Uganda Day 4: Starting the Internship

I've only got time for a relatively short one tonight. There's significantly less time in the day now that I'm spending 9 hours of it at work!

Speaking of which, I started my internship at the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative today. I can't say it was the most exciting day I've ever had...we spent most of the time reading through a few reports and things that they've published over the past few years. I'm in the Research Division, so researching and publishing reports is a lot of what they do (and what I'll be doing). I will say that it's one thing to know about human rights abuses, in the sense that you have a general idea about their existence and the forms they take, and another entirely to be interacting with them in some way. Obviously reading reports is still far removed from actually witnessing or experiencing these things, but they feel much more real than hearing about it from back home. Some of the testimonials and findings in these reports are truly disturbing, and unfortunately, too common. I'm looking forward to the work I'll be doing, but there's a certain amount of trepidation and discomfort that comes with that.

Aside from that, the only other thing we did today was a tour of the office to meet some of the staff and other interns in the various divisions. I wish I was better with names and faces—I think I'd be hard-pressed to recall more than one or two from today. It's a lot of people to meet all at once! I also had my first taste of local cuisine. They serve lunch at FHRI. I enjoyed the beans and rice—pretty standard—as well as a thing called matooke, which is mashed bananas. There was another thing called posho, which is made from maize and has what Wikipedia calls a "dough-like consistency," which was less enticing but not bad. Then again, I was starving by the time lunch rolled around today, so who knows what I'll actually think of this food next time.

That's it for today. I'm off to shower and crash on my rock-hard bed. Good night!