Long, but good day in Jo-burg today.

Everyone felt much better after a good night's sleep.

Our day started with an excellent orientation on South African history and culture by our wonderful national guide, Alan Petersen. Alan went through the history of the country, the geography and demographics.

Then, the guest left for Pretoria, while the delegates remained for a presentation on the status of family law in South Africa. We were fortunate to have three family law attorneys and the Director of Child Justice and Family Law for the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. In many respects, their practice is similar to those in the delegation (we have four counties represented - five, if you include Texas). Their procedure is based on the British system, which our Australian delegates related to rather well. Their substance, however, is premised on the best interests of the child. There is a child representative in contested custody cases, whose role is a blend of best interests and advocacy. Interestingly, there are only 47,000 in the entire country (there are 21,000 in Wisconsin alone) of whom, about 80% are white, although a majority of judges are now black. Language is a problem as South Africa has 11 official languages. Also interesting is that indigents are entitled to court appointed lawyers, even in divorce cases.




















Next, we had lunch at a wonderful fish restaurant.

After lunch, we went to Soweta and the Hector Pietersen Museum. Hector Pietersen was a teenager who was gunned down during a march opposing apartheid and the museum memorializes all who similarly died.

Tomorrow: We are marching (actually we are taking a bus, but let's not get technical!) to Pretoria.