Internship: The first week

Last week was my first week at SIS, but I already feel very comfortable at the office. Everyone is so friendly! They're very serious about their work but they joke all the time despite the emotional weight of what they do. They're hilarious. I'm also learning so much about Malaysian politics because they're very much into talking about it all the time... They're also into making fun of me and the other intern, Femi, who's also from the U.S., and they're crazy about lunch time (this is probably universally true for the working world).

So what am I doing exactly? Right now, I'm finishing up the first draft of a research paper outlining 6 different child support agencies from various countries. I'm going to present it to the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality in a couple weeks, who will use it to plan and design such an agency in Malaysia. These agencies, while they vary, are mainly for supporting and enforcing child support payments from the non-custodial parent and making sure that in cases of domestic abuse, the abuser doesn't find the spouse who's receiving the payment. It's been very depressing reading agency websites because so many get away with not paying child support. (In Japan, apparently, 87% don't pay! AND joint custody is illegal there too...)

Then I'm supposed to be working on a database for them to input data from their legal interns doing "Court Watch" visits. This is when they go to shariah (Muslim law) courts that are dealing with divorce, domestic abuse, or other family matters, to make sure that the courts are following proper court procedures. As of now, they just have dozens of forms with notes with no way of organizing all of it. To be honest, I don't have much experience with making databases but I'm not too worried. I need to consult with them to figure out what kind of system they want.

I've also been doing IT odds and ends...such as helping Zainah Anwar and an occasional SIS staff member (who's American) named Jana, to design and find a good logo for their international conference on Muslim family law in February. In a couple weeks, they're going to put on their first Mobile Legal Clinic, in which their legal interns and staff will be going out to different destinations around the area and provide workshops for Muslim women to learn about their legal rights. I'm sure I'll be doing other things but I'll write about it as it comes up.


Below I've posted an excessive amount of photos of their office (mainly for my family who wanted to know exactly what it looks like) and some of my coworkers.

This is on my walk to the office from the LRT (Light Rail Transit) station, which is only one stop from my house.


I can even see my building from this street. Woo!


The view of the office from outside. I think it's a house converted into an office since the neighborhood is full of people's homes.



This is the view of the inside from the entrance.


The kitchen is in the center of the building...which is really nice because this is where everyone convenes for lunch and breaks together. When it rains, it falls through this hole in the ceiling and into this little garden.


This is the room where I work...


...and my cubicle. I get to sit next to a picture of Dubya all day.


Some of the people I work with at SIS.


Friday was the last day of Najib, the young legal intern and pretty much only guy at SIS, who was really nice and funny and knew more about American celebrities and pop music than I did. I'm going to miss him...