All good things come to an end…

I can’t believe I only have one more day left at Cotlands!!! Seriously, where did September go? Last time I checked it was still August!

Anyhoo, I’ve had lots of nice experiences in my last month. One of our volunteers plays the violin with the Johannesburg Youth Orchestra so we went to one of their concerts, which was awesome. Then we had Cotlands’ AGM where Loyiso, one of Cotlands’ ambassadors, spoke. Last night I also had the brilliant idea that, since Cotlands’ ‘theme’ is Heroes, then Loyiso should do a cover on Mariah Carey’s song ‘Hero’ Yeah! I know I know, my brain’s brilliant when I go to bed. Wish it was brilliant the rest of the day as well…

We also went to Gino’s for a welcome (we have a group of new volunteers) / goodbye (I wanted to go there one last time since I’m leaving soon) dinner. Me. Loves. Gino’s. Pizzas! If only I had remembered to have the Tiramisu Although I was very full so I probably wouldn’t have been able to manage anyway. But I could’ve gotten take away…

Last, but definitely not least, we had some birthday/farewell celebrations today Our HR Director had made a lovely apple cake (I can’t remember the proper name of it) and a lovely chocolate cake. And there was delicious fruit salad. I felt very very spoiled. I had so much cake and fruit salad I forgot about lunch and when I finally realised I should eat some food there was none. Luckily a lady in the kitchen managed to spare me two slices of bread so I had a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. And yesterday I had a burger for lunch. And the day before I had chips for lunch. I seriously need to start cooking food again…

I am going to miss Cotlands and all the people here I feel so comfortable here it’s almost scary to go back home again. It’s been a very good year and I have been very blessed. I will always keep Cotlands in my heart.

Daddy in Joburg

A few weeks ago my dad decided to come to Joburg to pay me a surprise visit, which was nice He was only here for a week so it was a hectic week. During the days I would work while he would entertain himself, with the help of the lovely couple who own Darrenwood Guest House – we highly recommend that place if you need somewhere to stay in Joburg! In the evenings we’d go out for dinner and chat. My dad had sushi for the first time ever (and he now loves wasabi but has difficulties remembering the name of it), we went for an Iftar meal at Ms Oz’s church, and we went to an adorable place called Il Giardino Degli Ulivi with Ms Oz and the little boy which she hosts. Besides the lovely atmosphere and good food (Gnocchi!!) they also had an awesome live band playing, called The Runaway Train Cult. I also took my dad to two of my favourite places: Vanilla and Simply Asia.

I had previously taken one morning off that week to go with Ms Oz and a group of her friends from a church in Bryanston to Diepsloot, a township in north Joburg, for their bi-weekly food parcel drop. My dad came along and helped too and we had an interesting experience, not least for my dad to see one aspect of what I have been seeing and doing during my time in South Africa for the last eight and a half years.

Our lovely HR Director/International Volunteer Coordinator then gave me a day off despite the short notice and my dad and I rented a car and drove around and were ultra touristy in Soweto for the day. We went to see the FNB Stadium (Soccer City) where some of the Soccer World Cup games were played; we went to the Hector Pieterson Museum and the Apartheid Museum; we visited Mandela House (Nelson Mandela’s old home); we attempted Walter Sisulu Square (Freedom Square; we weren’t sure at the time whether we were in the right place or not ); and we had lunch at Wimpy in Maponya Mall – oh how ‘South African’ :-p

Now that I have mentioned and recommended all these lovely and cool places above I also want to advise people to try and avoid Select Car and Van Rental if they ever need to rent a car in Joburg. Our car was supposed to be delivered at 8 am. They finally showed up at 9 am (the driver apparently had gotten lost) and our contract included a fee which they had not informed us about. So I demanded to be taken back to their office and we sorted things out and my dad and I could enjoy the rest of our day. Unfortunately they were then again late to collect the car in the afternoon. Yes, it was just 15 min but you figure they would’ve learnt their lesson in the morning and at least attempt to show up at the right time. The driver then also stated that he had not been informed of what time he was supposed to collect the car. Not sure if he lied or told the truth but both options are equally bad in my opinion.

