Week No. 1 ....

Well, it's been a week and a day since I have set foot on the African continent. My office (the Legal Resources Centre) is located on High Straat, which is the main street in Grahamstown and it is a lovely old white victorian building. There are 3 lawyers, another intern and myself, coupled with administrative staff. Everyone is great and very friendly. Also handy is the doctor's office located right next door on the left hand side to the Legal Resources Centre.

My office is detached from the main building (see picture below) - I walk through the backyard garden where I have my own office next to Mr. Poswa (yes, the same Mr. Poswa that picked me up from the airport). It is possible to smoke in offices here, believe it or not. A former colleague has advised me that Africa and Las Vegas are the last two civilized places on earth :)

Work is about a 15 minute walk along either Somerset Straat or Hill Straat. That's the easy part - the hard part is getting home. I have to walk up a hill so steep that if I fell, I would probably roll to the bottom before being able to stand up! All I can think about when I am walking home with a heavy backpack is, "Buns of steel... oof.... buns of steel" and I remind myself that walking from the ground floor to the 5th floor of the TDSB building really isn't that bad, when one thinks about it.


The one place I pass before starting the dreaded, yet welcomed hill, is a place called "the old Gaol" (pronounced "the old jail"). It is an old jail and is now used as a hostel / backpacker hangout / bar - just a "cool" place to be, I guess. I was informed that one can rent a scooter for a small price of $300.00 per month, and I'm toying with the idea. There are only two things I am concerned with: the insurance against theft will probably be $500.00 a month... and, I still can't get used to the driving on the opposite side of the road. When I cross a road in Grahamstown, I am sure that I look like a retarded squirrel that can't remember where it stashed its nuts.

I took some lovely pictures of this plant in the garden here. The first one is the original, and the following two are some variants of the original, which in my non-professional opinion, I thought were great eye candy:

And here's the next one:

And the next one:

On Saturday, I went for a two hour hike around the outskirts of Grahamstown and managed to take some pictures.

And that's all folks. Next posting will appear some time this week. I will feature a "buildings of Grahamstown" edition. But to finish off, check out the creepy crawly - approximately 10 cm long - I spotted crossing the road on my two hour hike on Saturday:

Yech!

Home Sweet Home

Well I made it to South Africa in one piece. The flight was absolutely brutal and I am dreading having to do it again. What made it even worse was the fact that on the Toronto to Washington flight, a passenger three seats behind me had a seizure forcing the pilot to turn the plane around and make an emergency landing in Toronto to get the poor bugger off the plane.

I was picked up at the airport, compliments of the Legal Resources Centre (my internship organisation) and driven straight home, where I conked out for 12 solid hours, no word of a lie!

I live on Beadle Street (I don't know the number) in a small room with my own bathroom. The kitchen is part of the main house where three university students from Rhodes University are living together. Hanna and Nikki are the only ones I've met. The other one hides. The two girls are very nice to me, and we have decided that they will cook for me every night, and I shall do the dishes afterwards. This way, when I come trudging home around 5 p.m. from work, I can have a glass of wine and relax before supper :)

I have an alarm on my door, which I have forgot to deactivate twice prior to entering. The police telephoned the house within seconds and if there is no answer, the entire task force is there within minutes :) Grahamstown is very safe. Burglaries do happen, but as a result of people forgetting to lock doors or activate their alarm systems. Crimes of opportunity.. There is not much violent crime and people are very friendly. No walking on the streets at night though.

Afrikaans, English and Xhosa are the three main languages spoken here. Dutch and Afrikaans are very similar, so I get along quite easily and can even read judgements written in Afrikaans :)

And one last thing: they drive on the opposite side of the road, as in England, and it's simply driving me nuts because I always end up looking the wrong way. Parking lots are the worst!

over and out. Stay tuned for the next posting :)

The Beginnings of the Blog

After all the warnings about Blogs and their dangers, I too now have surrendered to modern technology and the promotion of efficient communication. So, as of today, I purport to do my absolute best to keep this Blog accurate, up to date and somewhat interesting to my appreciated readers..

For those of you that don't know me or have forgotten what I look like, I have started this blog with a picture of myself :)