property for about 5 hours, with a short tea break beside a stream. It was a lovely hike and I am sure to head out with the hiking club again. Here are some pictures of the completely lekker day!

(For those of you who don't know, clicking on a photo will enlarge it.)


(1) Warm welcome
(2) Fearless hikers
(3) Old aloe plants








(4) Former pineapple plants
(5) Aloe trees closer up -- likely over 50 years old
(6) The old pineapple farm




(7) Large grasshopper
(8) Crawly creature that excreted brown goo when poked
(9) Hanging with cows

Lessons in Cleaning

I was looking for someone trustworthy and reliable to clean my apartment. Ethel (who cleans at the LRC office) suggested her sister-in-law, Joyce. Joyce came for the first time on Thursday morning. I showed her my cleaning supplies – broom, mop, rags, assorted cleaners – but she was preoccupied by something else.

“Do you have any bread?” she said.

I was taken aback but thought she might not have had breakfast, so I told her she could have some bread. I then left for work. I came back after an hour to check that everything was all right. “Where’s the sugar?” she asked. I replied, “Sorry, I don’t keep sugar.” I could see that she had a whole spread out – my tea, milk, bread, butter, and jam were all on the counter. She clearly was not embarrassed. So I told myself “Go with the flow” and returned to the office, somewhat confused, to ponder the situation.

That evening, Cristiano sent me a text message from Tanzania: “According to Sarah it is totally expected that you feed your cleaning lady.” (Cristiano and Sarah are other CBA interns on placements in Tanzania; Sarah is originally from South Africa.) After asking around, I’ve discovered this really is the case. I’ve also discovered that I’m paying Joyce more than double what domestic workers usually earn (I still have not decided what to do about this – whether to pay her less, or to keep her wage high since people earn so little). Next time she comes, I’ll be prepared with the sugar.

Weekend at the Old Jail

Grahamstown is a place where you have to find things to do. That’s why, faced with my first weekend in town with very few social connections, I made a cold call to a girl named Emily that I heard was the other Canadian in town. What began as a very quiet Saturday turned into a day of discovering Grahamstown and ended with a night in the old jail.

Grahamstown has basically 2 main streets: High Street and New Street. I live between the 2 streets on a small side street. The LRC is on High Street. On Saturday, I wandered aimlessly up and down the two streets, checking out the shops. It was the first hot day of spring. I found the Grahamstown Hospice thrift shop (I love thrift shops!) and bought a few books and trinkets, including a random little ceramic bowl with holes in it for R15 ($2). I signed up for the hiking club at Makana Tourism office. I was going to check out the Observatory museum but they apparently decided either not to open or to close early (which seems to be a common occurrence in Grahamstown).

I quickly discovered that everything closes at 1pm. Passing the Curves gym on New Street (yes, we have a Curves gym!), I was about to wander home when Emily called. She said, “I’m facing Curves; I have blond hair and am wearing a black shirt and shorts.” I said, “I’ll walk towards you, I’m the only Chinese girl in town.”

What followed was a very educational day on Grahamstown. Emily is studying journalism at Rhodes University and has been here since February. She is fabulous and friendly and gave me a grand grand tour of this town. We walked around and she told me where to go and not to go, how to act, where to buy what. She showed me the Botanical Gardens then took me up a dirt road to the Dam, where you can have a swim in the warmer months. We hiked to the top of a hill, where I saw a fabulous view of Grahamstown and its township on one side, and the rolling South African wilderness on the other side. We met her friend James, who bartends at the Old Gaol (pronounced “Jail”) Backpackers and studies anthropology at Rhodes. I saw the Old Gaol, a former jail that has been converted into a backpackers’ inn where the guests sleep in cells. There is a popular bar in the front that has an atmospheric hippie feel. Emily and I went for dinner in the lovely courtyard of Maxwell’s B&B, then returned to the Old Gaol to close it down.

