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)