Considerations and recollections

Last Friday morning found me standing in the back of a garbage truck offloading Northeastern Reporters from library carts and out of dumpsters. At the Ruth Lilly Law Library we are "right sizing" our print collection; that is, among other things, reducing to and retaining one copy of this resource. It is hard to believe that at one time the law library owned as many as ten working copies of this reporter. As I worked with colleagues throwing bound volumes into the truck I experienced déjà vu of my work at the Legal Resources Centre. Dumpsters (or dustbins) seem to figure a lot in my career these days.
The memory reminded me that I needed to make a decision about this blog. I admit I have been deliberately avoiding making a decision. All transitions require time to process and I didn't want to make a decision too quickly.

There are many days that I feel I am still in transition. I've been back from South Africa for just a little over two months.The days have included a whirlwind of interesting and challenging work activities: the AALL Leadership Academy; writing an accepted book chapter and preparing a poster session on digital credentialing for AALL San Antonio with my colleagues; co-authoring a paper for the Boulder Conference; locating a publication outlet for a co-authored article on adjunct teaching (currently appears that the NYSBA is going to publish the piece--yippee--); writing a guest blog post for the RIPS Law Librarian blog; presenting at the Indiana University Librarians' Day; preparing and submitting grant applications and proposals for upcoming conferences; teaching legal research to 110 students in the summer session; orchestrating changes to the AALL Spectrum Blog; moving the last two issues of this year's AALL Spectrum to completion; coordinating a library team retreat; and generally getting caught up with my staff and the library's activities. On top of all that I decided to begin the legal informatics certificate and pitch my resume into pools for a select few library director openings. In short, I've spent the last two months shifting back into tenure-track academic law librarianship.

I am asked almost daily, "Do you miss South Africa?" It is a hard question to answer. I still respond to queries and provide assistance to the LRC as best I can from Indianapolis. The work was meaningful and valid. The country is beautiful. The people I met, dedicated and working hard for meaningful change. So yes, it is a place and a people I miss.

Since I've been back I've sought to find the same here. Beauty is easy to find. I arrived back in Indiana at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. In our yard, the spring flowers were arriving. Daffodils, and the spring wildflowers (Purple Trilliums, Violets, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Bloodroot, and Dutchman's Breeches) were beating back the polar vortex.

Spring  wild flowers, Indiana 2014

Spring wild flowers, Indiana 2014

Purple Trillium, Indiana 2014

Soon to follow the Bleeding Hearts, Forget-Me-Nots, lilacs, and now the peonies have made the long cold winter a distant memory.

Work has presented a tangent that is interesting and meaningful. I've been asked to work with the U.S. Military Commission Observation Project of the IU McKinney Program on International Human Rights. I hope to report back to George Bizos that I took his lunch table lectures to heart and helped in some very very small way on the resolution of the Guantanamo Bay prison. This project along with another article in progress should keep me occupied for a bit.

And like South Africa, we have our own wildlife. Max and Ellie Mae are determined hunters, bent on ridding our yard of anything small and furry. 

Ellie Mae on spotting duty, Spring 2014

Max on the trail, Spring 2014

So much for that grooming session.

Right-angles present themselves each day; and two-resume families are often faced with hard choices. Our most recent right-angle required the usual "5:00 am depression of the clutch of a moving truck on a Saturday morning" and the hauling of material goods up to a fourth floor walk-up in Evanston (Why is it always 5:00 am? If I knew I could change the paradigm!). For now we are splitting our furnishings and time between Chicago and Indianapolis as we involve ourselves in yet another of life's adventures to which we could not say "no."

Since life and work remain interesting I am hopeful for blog content; or perhaps I'm just delaying the end of an interesting project. Until then I hope you will keep reading. In the interim, may I recommend Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s advice in his work A Man without a Country,“Please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.’”

The park opens at 4:30 am!