The Battle for Pondoland

On Monday morning, I walked into the LRC office. Little did I know where work would take me by week’s end! First order of business was morning tea (a mandatory daily task – I can see I will be drinking a lot of rooibos in the coming months). My colleagues chattered about clients, politics, government Ministers, advocates, passed around the Daily Dispatch newspaper, threw about names and acronyms. Then everyone bustled off to their offices. I was set up in my temporary office in the boardroom/library and handed a few files to read.

The Grahamstown LRC is a small office of just 9 people including lawyers and staff. Sarah is the head attorney and my supervisor. The rest of the legal team consists of Kesentri (attorney), Rufus (paralegal), Sku (candidate attorney, i.e. articling student), and Kim. Then there are Nomfundo (administrator), Ethel (cleaner), and Cathy (secretary). What this means is that I will have plenty of responsibility! On Tuesday, I found myself drafting a long letter to the attorneys for the Minister of Finance for a constitutional litigation case, which was then passed on to our advocates in Johannesburg for review. (In South Africa, like Britain, there is a distinction between barristers and solicitors – they are called advocates and attorneys respectively.) On Wednesday, I was handed two land restitution claims and told to start drafting the founding affidavit to launch a court action against the Land Commission for failure to restore land to our clients.

Most excitingly, there was buzz around the office about a meeting in the Transkei on Friday with the Minister of Minerals and Energy and our clients, the Amadiba Crisis Committee. This is a high profile case that, luckily for me, has reached an apex of activity right now. The Lonely Planet even has a box about the conflict that states “[t]he major attraction for investors is the mineral-heavy sand-dune mine at Xolobeni, eyed by Australian mining company Mineral Commodities (MRC)”, then concludes ominously: “For now, Pondoland sits undisturbed, its rushing waterfalls still flowing towards the sea and its wildlife still roaming without hindrance. But if you have any plans to visit the area, better make it sooner rather than later.”

At present, the Director General, through power delegated by the Minister of Minerals and Energy, has granted a mining right to MRC which apparently will come into effect on October 31. Neither the community nor the LRC were informed about the grant; rather, the LRC caught wind of it through a press release on the Australian stock exchange. The LRC has launched an internal appeal to the Minister on behalf of the Amadiba Crisis Committee, a group of concerned residents of the Xolobeni area, and is also preparing to bring urgent court applications for an interdict (i.e. injunction) and review (i.e. judicial review).

So on Thursday morning, we loaded up the "bakkie" with backpacks and junk food and headed for Pondoland. Cows and horses gradually appeared on the road and monkeys and goats chattered by the roadside. I got to see the South African landscape on the 8-hour journey: Peddie, King Williams Town, Bisho, Butterworth, Nelson Mandela’s birth house at Mzevo, Umtata (where we picked up the delightful Pasika, a community worker and prodigious talker that kept us entertained for the rest of the drive), first glimpse of the ocean at Port St Johns, Lusikisik, Flagstaff, Bizana, and finally Port Edward, where we spent the night at a banana and macadamia farm. After a working dinner with a few community members and social worker John Clarke (of Sustaining the Wild Coast), we fell into bed in rustic farm bungalows.

We rose on Friday at 6am for a “brisk walk” and quick breakfast then packed into the bakkie. The road to the meeting was long, bumpy, and sometimes treacherous, but winded through beautiful rolling hills dotted with round mud huts. Hundreds of people arrived from all over the countryside and set up wooden benches under the big South African sky.

The meeting was mostly in Xhosa. I had the occasional translation from Rufus and Pasika, but relied mainly on tone of voice and body language to understand what was going on. The King (represented by an attorney), the Amadiba Crisis Committee, and many community members expressed strong opposition to the mining. Chief Lunga Baleni stated that he had no position then slunk off before the end of the meeting. Minister Sonjica started out rather arrogantly, interrupting the King’s representative with rude comments as he spoke, but evidently decided to change her stance when faced with such strong opposition. She paid lip service to consultation, stating she was “so disappointed”, had “no idea” what had been going on, and would “consult afresh” … she admitted the entire process leading up to the decision was flawed yet she refused to suspend the decision to grant the mining right! Then, before anyone had the chance to ask any difficult questions, she quickly packed up her entourage and drove off.

