A Day I Will Never Forget

Lunch with the Ugandan Judges and Friends

When I am 90 years old and having trouble recognizing loved ones or even remembering my name, I will still remember this day like it was yesterday.  It began like the others this past week — up early catching up on e-mails and world events.  The prior evening, I learned why Tango (my driver) hadn’t come the day before – he had “knocked” (had an accident with) a Boda Boda driver that morning.  His car was damaged, but no one was injured badly.  Maybe I shouldn’t drive here next year after all . . .

The driver took me to the Naguru Remand Home where there are currently 160 juveniles of both genders between the ages of 13 and 17 imprisoned waiting for their trials.  I met briefly with the warden and one of the social workers I have gotten to know.  I also saw the ladies from Sixty Feet joining arms and singing with some of the girls.  They are living Matthew 25:36, “I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”  I wasn’t able to stay long myself – I hope to be able to return for longer on Friday.

Bob Goff and the rest of the team were returning from a safari at Murchison Falls, and I was scheduled to meet them at the Family Court for a very important hearing.  Waiting outside the courtroom was Hero and his mother.  As described previously: http://www.throwingstarfish.com/2011/11/surprise/, Hero is a nine year-old boy who miraculously survived a witch doctor ritual last year, and bravely testified against his assailant.  On the calendar that day at the Family Court was the final approval to allow Hero to travel back to the United States with Bob for a six-month series of reconstructive surgeries by one of the top doctors in the world.  Hero and his mother remembered me from Saturday and they told me where to find Bob.

As it happens all too often in Uganda, the judge was late in arriving to court.  In fact, the 11:00 a.m. hearing was spontaneously postponed until later in the afternoon.  This threw the day’s itinerary for a loop, but after a few calls, a switch was arranged – we would head directly to Luzira right now, have lunch with distinguished members of the Ugandan Judiciary at 1:00, then come back to the courthouse for the hearing.  Unfortunately, this timeline meant that we would have to leave the rest of the group behind because there wasn’t time to get them from the hotel, so we set off for Luzira.

Luzira is the maximum security prison outside of Kampala where the Witch Doctor (WD) who carved up Hero was incarcerated.  When Bob had told me a few weeks ago that one thing he wanted to do on this trip was to go visit WD in prison, I wasn’t all surprised because I already knew that Bob was nuts.  In the car with me were the driver, Margaret’s pistol-packing female body guard (who looks fifteen years old), Bob, and Margaret.  Margaret is also nuts.  She was the Registrar in Masindi when Henry was convicted and she played an instrumental role in securing his ultimate freedom.  She is now the Family Court Registrar and she is also a pastor who has no fear because God is on her side.  Just ask her.

It took about twenty minutes to get through all of the various security check points, but we finally ended up in the Warden’s office.  The Warden’s office was nice and spacious, and had plush red carpet to match the furniture upholstery.  Bob and Margaret took seats just on the other side of the desk from the Warden and I sat behind them on a small couch.  They explained to the Warden who they wanted to see, and after some back and forth, he sent a guard away to retrieve WD.  While we were waiting, the Warden told us that they had 3000 prisoners at this facility that was built in the 1920s to house 600.  They have recently reached a point where more than half of the prisoners have been convicted of serious crimes – the others are still waiting for their day in court.  Until just recently, more than half of the prisoners were on remand, just waiting for something to happen on their cases.

After about ten minutes, the guard and WD entered through a door to my left.  WD looked nothing like how I pictured him.  More specifically, he looked exactly like I thought he would look, but I pictured him in cuffs, leg restraints, chains, or something that would restrain his movement.  Nope.  Just bright yellow shorts and a bright yellow short-sleeved shirt with something bulky in his breast pocket.  As he walked in, he slumped to his knees on the soft carpet and looked submissively at the warden, who said something to him in another language.  Bob and Margaret turned their chairs to face him, and he looked at me and then looked at the couch.  I was sitting on the right side of the two-person couch and nervously patted the seat next to me, motioning him to join me on the couch.  He did.  Gulp.

It was clear that he remembered Bob and Margaret.  Bob had sat with the prosecution for WD’s entire trial and provided critical support and assistance to the prosecution.  Bob also arranged for the entire trial to be captured on film.  This is going to be a phenomenal book someday, and I am confident that Bob will get it written.  Our meeting with WD will be at least a full chapter, but here are the quick highlights.

Bob asks WD how he is doing, and WD responds through Margaret, who is interpreting, that he is OK, but prison is hard.  WD tells Bob that he is not angry with Bob and holds nothing against him.  Bob tells WD that he hopes he knows how much God loves him and that God will forgive him for what he has done.  WD gives a barely perceptible nod.  Bob tells WD that he talks to Jesus every day and that he often prays for WD, praying that someday WD will come to know Jesus as well.  I, of course, am riveted, and no longer nervous about WD pulling out some chicken feet and shrinking my head.

