elections and other updates

A new president will be elected by the end of the day, a decision overwhelmingly expected to place Jacob Zuma of the ruling African National Congress into power. For foreign students, it means public holiday number three of five this month and a few more flyers and posters around campus than usual these past few weeks. For the country, it means that despite opposition from the recent ANC splinter group COPE (Congress of the People) as well as the older and vastly white DA (Democratic Alliance), the ANC, the party that liberated the country as so many say, will remain in power for another five years. Despite the many controverseys surrounding Zuma, the election is largely expected to be free and fair.

It's been a wonderfully quiet time since returning from our trip. Save for a few Rotary presentations, I've done almost nothing but work, and needed that. May and June are quickly approaching and with them, due dates for a lot of papers, presentations, and (nerve-wrackingly) my research proposal. For anyone interested, I've decided to look at the legal construction of child migrant vulnerability and why, though both children and certain types of migrants are considered vulnerable and therefore entitled to protection under international law, children who don't also fall into a category of vulnerable migrants (e.g. refugees, victims of trafficking) are perceived and treated as criminals rather than as deserving protection as children. Phew. How that will translate into a field study is not yet entirely clear, but I like this topic, and that's a start.

In running news, I've started training for a marathon. If you think I'm crazy, my knees will most certainly agree with you within a few weeks. A month or so ago, Chris and Mary asked me to join them in running the November 1 Soweto Marathon (I've written about Soweto earlier), part of a series of South African marathons. Many of you know that I ran my first half marathon last summer, and that I really had no desire to ever increase that distance. The only alternative on November 1, though, is a 10K, and so somehow I decided that the marathon would be a better idea. As of a week and a half ago, I've begun an official base training program in which my iPod and I take frequent trips to my beloved track. I often run at the same time as a very official looking track team (either Wits or something else), and while it should be motivating to run alongside 15 guys all running what seems like four minute miles in bare feet, it really just makes me feel inadequate and silly. That said, I prefer those days to the ones I run around a field hockey match or other random activities.

Lindsay and Ad have decided to join in as well for the races. As such, we've turned this into a group Rotary Service project, somewhat in the tradition of the hike for AIDS that scholars here did a few years ago. We'll get ourselves better organized within the next couple of months and plan to run this race for Rotary and charity. In the meantime, we'll also be running a few shorter races, beginning with a 5-6K trail race at the Cradle of Humankind (also see below) in May.

Until then, it's back to child migrants and research methods on this beautiful and chilly fall election day. The days are getting shorter and much cooler. To celebrate, Tyler and I will be going hiking in the Drakensberg mountains in Kwa-Zulu Natal when he visits for a few days in the first weekend of May. Google image that. It promises to be a just a bit snowy and completely breathtaking, and I'm so excited to have my first visitor. More updates, then, when we have a new president, I've made some more proposal progress, and after a trip to the mountains.