During my time here in South Africa I have become quite the "hanger-on." I rarely turn down an invitation, even if the invitation starts out with "I'll pick up you up at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday!" Saying yes in this case meant a weekend trip to the beautiful Mpumalanga Province in northeastern South Africa.The drive was five hours each way; with the rest of the time spent driving around in Kruger National Park.   

With only a brief coffee and re-fueling break on Saturday morning, we reached the north gate of the park around 11:00 and spent the entire day driving nearly deserted dirt roads. As usual, my photographs don't begin to due justice to the scenic beauty and the majesty of the animals.

We were a bit late to the waterhole! 

Kruger National Park is pretty rugged and wild.

The landscape was diverse and more untamed than the other reserves I have visited. We started on the grasslands, drove along the river, and roamed these rocky hills. There was a lot of rain, so I was very happy in be a large Land Rover. I was a bit worried when I saw a few small economy sized rental cars negotiating the flooded dirt roads.

 His mate and their baby were a bit too busy too come out for the photo shoot.

We were lucky enough to see a 1/2 dozen rhinos during the weekend.

The highlight was a "high noon" stand-off between a pack of wild dogs and a herd of zebras. Sightings of wild dogs are pretty rare, as there are only 120 wild dogs left in the park. The female in the foreground is wearing a tracking collar. 

We watched the ongoing negotiations and posturing for an hour. Eventually the zebras decided not to cross at this point.

As we rounded a curve in the road, we spotted a small group of elephants. The small group got larger and we decided it was in our best interests to reverse back out of their way. They decided we could have the road back after about 2 kilometers. 

We spent Saturday night in the park in a rondavel, think very cute round cabin with a reed roof.

Photo credit: Kruger National Park 

The kitchen was on the outside of the building; in locked cages to prevent the monkeys and badgers from carrying off our supplies and the kitchenware. 

When finishing dinner (which we cooked) my companion mentioned that the park opened at 4:30 a.m. Since we were three minutes from the gate, I negotiated getting up at 5:00 and leaving our room by 5:30. As a result I had to live down that our view of two rhinos was blocked by another car before the sun was even fully up.

The scenery on the drive back to Johannesburg was equally gorgeous.

Of the 38 hours that I was away from my Johannesburg apartment, I spent 26 hours in the car. Yet one more reason to be glad that it was a Land Rover!

Valentine's Day SA Style

Unlike Halloween which has only made small in-roads into South African culture, Valentine's Day is a full-blown affair in South Africa. Displays of chocolate abound in Woolworths, Pic 'n Pay, and other shops. Hallmark cards line the shelves of CNA, Dis-Chem, and the stationery shops. Newspaper ads tout flowers, hotel specials, lingerie, expensive romantic dinners, and all the rest of the Hallmark frenzy. 

From the Lilly Library Online Collection

I am the first to admit that I am a curmudgeon when it comes to Hallmark holidays. I hate the pressure - everything from actually remembering the day to finding the right gift! Despite this, I have a soft spot for Valentine's Day. Not the roses and over-the-top motions kind of Valentine's Day, but for the old fashioned, long, forgotten kind of Valentine's Day. I love the valentine cards of old; small gifts wrapped in lace and ribbon; and bouquets of wildflowers or herbs. The Lilly Library has a small digital collection of 19th century valentines; you can even send an e-valentine from the collection if the weather in your part of the world prevented you from making it to the stationery store. 

Given my soft spot, I have been paying attention to the Valentine's Day culture here. Among the usual celebratory magazine and newspaper articles, I ran across a number of disturbing articles. For example, The Sowetan ran an article on how to keep the multiple women in your life happy on Valentine's Day. The article detailed the status, ranking, and expectations of women who "share a man." In the article women are referred to as a 'side-dish" and the "chick on the side." 

Despite the headline, the article did not indict nor find appalling the man's behavior. Rather the lead-in of the article provided advice to President Zuma on how to plan his day to appease each of his four wives. It is particularly distressing to read this kind of article in a mainstream newspaper. The Sowetan is not a tabloid like The Star (SA's equivalent of The National Enquirer). South Africa's record with respect to gender based violence is horrific. It is difficult to imagine changing minds when mainstream newspapers publish this rubbish.

