Photo 1: View from ODAC office
Photo 2: Movie theater across the street from us
Photo 3: Greenmarket Square
Yesterday we had kind of a lazy and relaxing day. When I woke up, it was pretty clear from all the fog that we weren’t going to go to Robbin’s island or take a cable car up Table Mountain. So I went out to buy some things I needed, then took a walk all the way up Long Street to explore. Everything was closed for the most part, but I saw SO many cool stores, restaurants and bars that I want to check out. I saw a ton of really cute clothes in shop windows, and there were a bunch of cool vintage shops. I wandered a street over to check out Greenmarket square, where all kinds of vendors had stands set up and were selling pottery, jewelry, clothes and other various wares. I kind of hate shopping in those situations because I like to browse in peace, and whenever you go up to anyone’s stand to check out their stuff they immediately start trying to persuade you to buy something/everything, and I always feel guilty and like I need to make up some excuse when I move on without getting anything. As I was walking away from Greenmarket square, this guy tried to come up to me and hound me for money (not unusual around here), but this female cop (there are SO many cops around here, probably because of the impending World Cup festivities) saw him and just screamed HEY, what do you think your doing? at him, with this incredulous look on her face. The guy took one look at her with an “OH SHIT” expression and literally booked it. I decided I want this woman to follow me around forever and protect me. She was pretty terrifying and I was glad she was on my team.
Observations:
- There are all these signs around here that say “Americans – say “Howdy!” in an effort to encourage South Africans to be friendly to American tourists in town for the World Cup. Apparently no one has informed them that only about .000437% of Americans would actually use the word “howdy” un-ironically. I didn’t really expect anyone to actually follow this suggestion, but then last night I walked into our hotel and the guy at the front desk somewhat tentatively said “howdy” to me like he was trying it out. I just said howdy back and went upstairs.
- I have found that Afrikaans and Xhosa are two of the coolest languages I’ve ever heard. I also have observed that when South Africans speak English, they do it with an accent that sounds to me like a mixture of a British and an Indian accent (British accent for the most part but Indian-English intonation and pronunciation of Rs).
- The movie theater across the street from us is called “Labia” (see photo) and I laugh at it every single time I walk by (I never claimed to be mature).
On my way back to our hotel I stopped into a sushi place and got a bunch of delicious sushi for 14 Rand (less than 2 dollars). I found this amazing and was extremely pleased. I found Jim, David, and Hirsh back at Saasveld and we all hung around for a bit. Then I went and worked out at the women’s gym across the street for the first time. The gym is pretty busy and they show trashy E! shows on a TV facing the machines. Later on David, Jim and I went to this place up the street from us called Arnold’s (which had a rather nondescript sign on it that said “Restaurant, Breakfast Lunch and Dinner”) and ate lasagna. There were two Europeans making out at the table next to us, and we were kind of like, really? It’s Sunday night at 6:00.
Today was my first day of work at the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC)! We had breakfast at the hotel this morning, and then Jim and I walked through Company’s Gardens to work. The walk is so pretty, and lots of interesting looking birds made appearances along the way. Our route actually takes us by a bunch of different middle schools, and it’s pretty hilarious to see the social dynamics among the South African kids (which is pretty much just like any group of US middle schoolers except they’re speaking Afrikaans and wear more complicated looking uniforms). The walk to our office, which is right by the houses of Parliament and in this sort of government square area with lots of statutes of British people (see photo- that’s the view from a window in the office), takes about 15-20 minutes, and is mostly a straight line through the Gardens. I'm going to wait until a sunny day to take pictures of the Gardens and the Parliament buildings.
We went up to the office and I introduced myself and was introduced to everyone during the 10:00 Monday staff meeting. Their work seems incredibly interesting; ODAC does a combination of whistleblower and access to information litigation, and research on the implementation of South African laws protecting whistleblowers and access to information rights. After the staff meeting I met with Mukalani, the Deputy Executive Director (Alison Tilley, the ED, was at a conference today), and he told me all about how he’s extended his duties to promoting similar freedom of information protections in other countries. One of his primary focuses right now is the DRC, and since all of that research involves translation from French, he asked me to take over that project. I was pretty happy about that—finally, my French skills can actually do me some good! Then I talked to Emma, the only other white person in the office besides Jim and me, who is from London and is very, very nice (and quite the talker!). She gave me some good advice on where to buy shoes around here, because right now the footwear I was able to pack into my carry-on luggage has proven to be woefully inadequate for the chilly, wet weather.
I was definitely glad Jim told me to bring my laptop, because not only do I not have a computer there but they informed me that my desk has not arrived yet and is coming tomorrow. Jim’s (LAN) internet connection wasn’t working, so he and I spent the day in Alison’s office at her table sharing an internet cable.
An interesting part of the day began when we started hearing all these sirens outside our window and noticed all these police officers running by. We had no idea what was going on but someone in our office told us it was something about a gunman in the building next door. We were slightly alarmed by this, but no one else in the office seemed too concerned and Jim later found an article on a South African news site that said a guy had apparently run out of a building carrying a gun, and subsequently two (?) men had been arrested. Crisis averted!
I spent today reading all of the company guidelines and all about what ODAC has done in the past. I was about to start reading this enormous binder of materials about victims of sexual abuse that Alison left for me (Mukalani was unclear on why I was supposed to be reading that) when 4:30 rolled around. By this time pretty much everyone in the office had already left for the day (sweet!) so Jim and I headed home. I finally got a local cell phone on the way home, so now I can actually get in touch with the boys/any other new friends when I need to.
I went to the gym after work, which was a surprisingly competitive experience. They have a policy that you can only be on a machine for 20 minutes, and since there are huge mirrors in front of the treadmills, when I was running I could see women behind me circling the machines like hyenas and literally watching the time on my treadmill so they could swoop in and steal it as soon as I was done. Kind of unsettling.
David, Hirsh, and Jim decided to go see this documentary about soccer at the Labia theater (hahhahaha) and I declined. Sports movies always stress me out; they start out with an athlete/team that has a lot of potential but faces an obstacle, then they start doing really well, then something really bad happens and the movie is extremely stressful for about an hour before everything is resolved and the athlete/team wins in the end and triumphant music plays. But because of the World Cup, they’re apparently playing soccer movies at Labia (hahahah) almost every day. I got some groceries and some food and hung out here. The boys just got back and now we’re watching weird youtube videos.
Hoping it’s not raining tomorrow, or at least that I can find a place to buy rainboots.
Cary
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