After the first intern left, a second one appeared. She was quiet, hard working and I seldom see her visiting the loo.
One day I returned from lunch and walked into the Accounts Office. Rosyati was not there. I was about to leave when the second intern popped up from behind her desk. She was actually eating her home brought lunch seated on the carpeted floor. As she put down her food container on the desk, walked into the inner office to pick up what Rosyat left for me, I saw that she was eating white rice with table salt.
The next morning I mentioned my observation to Rosyati. She was not surprised as state colleges do not pay the interns at all. The next few days I noticed Rosyati bringing refrigerated left overs from dinner, placing the food in small containers next to the sunlit windows. She simply cooked extra to feed her diligent helper.
Over the next days, this intern told me she came from the interior. There is a relative working near our college. She obtained permission to sleep in a narrow space in one room with four other girls. In exchange for the space, she washed the clothes of her roommates. There is no food preparation space nor cooking facilities. She paid a housewife nearby four dollars a day for food. In the morning she ate boiled bananas. Lunch would be rice with vegetables unless the lady was serving meat for dinner. Then she has a meagre lunch of white rice with salt. To a girl from the village far from the city, it was not undue hardship. This is actually the last hurdle for her, if she successfully completes the internship, she could graduate and get a paying job.
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