The Office

me at work

Lill at work too!

This is Lill and I at work. We are doing externships at the Human Rights Commission, an amazing government office where any citizen can report a human rights violation and the Commission does what it can to fix it. They can also be proactive and address issues that they see and hear about on their own. Since we are living in the poorest province in South Africa there is a lot of work to be done. 

The eight people in the office are pretty fantastic.  Mr. P.S. Moreroa (we call him Sully) is the manager. He's hilarious and very passionate about his work. I have started keeping a list of "Sullyisms". My two favourites are "I am not in this job to make money, I am in this job to see that justice is done" (this is when I knew I loved him) and, when we made fun of him for not having explored the town that he has lived in for six months, "I am like a wheelbarrow, you push me and leave me and when you come back, you will find me there." I'll probably be adding more "isms" to the list, he's always saying something that cracks us up.

Aubrey and Loyiso are the men in charge of the two sections in the office. Aubrey is the educational outreach expert and is definitely the one whose job I identify with most. He's all about legal literacy, going out into the communities and teaching them about their rights and responsibilities under the law.  Loyiso is the attorney in the office and the one responsible for most of the individual cases that we get. 

There's also Mzukisi, he's 24 and a legal intern. He's completely hilarious and a typical guy in his 20s, so he's a lot of fun to have around.  Thembi is the other intern, she's 26 and the four of us have already become friends. 

Yolo is Sully's secretary and she's incredibly sweet and has a six-year-old son who we're hoping to invite to swim in our pool when it gets warmer. Noma is the receptionist, when she's at the desk. She's really nice and spends a lot of her time walking around the office in pink fuzzy slippers and drinking tea. The last person in the office is Ntosh, the housekeeper. She wears hats and big sweaters and is on a diet because her boyfriend thinks she's fat (she's not).

So that's everyone. It's a small office and we had to bring our own laptops because not everyone has computers. Actually, for a government office it's pretty sparse. They clearly have the tiniest budget ever. This is not the case for the other offices, some of the people from Michigan are working at the Cape Town and Durban HRCs and they have very well-equipped offices. So it's just the tiny ones I guess. Lill and I were upset at first for getting stuck in such a dumpy town but the people are so great that I'm really starting to like it here.

On my second day of work we were already invited out on a site visit. After a four hour drive (we passed Nelson Mandela's house on the way!) with Mzukisi, Sully, and Loyiso we landed in Mthatha, at a school that is one of the embarrassments of a nation as wealthy and developed as South Africa. The fact is that despite the advanced state of its cities, many South Africans are still living in huts and shacks in townships and rural villages all over the country. This is especially true in the Eastern Cape. Our mission on this particular visit was to bring media attention to a school with no building. 

Due to a few tornadoes and a lighting strike, the round huts that made up the school were all destroyed and the children are now being taught outside. I will admit that I reacted rather callously at first. Having just left Cambodia, where many students learn outside, I had a sort of "what's the big deal?" attitude.  However, there are a million reasons why I was wrong, starting with the fact that no students should have to learn outside.  Also, Cambodia is a very, very poor country and having no school building is the norm in the provinces there. South Africa is not at all poor and there is absolutely no excuse for the children to be learning and eating outside. The weather gets cold in winter and they have had three teachers die in the last few years from exposure to the elements. Needless to say, attendance has also fallen to less than half.

outdoor classroom

We were lucky to meet the extraordinary woman who has been the principal of this school for over ten years (they've been outside for about 5) and Sully gave an interview to SABC which showed on the news that night. The Department of Education had promised tents and plans to build a new structure but they were not forthcoming, which is why the HRC brought in the media. The DoE still hasn't provided the tents they promised (and the weather has been cold) but after the news segment a private company called and said they would build temporary structures until the DoE builds a school! I really like the fact that this office is a government commission because they can get things done that private non-profits never could. People are actually afraid of them.

So anyways, this is a really interesting place to work, even if there isn't always a lot for us to do. They are dealing with a lot of interesting issues, like the Xhosa tribal custom of Ukuthwala, kidnapping and forced marriage, that is a big problem in this area, a coal mine that is killing the people in the town where the mine is (people who they're not hiring to work at the mine either), lack of water, shelter, and education in a lot of the rural areas, and the many, many problems that a large population of unemployed and uneducated citizens can have. I'm sure I'll have lots more stories soon.

Travel well,
kat


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