We asked the company for compensation for all the inconvenience and they did refund us R60 (half the delivery fee; we still had to pay the other half as well as the full collection fee) which was nice but lame. I e-mailed the company a week later to make a formal complaint about their lack of customer service and I have, not surprisingly, not received a reply yet.

So bottom line: go stay at Darrenwood Guest House, eat at all the places I’ve mentioned, go visit all the places I’ve mentioned, but do not rent a car from Select Car and Van Rental!!

‘[…] was thus so careful as not to injure her private parts, except accidentally, when he penetrated her.’

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma, himself a controversial figure, is trying to nominate Judge Mogoeng Mogoeng as the new Chief Justice. I heard a bit about this on the radio while driving to and from KZN earlier this week. Many organisations, however, are protesting against this nomination and I just received a document from Children’s Rights Centre from one of our nurses here at Cotlands. It says for example that:

‘[...] Justice Mogoeng in judgements published in a research document by the South African Litigation Centre, and others, found surprising mitigating factors in cases of rape and attempted rape of children, and no insight into the emotional trauma suffered by children through abuse by perpetrators and the secondary abuse they suffer through a harsh and inappropriate court procedure.’

In one case, ‘[...] Mogoeng reduced from five years’ to three years’ imprisonment the sentence of a man who had attempted to rape a seven-year-old girl [...] Mogoeng said: “The complainant is seven years old and the injury she sustained is not serious”.’

In another case Mogoeng reduced the sentence because ‘”the appellant is 31 years of age, he is unmarried, he is unemployed, he is suffering from chronic epilepsy, his highest qualification is standard seven and he is staying with his unemployed mother”.’ These factors were, according to Mogoeng, ‘”substantial and compelling circumstances” to decrease the sentence.’

Or how about this statement:

‘”One can safely assume that [the accused] must have been mindful of [the victim's] tender age and was thus so careful as not to injure her private parts, except accidentally, when he penetrated her. That would explain why the child was neither sad nor crying when she returned from the shop, notwithstanding the rape. In addition to the tender approach that would explain the absence of serious injuries and the absence of serious bleeding … he bought her silence and cooperation with Simba chips and R30.”‘

According to Sisonke Msimang, chair-person of the Sonke Gender Justice Network, ‘Mogoeng [does] not have a clear grasp of the gravity of the crime of rape.’

I personally find it simply disgusting.

The document is definitely worth reading and can be downloaded from my public Dropbox folder as I cannot yet find it on CRC’s website (I hope the CRC doesn’t mind me doing this):

News Brief on Children’s Rights & the Appointment of a Chief Justice

Almost the end…

Life’s been crazy busy lately! As always I guess when it comes to me. But that’s how I like it

In 4 weeks’ time I will be back in Edinburgh!! I am sad to leave Cotlands – it’s gonna be weird to wake up in the mornings and not go to the office – but at the same time I am also excited to return home to my cities and to my friends and family

I have so far conducted 61 interviews for my research and I’ve got another 4-5 planned, at least. That means I’ve reached my target (60 interviews) so I’m happy There’s also my ‘other’ study, using the RRPQ. AND I’ve got some ideas for my analysis so I’m getting more excited and less stressed about writing up my thesis. The other week I was so excited about an idea that I got that I could barely sleep. That seldom happens. I usually can’t sleep cause I’m so stressed out about negative things. So it was a nice change

On Saturday I am driving down to Durban (thank you Ms Oz for the car!!!) to say goodbye to our friends and then I will be visiting the 1000 Hills Community Helpers on my way to GGA. I will stay at GGA for a couple of nights to say goodbye to my children and thereafter I will be visiting one final project, Zimele, in Pietermaritsburg before heading back to Cotlands. Once back I will have another two weeks and then… then… Ms Oz and I are heading to Mozambique for a long weekend Woop woop woop!!

On Mon 26th Sep we will return to Lanseria Airport and within a few hours go to OR Tambo International Airport for me to fly back to Scotland.

Finally, I had some Emirates airmiles expiring end of September so I decided to use them rather than lose them. So I upgraded my flight between Dubai and Glasgow so now I’m flying Business class – for the first time ever. For 25,000 miles, it better bloody be worth it! (You hear me Emirates?!?!)