My first week at the office...

It’s been a really great week at work. My caseload has increased so I finally feel like I’m not just pretending I have work to do. I now have six cases, take part in two social justice programs and am conducting research on the side for Theo into ‘Ukuthwala’ (the abduction of young girls to endorse marriage negotiations).

On Thursday I had my first client consultation. Let’s just call the client ‘Albert’. Albert came to the office seeking to try to remedy a mistake made by the Department of Home Affairs regarding the stated place of birth on his ID booklet. His is a Congolese man from the Republic of Congo, but the ID booklet says that he was born in the ‘Democratic Republic of Congo’-an entirely separate country just next door. The DHA, however, do not recognise that there are two Congos and thus the problem begins. This will be my first case from the very beginning, so I’ll keep you guys updated.

I also have cases involving the bringing of a divorce, application for refugee status and the division of property upon being granted a divorce. It’s all pretty interesting actually-and the good thing is, anything you don’t understand you can just research in your own time at the office. One of the other girls on the project has a similar situation to that of my ‘eviction’ case, so we’re going to spend the rest of today prepping before meeting up with our clients and advising them at the Lavender Hill law office tomorrow…I’ll also let you know how that goes.

As far as the ‘social justice’ side of things go (projects out in the community), the mock trial group is also ticking along well. The project invites young children (ages 12-14 or thereabouts) to engage in an after-school club with us every Tuesday and Thursday at the YMCA for an hour or so. During the workshop, we teach them about court procedure and use scenarios to introduce such elements as witnesses, evidence, and case law precedent. The aim is then, once we have practised enough, to get the children together in the Magistrate’s Court to act out a mock trial and even have their parents come to watch.

The project is extremely rewarding-there are only seven or eight children and about eight or nine of us interns so there is every opportunity for one-on-one work in a kind of ‘mentor’ capacity throughout the trial simulation. Ahsan is the creative one amongst us volunteers-he has written the scenarios on more than one occasion, and they include such characters as Mrs Stern [the strict teacher accused of exhibiting corporal punishment on a student] and Shaggy and Sean Paul [two Rastafarian men accused of consuming drugs for non-religious purposes]. The kids find it easier to work through and less pressure on them if we add a little light-heartedness to the mix.

Last week was my first week at Bonnytoun (youth offending prison for boys) and I was lucky that it happened to be the week that a huge soccer tournament was set up and mini-games so that we could coach the boys and encourage them in their sport. Usually, the volunteers that go to Bonnytoun engage the boys in workshops where they can talk about issues such as race, gender, attitudes towards crime, future aspirations, etc. but the boys had specifically asked to take a break from this in order to do some bonding with the volunteers in a different way.

Marco, an Italian volunteer, was very popular with the boys-a sort of big brother figure whom they were quick to perform their exclusive handshake with and welcome back to the group. It was really great to see what a welcome they put on for us all. About 30-40, 15-18 year-old young men all in one big field enclosure gathering around and asking for our names. Some hugged us and others didn’t come too close but smiled and were happy to have some sort of attention.

One of the boys introduced himself as ‘Jessi’ and was pleased to find out my own name. “Jessi and Josie” he said, “we go together well-my English girlfriend!” You can tell they mean you no harm by their joking and jessi proceeded to advise me of how to protect myself if I were to be approached by someone who wanted to take my belongings. Of course, Jessi only knew this because that was what he was in for-the mugging of a young girl right here in Cape Town. And yeah, it can be a little un-nerving at first, knowing that some of these boys have been accused of extremely grave crimes-some even rape and murder-but you have to think, if the workshops are successful for only one boy out of the 40, then it’s worth our time to talk openly with them about alternatives to crime.

I didn’t have time to visit the Bonnytoun boys this week, what with the bigger case load and mock trial on the same day, so I left a message with my roommate to say hi to Jessi for me and apologise that I couldn’t make it. Jessie sent me a message through Charlotte to say that his trial was due to be on the next Monday, which is quite sad really, when you think the chances are more than likely that he will be charged and when he is he will either be moved to the other side of the prison [away from where we work] or, as he is approaching 18, he is morel likely to be sent to ‘Polesmore’-a prison so rife in male to male rape that it soon becomes a way of life for the new kid on the block.

I heard that the Bonnytoun visit was quite eventful this week. During the workshop, a pen was taken and not returned-which is against prison regulations and contrary to the agreement that we have with the prison as well. Apparently, it is the ink that is highly regarded by the inmates, since this is how they draw their own tattoos (which they are very proud of and won’t hesitate to show you). Jessie explained to me last week that there are gang tattoos which one can earn depending on the crimes you have committed: ‘26’ represents ‘money’, ‘27’ ‘a knife,’ and ‘28’ is for ‘gang-members’.

Volunteers present that day told me that once the pen was stolen, Lyndon, our project co-ordinator, waited 20 minutes for its return before telling the group that they were leaving because it showed a total lack of respect. During our IRM meeting on Friday, Theo (overall project co-ordinator and the man at the top) made an interesting point-that next week’s visit would be fundamental in laying down the relationship between the office and the boys at Bonnytoun. If we want them to see us as equals, then they must also treat us with as much respect. I will not be able to visit Bonnytoun this week either, as I will be in Lavender Hill for the law office hours, but I hope to hear how the meeting went.

This week there was also an open seminar up at the University of Cape Town, which looked into HIV incidence in more recent years. The seminar was a little more complex and mathematical than I could understand-but there were a few interesting facts that I was able to pick up. The presentation focused mostly upon two studies: the ASSA 2003 study (by the Actuarial Society of South Africa) and the STI/HIV study. The spokesperson was actually from the university’s ‘Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research’ (CIDER), which looks at past trends and uses them to mathematically evaluate the likelihood of events in the future.

It was interesting to find out that between 2001-2009 there has been an overall global reduction in HIV incidence, which includes a decline both Africa and Asia, but that there has been a 25% increase in incidence in North Eastern Europe [according to the study]. The presentation went into some detail as to how much of this decline has been due to an increase in condom usage, and how much is attributable to expanding access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and access to testing. According to both studies that were compared, condom usage has increased from virtually 0 to 300-400 million sales-and although ART is thought to have a modest impact more recently it is thought that it will have a more significant impact later on.

I did, however, get caught in a bad rain storm that day up at UCT, so I ended up spending most of the weekend in bed with a bad cold…giving me more time to write this mammoth blog. I am glad I got to sit in on a seminar at the university though-it was nice to feel like a student once again and the campus is very beautiful, with ivy crawling up the red brick of the buildings that slope into the bottom of Table Mountain. Pretty neat.