High Court

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. I found out that my family dog, Holly passed away on the 23rd of May. She had a tumor in her heart, so we knew it was coming but I don't think it has really sunk in for me yet. I hope Gordon will keep my parents company and cheer them up a bit.

Sunday night as I was setting my new radio alarm clock, I noticed the display flickering. I was checking to make sure the plug was not coming out of the outlet when *PANG* the lights went out in our apartment. We looked for a breaker box and couldn't find one. So we called our friend Lorato to see if she knew what to do and woke her up. She called Dr. Oagile, the program coordinator who called the security people and came over to keep us company. Security came with the president of the Graduate Student Association and opened the locked closet to reveal the breaker box. They flipped the switch. Nothing. So they were going to have to find someone else to try and fix it. We decided to go to bed and sometime in the middle of the night our power magically came back on.

On Monday we had our orientation which consisted of a TON of information from all sorts of offices here on campus. We had lunch at the cafeteria and then went on a bus tour of Gaborone. We also went out to the village of Tlokweng and visited the customary court there. We met with one of the tribal leaders who acts as an arbitrator and judge for the village. He showed us where they administer corporal punishment (caning) and we saw the cattle who had broken into a woman's field and destroyed her harvest. She "arrested" the cattle and they were being held until the owner came to claim them and pay damages for the lost crops. Free range is a way of life here and you will often see herds of cows, goats, or chickens wandering the city.

We visited the monument to the "fathers of Botswana" the men who asked the British government to form a protectorate when a corporation was buying up southern Africa. We ended the night with a traditional dinner, dancing, and song in a village just outside of Gaborone. It was quite the event.

The next morning at 9 am we were picked up in a government car and driven to the High Court in Lobatse. We met with Justice Unity Dow and she gave us a tour and introduced us to most of the people working in the building. At noon we got to sit in on a hearing and after that she took us to her house for lunch. We met her daughters Cheshe and Natasha and had a great conversation. We went back to the court and were driven home by the same government car.

The next morning Marilu (Judge Dow's other clerk) and I were given our first assignment. I was asked to write a draft judgment about a case involving a Union dispute. I spent the rest of the week working on the project and was loaned a laptop "Property of the Government of Botswana" to assist me in my work. Friday I worked from home and got some of my laundry done. That evening we went to the Bull and Bush with Hong and Jessie (the Penn students I met on the plane) and had some great steaks and got some souvenirs from the artisans selling their work out front. At 9 pm the restaurant turns into a disco and Jessie and I headed home. I'm an old lady, I guess. I hear it got pretty crazy.

Saturday I got up and went to the Main Mall with Nina (the Penn student doing the archaeology internship) to get tickets for that afternoon's soccer match between Botswana and Madagascar. I got myself some official Zebra wear to sport at the game. The game was quite the experience, though it ended 0-0. It seems the Madagascar team had been assembled just 8 days before the match so the fans were upset that the game ended in a tie. I hear the coach has been fired.

After the game we came home and changed and headed out to dinner and the Sex and the City movie. After the movie we decided to head to the famed Fashion Lounge. We were having a hard time getting a cab, so I called Maxy, a cab driver who had driven us home before and he came and picked us up. During the ride we discovered that neither of us has children, which I guess means we are meant to be together (?!). Later that evening I got a text message telling me that he was "missing me tightly." I have thus far been unable to figure out what that means... Anyway, I had fun dancing and ran into Riley's friend Ronald who I met at Mountain Lodge at the braai (barbeque).

Sunday we were all pretty tired. Most of the girls went to Riverwalk (a nearby mall) and I stayed home and waited for my friend Dave to arrive (he is the other Penn Law student working in Bots this summer). When Dave got here we went to the mall and got him some food to tide him over and had some really good Indian food. When we got home most of the girls went to listen to jazz, and Marilu and I stayed home to work on our assignments.

Monday morning was pretty funny. We thought the Court had arranged for a bigger car to pick us up because there are now 5 of us and we won't fit into the standard white Volvo along with the driver. This did not happen, however, so one of us had to be left behind. I volunteered and ended up getting to work at 11:10. I met with Justice Dow about the case I was working on and spent the afternoon working in our new office. I think I like our office better than the library where I was working last week. Monday is half-price rib night at the Bull and Bush, so we all went for spare ribs.

Today I did laundry and finished up my assignment. Working from home has its perks. Tomorrow I will go in and get my next assignment! Now that I have internet access in my very own room, I will do my best to update my blog more regularly. If any of these stories is unclear or assumes knowledge of past events that I have not related, please let me know and I will do my best to fill in the blanks.