Homeless

Today was the first day we have had rain since we've been in South Africa. I love raining days, even if today was particularly cold. I actually had a really nice day. I went to Rosebank (the nearby mall) with Duduetsang, a friend I met at Wits rural, and one of her good friends I met yesterday. We went to see the new Transformers movie. I haven't seen the first one, but that turned out to be fine. After the movie we got food at this place called Chicken Licken and went back to my room to hang out. I later went out for coffee with some of the Americans and Ameet (who drove us, which was good because it was really cold today. And the place we went wasn't in walking distance). I didn't get any work done, but that's what Sunday is for right?

Actually every Sunday at Rosebank there's a flea market where a lot of local vendors come. I went last week and bought this really pretty handmade dress. It had to be altered a bit, so I'm picking it up tomorrow. I also got a watch there last week. My old watch's band broke right before I left, so the last month I've been feeling lost without some sort of timekeeping device. It's pretty nice, though it honestly took me about half an hour in total to pick a watch. I'm sure the person selling them to me wanted to punch me by the time I finally decided. But I did buy one, so that's something.

So what can I tell you about this week? I've gotten more structure to my internship. Two out of the three days I'm scheduled to work will actually be spent in my room researching. They don't have a computer for me at the office, so it just made more sense to save the taxi fare and have me stay on campus. Basically what I'm researching is the change in housing laws since the abolition of apartheid. During apartheid blacks could not own property. Instead there were different types of permits they could get, either to only own the house and not the land the house was on or to only rent the house etc. I've been asked to research how the laws have translated into the modern apartheid-free era. For example, if multiple families were renting a house, who inherits the property rights. That sort of thing.

The one day a week I do go to the office I'm sitting in on consultations. Last Thursday I sat in during the clinic hours they have for refugees. I asked the person working afterwards and apparently 95% of the cases involve appeals for renewing permits. The rule for staying in the country as a refugee is that you need to prove that you have a legitimate reason to fear persecution from your government if you stay in your country. The problem is many of the refugees don't speak English well, and thus may not completely understand what is needed in order to renew their permit. I don't think I'll have trouble conducting consultations. Mainly you just need to find out their specific problem, ask for papers that support what they are saying, take down their information (and the info of the next of kin if they don't speak English well) and then give them advice about the next steps to take (once you consult with someone who actually knows how to give advice, something I'm clearly not actually qualified for). I'm excited to be able to do it myself actually, though it will be a couple of weeks before they'll let me. Thursday I just sort of sat there and 'took notes' which were incredibly minimal. I'm pretty sure all of the refugees that I saw were from the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) which, according to the very credible wikipedia, has around 45,000 citizens dying per month. A lot of the people who came to us were involved in political organizations, which in turn put them in too much danger to stay in the country. Unfortunately there was one girl (only 20 years old) who fled because she was afraid her uncle would kill her, which isn't a sufficient excuse to be a refugee in South Africa. It was horrible to hear the attorney operating the clinic say there was nothing in the law that allowed us to help her stay in the country. I got the impression that she left her home and came to South Africa by herself, finding refuge at a church nearby. This is a girl my age who is worrying about life and death issues, not the state of her homework or what to cook for dinner or all manner of trivial things that I think about every day. I realize that millions of people far younger than I am are in states of living far worse than this girl, but to have her sitting across a table from me asking for help that we apparently couldn't give her made it that much more real. And what can you do, as someone working in the legal profession, in a situation like that where the law is very specific about it's qualifications and there's nothing you can do to help? If I skip out on the law track entirely, it will be because of things like that and the issues that would come up having to defend someone I knew was guilty. Luckily I can hold off on that decision for a couple of years or so. Or at least until the end of my time at this internship.

Every day driving to the Schreiner Chambers office (where probono.org is housed) involves being dropped off in front of one of the courts in Johannesburg (the office building is right across the street). Every day the sidewalk is filled with people standing around in lines, apparently often spending the night there, though a nearby church (I have been told) has been housing as many people as they can. My mentor told me the first day I came in that they were refugees from Zimbabwe. We have four students from Zimbabwe in the program and I've recently found out that most, if not all, of them are actually heavily involved in politics. One of them has mentioned that she has been a politician since the age of 15. Can you imagine that? Talk about actually doing something with your life. She's been heavily involved in politics for five years or so now. And being involved in politics in Zimbabwe is nothing like being involved in politics in the United States. There are repercussions to holding certain political views. I'm just here because I wanted to experience a different culture and the program seemed interesting, but this is the sort of thing they experience every day back home. It's actually their life. I can't even imagine it.