Durban!

This past weekend, some friends from the office and I made the 6 hour drive down to Durban for a little holiday from work (not that working in SA hasn't been a holiday in the first place). Besides getting hella lost (even with a GPS system) and sitting bitch seat the entire time and having to bribe the cops for a speeding ticket somewhere in the middle of Kwazulu-Natal (from an excessive 3000 Rand to an impressive 500 Rand...corruption much?), the drive down was surprisingly very entertaining and absolutely gorgeous.

Daytime consisted of tanning and sleeping on the beach and walking around outdoor markets while nights we went out to late dinners and then met up with some locals who showed us around, took us to clubs, etc. It was basically like the Cali of SA. Needless to say, I loved it. Also, we tried this delicious dish called bunny chow, which is a unique South African Indian dish. It's basically just a loaf of bread with the middle carved out and filled with delicious and authentic chicken curry. So filling but so worth it.

The most exciting part of the trip for me was probably the sardine run. So basically, once a year, on the north wharf beach, these industrial fishermen hire tons of workers to haul in this huge net filled with sardines. It's apparently a major eco-tourism event. But anyways, once they get the net on the beach, the fishermen practically start dancing on top of the net filled with millions of wriggling sardines and start scooping them out into hundreds of crates. Then all the little children gathered around the net with their plastic bags scurry off after the sardines that escape and try to catch them in their bags. Here are some pictures:








And here are some more pictures from the weekend:

The Minibus

For those of you who plan on visiting SA at some point in the future and are interested in a real, non-touristy, genuine SA experience, I'd recommend taking the minibus/taxi. Because the public transportation system here is basically non-existent and incredibly inefficient, you have to rely on these minivans that just frantically shuffle around the city picking as many people up as possible. They legitimately squish you like sardines in there, trying to fit at least 16 pepople in per trip. And if you're stuck in the back seat (where I somehow always end up), you get death stares from EVERYONE as you try to get out (that or they just flat out don't move...which is often the case). Oh ya and you'll probably (actually definitely) be the only white person on the bus, and will therefore receive scores of puzzled looks from other passengers on the bus who are shocked when you pass up your change.

And there's always the opportunity to make life-long friends. For example, this is the verbatim conversation that I had with a strange man on the ride home yesterday. I'm pretty sure his name was Neil, though I must admit I was a little too taken back to actually remember:

*Pass Neil my change for the driver*

Neil: So are you married? (Yes, this was actually his first question)
Me: (with the most confused look on my face ever) No!

N: Why not?
H: Because I'm too young.

N: How old are you?
H: 19

N: But you're older than 18.
H: I'm still too young.

*30 seconds later*

N: So do you have kids?
H: (screaming) NO

N: You don't have kids?? (in a state of disbelief)
H: No.

N: Why not?
H: Because I'm 19.

N: Oh. I see.

*30 seconds later*

N: So do you have a boyfriend?
H: Yes

N: How many?
H: 1

N: Just 1?
H: Yes, just 1

N:How many girlfriends does he have?
H: I hope just one...

N: Just one?
H: Yes, just one.

*Pick up another passenger*

N: Do you want to get married?
H: Yes eventually.

N: Do you want to work?
H: Yes

N: So then when are you going to get married?
H: When I'm older and find the right person.

N:But are you going to work?
H: I'm going to work and be married.

*Silence....then I got off the bus*

So, as I said before, I would definitely recommend the minibus. And Mom, because I know you're reading this, yes, I'm safe and fine. No I did not get followed home. And no, I didn't tell him any personal information.

My first nerdy post (many more to come)

Just in case you don't know me well enough, my dream in life (since I was 13 years old) is to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Actually. So you can just imagine my excitement when I got to ditch work today and travel with the Nepalese delegation to the Constitutional Court in Joburg to meet with two of the justices: Justice Yacoob and Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. The purpose of the visit was to teach the Nepalese delegation more about the amnesty and judicial processes of the SA Truth and Reconciliation Commission because they're currently in the process of drafting legislation for their own TRC in Nepal. We sat in the judges' lounge for an hour and a half mostly discussing the amnesty process and suggestions for the Nepalese for how to best deal with ex-combatants and perpetrators. The conversation (at least for me) was absolutely fascinating and just reaffirmed my desire to be Chief Justice.

But, instead of boring you with all the details of our conversation, here are some pictures from our visit. The SA Constitutional Court is probably one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen and the polar opposite of the U.S. Supreme Court. So much color, art, amazing architecture, open spaces, light...check it out!!


That's the outside of the building. Says Constitutional Court in the 11 official languages of SA.


Casually the front door of the Court. Gorgeous.


The foyer of the court. Not what you would expect from the highest court in South Africa.


The interns, the Nepalese delegation, and Justices Mogoeng and Yacoob in the judges' lounge.


YES.


My dream.

Besides the Constitutional Court, we also visited CSVR (centre for the study of violence and reconciliation) where we learned about the role of civil society within the TRC and then later traveled to soweto to see Nelson Mandela's house. But instead of seeing the Hector Pieterson museum (basically the Soweto uprising museum), the Nepalese wanted to go see soccer city. Duh.

