Welcome Party

Fresh off the plane, jet-lagged to high heaven, just a few days in and I am thrilled to learn that the lovely Kingdom of Swaziland has thrown me a welcome party... Well not quite, it is more that I happened to arrive in Swaziland on the weekend of the 'Bush-fire Festival,'a three day international music festival held in Ezulwini Valley (about 30 minutes from my house in Manzini). People come from all over Southern Africa for the festival. I saw a fantastic SA band, Freshly Ground, perform and I am surprised to learn that there is a 'Çlowns Without Borders'- for anyone with thoughts of joining 'doctors without borders,' or 'engineers without borders,' be aware that you have other options!

It was nice to relax with good company in a semi-familiar setting (bush-fire is not too different from the Ottawa bluesfest)before starting work on Monday. I already had the chance to meet my co-workers at my Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA) on Friday. (Though I am not sure that I made the best first impression wearing my 2 day old plane clothes because my luggage did not make it to Swaziland with me on Thursday night.) It will be good to get into the business of work and get back to you with my impressions of the local scene. For now I've still got some sleep to catch up on.

New Beginnings

`I believe this sincerely. We are here, you, me, and everyone we know, because there is something inherently valuable to our presence. It is the concrete manifestation of a quality in all of us, one that when exercised feels entirely correct.`

- James Maskalyk

Six Months in Sudan.

A young doctor in a war-torn village

This may come as a surprise to a whole heap of you- I am not very good with keeping in touch. Well, that is what I have been told. So the aim of this blog is to keep all you folk posted with what I am up to, and where on earth I am. In two weeks I will be heading off to the Kingdom of Swaziland to work as a court watch researcher, with a local NGO, Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse. For the next 6 months, the city of Manzini will be my home.

Swaziland (not Switzerland my friends) is a landlocked country in Southern Africa- by South Africa on three sides, and Mozambique on the last side. For my British mates, I am told that it is the size of Wales. For everyone else, I will be living just two hours away from the Aussie v. Serbia match in the group stage of the world cup.

Though, the world cup is not my reason for living in that part of the world. Swaziland unfortunately has the greatest prevalence of HIV in the world, and the legal track record for the protection of women’s rights is not great either. But, I am certain my experiences over there be positive and, it has to be said, life changing. I look forward to the time when I refer to legal knowledge gained out in Swaziland, whilst working as a lawyer in Canada. This is what I have chosen to do with my law degrees and I look forward to keeping you in the loop.