Malaysia

All kinds of things have been happening lately. Last weekend Kailea (my loyal travel companion) and I went to the east coast of Malaysia to visit the Perhentian Islands which are famous for their reefs and great scuba diving. We didn't do any diving, but we did get to do some good snorkeling and saw a lot of great coral, fish, and a few huge sea turtles. A turtle that was about half the size of me surfaced next to Kailea while we were snorkeling. The islands are small and there is nothing to do besides water sports, lying on the beach, or eating and drinking, but those are all things we enjoy. I knocked out half of Doctor Zhivago and got in some good hammocking time between two coconut palms I found on a small beach after a short hike.

 





I'm just past the 3 month mark of being in Malaysia and my internship officially ended today. WAO is putting on a fair to celebrate our 30th anniversary (and the 40,000 women we've helped in that time!) so I'll be assisting with that this weekend, but the daily 9-5 is over. When I started this internship 3 months seemed like an unbelievably long amount of time but this past month especially has slipped away from me. But I am happy to announce that I have finished my report on Malaysian police response to domestic violence in time! I sent it out to my coworkers this morning for editing and critiquing and I'll get back together with them in a few weeks to hear their suggestions and make the necessary revisions. In the meantime, I'll be off to Saigon, Angkor Wat, and Phnom Penh for the next few weeks on a Southeast Asian adventure.

I attended a discussion last night with one of my coworkers on the Malaysian police force and police brutality and killings and got to speak with a few of the panelists, including a guy from Human Rights Watch that covers Southeast Asia. The underlying issues that are perpetuating police brutality are so similar to the issues I've been exploring in my report, so it was really interesting to speak with him and get his take on the situation. The system seems to be fundamentally broken and it was really interesting to discuss the different ways that's manifesting itself.

My report still needs a good deal of work and I'll have a lot of feedback to talk through and consider from my coworkers when I get back, but right now I am proud of where it's going. Realizing last night that a number of people in Malaysia are trying to engage in a similar conversation and are coming to similar conclusions was really interesting and encouraging. What I'm doing is obviously on a very small scale and will not have a big impact, but I am excited to be joining a good discussion that's already taking place about the Malaysian police force, and being able to add the accumulated wisdom and experience of women in our shelter and our social workers. I feel really lucky to get to engage in such an interesting and important conversation with such smart people.