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!