Thankfully outside the mainstream press, feminism is persevering in South Africa. One example is FeministsSA, a blog that has a number of young feminist writers. One of my favorite writers is Claire Martens, who is also a colleague at the Legal Resources Centre. 

Knowing what these women writers face simply by declaring themselves to be "feminists" makes me feel very privileged. Yes, I kicked a few barriers along the way and re-educated a few folks but never at great risk to my physical being. 

In the end, my greatest contribution to helping to right things is the raising of our feminist daughter. I still remember proudly when she came downstairs after spending a little bit of time reading Twilight. She marched into the kitchen and said, "Momma, this girl is changing herself for a boy. That's not right!" She then explained she would continue reading the book simply to be culturally aware of what her classmates were talking about and went back upstairs. Some mothers fist pump the air and yell "yes" when their children bring home good grades or score in an athletic event. Me, on the other hand, did so when our daughter, at age 12, declared her feminist orientation to the world.

Warning: Gratuitous Wildlife Photographs!

Equipped with a map, compass, full tank of gas, camera, and an overnight bag, I headed off last Friday for a weekend adventure. As usual, my three-hour drive to a bush lodge morphed into a driving adventure resembling a Gilligan's Island cruise.

I left work a bit early on Friday, with the plan of arriving at the Bakubung Bush Lodge in late afternoon. The lodge is located in the Pilanesberg National Park and Game Reserve; about three hours from Johannesburg. 

My LRC colleagues offered a variety of opinions with respect to the best driving course to take. Eventually, the N1>M1>N4>R565 course was discarded because it would take me too far east and I would have to backtrack. Despite my stated observations that I prefer the national roads because there is clear and obvious signage as a result of the 2010 World Cup, I was sent along a more picturesque series of windy back roads that was "supposed" to allow me to pick up the N4>R565 route at mid-point without the added eastern miles.

Interestingly, that never happened! Four hours later I crossed through the park gates and arrived at the lodge. My journey had crossed over the N4 a couple of times and passed through a variety of one-lane road construction sites through which most South African drivers did not reduce speed; a number of areas posted with warnings of "Stay alert! Hijacking Area;" and a few shanty towns. At one point I may have even participated in a parade of some sorts, not real sure because at that point I was paying more attention to dodging a variety of goats, cows, and donkeys that were on the road. Yes, it was a paved road with posted speeds of 80 km. It appears the ditches make good grazing areas.

It was all worth it. As I walked to my room, a small band of gray faced monkeys strolled along. The lodge complex is built around a waterhole. This is the late afternoon view from the veranda.

I spent the rest of the evening watching the animals come to the waterhole, observing the stars, and listening to the quiet of the night.  The nights in the bush are the reason that Hemingway wrote:

"All I wanted to do now was get back to Africa. We had not left it yet, but when I would wake in the night, I would lie, listening, homesick for it already."

Knowing I had an early morning call finally budged me from my seat on the veranda. I want one of these in our next house.

On Saturday, I spent 6 hours seeing wildlife and the magnificent landscape. The African landscape never fails to amaze me.

The Pilanesburg park has "blinds" where you can sit and watch the animals. Most of the roads are dirt tracks that wander through the park. That is my plan for my next visit; this time I did two guided drives. These are some of the highlights of my day.

The first drive left the lodge at 5:30 am.  Five minutes later we crossed out of the lodge's enclosure and into the park. The sun is already up and "hot" at that hour of the day.

The giraffe pictures are for my mother as they are her favorite. 

 Not to be outdone, the elephants put on a little parade.

My not so good photographs of a pair of lions. I get caught up in watching instead of photographing. It is fairly obvious that I am not National Geographic employee material.

The pair were lounging in the shade until she decided to move off.

He followed right after her--it is spring here and love is in the air after all.