WD says something to Margaret as he reaches inside his breast pocket and pulls out a small Bible consisting of the Psalms and the New Testament.  Margaret interprets that WD has been given a Bible in English and has attended some of the church services at Luzira.  Bob asks WD if he can see his Bible.  WD hands it to him.  As Bob is flipping through it to see if it has been highlighted or marked in any way, he asks WD if he has any favorite verses.  Psalms 23 and 91.  Bob then asks if WD wants Jesus to be the Lord of his life.  WD responds that while he has been reading the Bible and thinking about it, he has not yet decided if he wants to follow Jesus (or words to that effect).  Bob leans in and asks, would you like to make that decision today?  WD pauses, then nods.  Would you like to ask Jesus into your heart right now?  Pause.  Nod.

I, of course, start crying (though quietly).  Bob moves his chair close to WD and reaches out to hold his hands.  Not wanting to be left out, Margaret and I place our hands on theirs.  With Margaret interpreting, Bob walks WD through his confession of faith and acceptance of Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  My eyes and nose are leaking so much that I think WD was wondering if he accidentally put a spell on me, but I kept my hands on his until it was finished.  Afterward, Bob stands up and opens his arms wide.  WD stands up and Bob hugs him, telling him that they are now brothers and friends.  Monkey see, monkey do.  I, the monkey, hugged it out with WD also.  Bob then arranged with the Warden to get WD a Bible in his native language, and we gave the Warden some money for WD to be able to purchase some things at the prison canteen.  Bob got instructions on how to write to WD and promised him that he would.

As we were leaving, I was still trying to process what had just happened.  Even now, I am still trying to process what happened.  I confess to being a bit of skeptic when I hear stories like this, but I will testify under oath that the foregoing is true and accurate in all respects.

From Luzira, we drove to a really good Chinese restaurant to meet up with some special friends.  Our group arrived before the others, and I tried to tell the rest of them what had happened, but I couldn’t really talk about it without choking up.  Shortly after we arrived, Katie Davis arrived to join us.  I was really hoping to meet her on this trip.  She, like pretty much everyone else in the world, is a friend of Bob so she drove in from Jinja to meet up with us.

The reason I was hoping to meet Katie was that I had just finished her new book before I left for Uganda on this trip.  It is called “Kisses from Katie” and it is a fantastic story about a girl who moved to Uganda after graduating from high school in Tennessee about four years ago and has decided to stay.  She currently has more than a dozen orphan girls she is foster parenting and runs an organization that educates hundreds, and feeds over a thousand.  Her organization is called Amazima Ministries and you can learn more about it and the NYT Bestseller book here: http://www.amazima.org/index.html.

Also joining us for lunch were Benjamin Odoki, Chief Justice of the Ugandan Supreme Court, Alice Bahigeine, Deputy Chief Justice, Yorokamu Bamwine, Principal Judge, Geoffrey Kiryabwire, Head of the Commericial Court, and Stella Arach, Court of Appeals Judge.  All of these judicial officials have made recent visits to Pepperdine.  It was great to renew our friendship with them over a good meal.

After lunch, Bob, John Niemeyer, and I set out for the courthouse.  Unsurprisingly, the judge was still not ready for the hearing, so we waited with Hero, Hero’s mom, and Hero’s little brother.  Hero is such a well-adjusted and friendly boy that one would never suspect what he has gone through.  Eventually, Bob, Hero, Hero’s mom, and a Ugandan attorney Bob hired went back into the Judge’s chambers.  Two hours later, they emerged with all the documents necessary for Hero to come to the United States to have his operations.  Praise God.

We left the courthouse at around 6:30 and it took us about 45 minutes to drive the two miles to the hotel where we met up with the rest of the group for dinner.  I was finally able to tell the whole story – Bob is too modest to tell it himself, and he is also a crier so I am not sure he could have gotten through it.  We ate at the hotel’s restaurant called “Spur” and I had a good burger and great milkshake.  Justice Benjamin Kabiito (Civil Division), whom I have gotten to know well on my trips here and his trip to Pepperdine, also joined us also.

It was a long and exhausting day, but one I will never forget.  I suspect tomorrow will be the same, as Bob and Margaret have convened a national gathering of witch doctors to try to educate them about the human trafficking laws and to warn them that they will be prosecuted if they persist in ritual mutilation of children.  For Bob, however, this simply means trying to make them his friends.  It should be another memorable day.