Week 2: Walking, Work, and Waffles
If you ever come to Beijing for any length of time, bring comfortable walking shoes – only comfortable walking shoes. I didn’t know it at the time, but wearing sandals all day last Saturday touring the Forbidden City and beyond was a painful mistake. We walk a lot here in Beijing, every day, no matter where we go. So, the shoe selection I brought along with me (because, you know, options) just ended up being a lot of extra baggage weight that I could have used for souvenirs on the way home! But despite all the limping, it’s been a great week! Delia and I both started our internship at Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers, Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center (BCLARC) on Monday. BCLARC is a non-profit legal aid organization that specializes in children’s rights.
On the first day, we met Chen, who is in charge of the international interns, and he assigned us each to a lawyer. I am working with Anna, who was recently appointed Head of International Cooperation Department. Right now, Anna and BCLARC are working with another organization to provide funding to a limited number of organizations around the world that are working to advance children’s rights through legal aid, advocacy, and research. The program will provide one of these organizations with funding to hire and pay the salary of an attorney. This attorney will be expected to provide legal services such as counseling and representation, reach out to other potential pro bono attorneys in the area, provide legal education to children and communities, advocate for children’s rights and protection through drafting and promoting legislation and policy reforms, and also conduct research on various subjects of concern to the area. My primary job this week was to review applications sent from some of these organizations and the candidates they were referring and compile the information onto a template for each organization. The template included a profile of each organization and their stated reason for needing a legal professional; the background, profile, and qualifying characteristics of the referred candidate; a list of the candidate’s expected duties; the salary they were requesting (by the way, it’s really astonishing to see how low the average salary of a lawyer is in some of these developing countries compared to the U.S. and other developed nations); and then a section for me or another reviewer to write down our recommendations if anything about the applicant stood out. Reading descriptions of what organizations in other countries, typically very poor countries, are doing to help protect children and advance children’s rights was very inspiring, but also opened my eyes to how much work is still needed (a lot).
Anna also gave me some reading material to educate myself on current issues in children’s rights around the world. We also discussed child trafficking and sex tourism, and I have been doing some research in that area as well. Anna is out of the country next week, at an international convention for children’s rights, so she has tasked me with drafting a contract for the donation/cooperation agreement between BCLARC and the organization they choose to fund.
Everyone here is very friendly and helpful, and I can see already that I’m going to get attached to them. Chen and some other students want Delia and me to meet with them on Monday to introduce ourselves, and help them with their English (I asked if they could also help us with our Chinese!), so I am looking forward to that. Every day, we get to eat lunch for free at the canteen where the cooks prepare different home-cooked Chinese dishes. It’s amazing. Today, one of the dishes was, I think, slices of fried eggplant with a bean paste filling, and it was one of the best things I’ve tried since I’ve been here.
Outside of work, I’m surprised at how quickly I seem to be getting used to my life here in Beijing. I now fearlessly stride across the busy streets with the rest of the Beijing crowd, no longer glimpsing my life flash before my eyes as a taxi weaves its way through the middle of the throng of people or a motorbike speeds in front of me two inches from my toes. I’m learning my way around the neighborhood, scoping out my local restaurant favorites, and as I mentioned last week, I absolutely love the subway system. I love it the most when I can get a seat, which is rare, but it’s great either way. It’s very cheap. I put 480¥ (~$75) on my Yikatong card, and that is going to last me the next month and a half at least.
My favorite thing to eat at home is 包子 (“bāozi” or steamed stuffed buns), which you can buy a ton of for really cheap and have breakfast and dinner every day for two weeks. Take out (外卖 “wàimài”) is also really cheap, and considering you can select from practically every restaurant in the neighborhood, it’s not all fast, unhealthy food either. There is a place on our street called “caffe bene,” which makes gelato and waffles, and you can get a gelato waffle… I am telling you, if putting ice cream on a warm waffle isn’t already a thing in the U.S., it needs to be! I will get cravings for that dessert periodically for the rest of my life.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to see Shandice, the Notre Dame law student we met last week, and her law firm play a game of flag football. Afterwards, we’re finally going to go try some hot pot! On Sunday, we head to the Great Wall! As promised, I have included some pictures of our adventures to the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park from last weekend, plus a picture of my lunch today. I really need to learn how to make those eggplant things.