Even the turtles put on an x-rated show!

The baby zebras have already arrived.

Even more wildlife photos.

Similar to the prairie back home the park experiences natural burns.

Baby hippo by the water pool. Her parents were submerged in the pool.

 

Late afternoon landscape.

Approaching sunset.



As with any adventure, the end always comes to soon. Armed with my map I headed out on Sunday morning determined to take the well-marked, well-traveled national roads.  Fifteen minutes in I transitioned to the under-repair R565 (e.g., there were no lanes painted on the pavement.) I was immediately waived over by a man wearing a neon green vest. As an aside, if you want a business opportunity, go into producing neon green security vests for South Africa. Some days it seems every person on the street is wearing one.

After a brief discussion (read: lecture) regarding where to drive when there are no lanes marked, review of my passport, and suggestion that with my blessings (read: monetary donation) he would one day visit the US, I was sent on my way. I didn't pay anything, I just smiled a lot all the while pretending to be ignorant of the local donation policy. Another black mark against Americans.

Sadly, the rest of my adventure was uneventful. Even with my brief police interaction and the extra eastern miles, I made the trip in 3 hours.  I hope to make it back before I leave!

Beauty & The Barb



Looking toward the hills of Melville

Now that the rains have come, Johannesburg is lush and green. The almost daily thunderstorms in the last two weeks have greened up the landscape in an amazing manner. I can not count the number of garden stores and plant nurseries that I have seen on my rambles. A quick pop into any one of them is a heady experience of the known and the exotic.




Jacaranda Canopy

The Jacaranda trees are incredibly lovely. Many of streets I wander down, either intentionally or due to my unbelievably lousy sense of direction, are lined with these wonderful old ladies. In the last few days, the late afternoon and evening thunderstorms have turned my street into an wedding aisle strewn with purple petals awaiting a bride. It is the privilege of the early-to-work to drive through petal-laden streets.

The Jacaranda trees are not native to South Africa. I learned on my nature reserve visit that the trees were brought from South America in the late 1800s and are considered an invasive species. Although they dominant the landscape in Jo'berg and Pretoria, there are now many restrictions about planting and maintaining them. 

As in the Brothers Grimm fairytale, Sleeping Beauty, much beauty lies behind towering walls and barb wire in Jo'berg. The term "gated" takes on a whole new meaning here. Each house is gated; and the many varieties of barb wire and razor wire is impressive. Equally impressive is the structuring of the electrified fencing that often rises above the walls and gates.

Even in my suburb, Linden, the variety of electronic gates is amazing. Linden was developed shortly after World War II. The gating and fencing came in the mid-1970s. It would be interesting to see photos of the gardens and front yards from the pre-gating days. 

My first evening here in Linden I looked down my street and thought "great, there is a small newspaper/candy hut at the end of the street." I would soon learn that it was a guard house.

I live on Second Street. The street runs a short span from 1st Avenue to 5th Avenue-a distance of about 3 kilometers; most of it is straight uphill. The guard house is at the corner of Second Street and 4th Avenue. There is also a guard on the other end, at the corner of 1st Avenue and Second Street. The service is paid for by the homeowners on the street. 

As an American I find the security, gates, fencing, and wire all a bit claustrophobic. Yet I am constantly confronted with the necessity of it all. A co-worker explained she no longer locks her car as there is nothing left to steal out of it. She leaves it unlocked so the windows won't be shattered during a break-in attempt. Every evening she removes the battery and brings it inside her townhouse to avoid having it stolen. Even the nature preserve where I've gone hiking has a 24 hour guard hut to prevent vandalism of the exhibits and property that are behind a high fence.

The debate with respect to gated communities rages here in South Africa. Residents in the most "protected" communities are still victims of crime. Oscar Pistorius is reported to have kept a cricket bat and a gun in his bedroom for protection despite living in one of the most elite gated communities.  No one seems to know if these steel and concrete guardians really keep residents and their possessions safe or if they simply perpetuate a mentality of fear.