The upshot is that nothing has changed. The internal appeal to the Minister is probably futile (given her comments to the media in support of the mining), and the LRC will likely have to proceed with court action. We start drafting on Monday.

I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to my upcoming work at the LRC. Meeting with the Xolobeni community showed me the people behind our work, the people we are trying to give a voice. Sarah repeatedly told them, “We want to make your voices heard in the court of law”. It was also amazing to see Pondoland, its beautiful landscape, and the way of life its people are trying to preserve. I am so grateful – to the CBA, CIDA, and the LRC – to be part of an organization doing such remarkable work.

Hello, South Africa!

After 32 hours in air travel lalaland, I popped out into blue skies in South Africa. Another 2-hour car ride from Port Elizabeth and I arrived in Grahamstown, my home for the next 7 months. My journey was surprisingly smooth (made smoother with a 6-hour stop at the spa in LHR), and first impressions of South Africa (beginning with personal entertainment devices and actually edible chicken tikka on South African Airways, a decided improvement over Air Canada) were extremely pleasant. It appears to be a beautiful country with stunning coastline and mountains, vast wilderness, and friendly people. I have already seen antelope, kudu, and ZEBRA(!!!) along the highway from Port Elizabeth to Grahamstown!

I was greeted in Grahamstown by Kim, who let me into my apartment in Bertramstraat. Kim is last year’s CBA intern, who decided to stay after the LRC offered her a paid position. She lives a few doors down in the same complex, and her presence has been a constant comfort as I adapt to my new surroundings. I have a cute little loft apartment in the centre of Grahamstown, between New and High Streets and just 50 metres from the LRC office. It is tiny, but furnished and clean (I learned later that the LRC arranged to have it cleaned for my move-in) with electricity (pay as you go), hot water and even a television! I settled in and tried to nap, but was distracted by the setting sun and people speaking Xhosa as they passed my window so I hopped out of bed and knocked on Kim’s door. Off we went for dinner at the Rat & Parrot, a popular drinking spot for students of the local Rhodes University. A cup of rooibos at Kim’s then I crawled into bed at 11 pm, too exhausted to feel any emotion about being alone in a new place – which was probably a good thing.

I spent Sunday at Pick & Pay supermarket getting essentials for my new home (of which I've posted pictures). What I am struck by so far is how much of South Africa feels familiar: products (Pantene, Parmalat, Tampax!), architecture (colonial -- of course), but most of all, multiracial. I feel largely invisible as I walk along the street – no calls of “obruni”, “mzungu”, or “chingchangchong”! South Africa also appears relatively affluent and I can see why some call it the “Europe of Africa”.

However, I know that somewhere and underneath, there is the South Africa that I’ve read and heard about and that I came here to understand. On my flight over, I watched a documentary about Nelson Mandela and a movie called “Tsotsi” about a gang boy in Johannesburg. I think of the photos of the 1994 elections and footage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that I've seen. I have read some of the history behind land restitution claims, which I will likely work on at the LRC. I know I have arrived in a country with profound people and history, that has experienced hopelessness and hope and that still has its struggles – I hope to see and understand this a little over my next 7 months working at the LRC.

Parting Pains

I have been hit in the past few days with mixed feelings of excitement, stress, and sadness. The past week has been a whirlwind of finishing up work (I will probably never again have 10 fabulous female colleagues, all my age – I will miss you girls!), running errands, packing, and saying goodbye. I’ve sometimes wondered why the heck I’m doing this – leaving loved ones, upheaving my tranquil home life, putting off a law firm salary. But I suppose it’s because it’s all goodbye in this moment and no hello… I know that once I’m there I will have no regrets!!

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!