Anyways, in an attempt to be artsy, I'll finish off my post with a Mandela quote that I read today:
"It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." - Nelson Mandela, Rivonia Trial 1964)

Disastrous attempt at domestication

So I don't know how to cook. The only thing I know how to make is scrambled eggs...and even then I mess up quite often. But for some odd reason, I decided that tonight would be a great night to try and make myself a breast of chicken. Below is the recipe I followed while attempting to make dinner for myself tonight:


Ingredients:
1. Frozen pick n' pay braii chicken (note: must be at least 92% composed of fat)
2. Dried rosemary spice (approximately 10 years old)
3. Excessive salt & pepper
4. Lemon pepper (who knew that existed?)
5. Unhealthy amounts of olive oil
6. The secret ingredient: SOY SAUCE!!

Directions:
1. Defrost chicken. But only halfway.
2. Sprinkle dried rosemary, salt, pepper, and lemon pepper onto watery half-defrosted chicken. Make sure to get both sides real good. Also, make sure to let the pepper container explode on the chicken. Really adds a burst of flavor if you ask me.
3. Preheat pan with a tbsp give or take of olive oil. But don't actually let it preheat. Just throw in the half-defrosted "spiced" chicken with the olive oil. Let it cook.
4. As oil starts spurting out all over the counter top and the floor, grab another pan and use it as a cover for your original pan. It should do the trick.
5. Give or take 5 or 6 minutes, flip the chicken and close with makeshift lid.
6. 2 minutes later, lift lid and then decide that since we're in Africa, the chicken definitely needs some color. So now, take the secret ingredient, the soy sauce!, and pour it on top of the chicken. Except make sure that the soy sauce comes out really fast from the bottle so that you end up pouring at least 3 tbsp onto the chicken.
7. Scream *!#$.
8. Quickly remove chicken from soy sauce pan and place it on dirty countertop. Use makeshift lid pan as new cooking pan. Pour absurd amount of olive oil into "new" pan and place chicken in new pan. Use clear oversized pot cover as new pan cover.
9. Breathe for 3 minutes.
10. Remove chicken from pan, but obviously forget to turn off the heat. Place onto plate and sit at dinner table. Cut into chicken only to discover that chicken is not cooked in middle.
11. Scream *!#$.
12. Grab chicken with fingers and place back into pan (see, isn't it good that you purposely forgot to turn off the heat?!) for approx. 4 minutes.
13. Remove lid to find that chicken is burnt. Place on plate and return to dinner table.
14. Remove charred chicken pieces and discard. Realize that there's only one bite of "edible" meat and the rest burnt fat.
15. ENJOY

So what I actually ended up eating for dinner tonight:
1. marshmallows
2. pretzel m&m's
3. granola

First post!

Alright, so I recognize that blogs are inherently the most conceited thing in the world. In reality, how many of you actually care what I'm doing on a daily basis? Better question: how many of you will actually read this?

Anyways, I figure at least Simone (a fellow intern at Idasa from Oregon) and the IT Department will so at least I can make them happy and distract them from their work...even though I'm pretty sure they don't do any work to begin with.

Well, I've been in South Africa now for just over a month and can honestly say that I'm having the best summer of my life. I've done everything from vaccinating 75 cattle on a ranch near the Waterberg mountains to sitting 15 rows away from center field at the world cup final. There really hasn't been a dull moment since I've been here. Since this is the first post though, I'll start off light by giving you guys some background.

So I'm living with this 80+ year old woman named Lorraine (G-d bless her soul for putting up with me) in her house in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Pretoria is located in the northern part of the Gauteng Province and is one of the three capital cities of South Africa. Also, for all you Stanford peeps, the neighborhood right next to me is called Menlopark...except not quite as glamorous as the one next to school. It's been pretty cold since I've been here. Especially the first week...I think I shivered continuously for the first five days I was here.

To give a brief description of where I'm working (from the Idasa website):

"Idasa is an independent public interest organisation committed to promoting sustainable democracy based on active citizenship, democratic institutions, and social justice."

Now that sounds a lot more pretentious than it actually is. Basically, it's an NGO that works to promote democratic practices and governance throughout Southern Africa. There are about nine official programmes within Idasa focusing on everything from AIDS to economic governance to safety and security, etc. Here's their website. I would definitely recommend checking it out: http://idasa.org.za/

Work at Idasa definitely started off slow. First, practically every one at the office took holiday off for the World Cup. You were almost guaranteed to not find anyone in the office on game days. In fact, I didn't even get my first assignment until two and a half weeks in to my internship so I basically spent my days playing minesweeper, re-learning the state capitals, wandering aimlessly around the halls, reading the economist, etc.. That was definitely frustrating but now I'm much, much happier.

My assignments (thus far) for the summer are:
1. Coordinate logistics for an AID Effectiveness workshop in Cape Town from Sept. 9-10.(It's awesome...I casually email the executive directors of these huge organizations like the World Bank).
2. Drafted a brief report/ summary about the TRC for a delegation of Parliamentarians visiting from Nepal.
3. Currently doing some research on countries with economic sanctions against Zimbabwe and countries supporting Zimbabwe (that has definitely been my favorite project so far)
4. Compiled questionnaire responses from NGOs/CBOs in Mpumalanga, the North West Province and KwaZulu Natal for our Logal Governance Unit within the Political Governance Programme.
5. Created these programme summaries for our Friends of Idasa and donors in the United States.

And probably a couple more things here or there. Anyways, now that I have plenty of work to do, I'm a much happier and more upbeat person. As a matter of fact, speaking of work, I actually have to get back to researching Zimbabwe sanctions for my report due Tuesday.

More to come soon.