I will now finally talk about my job here.

I am doing research for the Liga za ľudské práva, or "Human Rights League" in English.  Their clients are asylum-seekers from various countries, among which are Afghanistan and Iraq.  The way it works is as follows: an individual comes into the office requesting legal aid in the submission of a request for asylum in Slovakia.  The "Liga" secures the services of an interpreter if necessary and conducts multiple interviews with these individuals in order to find out why they are afraid to return to the country of their nationality.

Once the story is ironed out to the lawyers' satisfaction, they go to work making a case that Slovakia is obligated by international law to let the individuals stay.  This generally means demonstrating that it is possible that there is a real threat in an individual's home country from which the individual needs protection, that the home country cannot adequately protect the individual, and that the individual isn't some sort of international criminal who doesn't deserve protection.  Here's where I come in.  Right now, I'm doing COI (Country of Origin Information) research, designed to give the lawyers relevant evidence from each country that they can use in constructing their cases.

It would be pretty standard academic stuff, if I weren't allowed to sit in on interviews with asylum-seekers and to hear them tell their stories.  Yesterday, I sat in on an hour-and-a-half long interview with a client from which I could understand maybe two words.  Even though everything was said in Slovak or the client's native language, I could still sense the urgency in the client's tone.  Next week, I will be going to court to hear the judge's determination about that individual's status.  As I work on future cases, I keep in mind that my devotion to thoroughness could make a real difference in someone's life.  Luckily for me, I will probably get to meet that person each time.

I also finally got around to getting a couple pictures around the dorm that I had wanted for some time.  First is the picture of one of the high rise buildings in the complex in which I'm staying (my building is identical to it):

The sunset is kind of unnecessary and almost makes this shot too glamorous.

The other picture I'm excited about is a snapshot of the culprit that comes to my window every morning at 7 am and makes a terrible wallowing noise.  I can't think of another way to describe it--at first I thought there was an owl within a few miles of my room, but it turned out that this chump was just chillin' on my porch.  His accomplice's foot is in the corner there, too.

I've been taking a lot of pictures of pigeons, but I don't think it's my fault.  It must be that Slovak pigeons just have more personality than other pigeons I've met.