Life’s Pleasures

Life has many pleasures that could have only come from a loving God: the sunset in Malibu, the spontaneous spark that starts the heartbeat in a mother’s womb; the joy of walking the same speed and same direction as the ones you love over a lifetime; that fleeting moment between when a dose of anesthesia has been administered and inevitable glorious unconsciousness.  While taking an Ambien sleeping pill cannot match any of these, it partially replicates the last on the list, and was one of my favorite parts of the 24-hour trip from LAX to Kampala I just completed.  I departed LAX at 3:00 p.m. and flew about twelve hours to Amsterdam, the last four of which were spent in pharmaceutical sleep.  The 50-minute layover in Amsterdam was a bit tight, but I made the connecting flight comfortably.  It was then seven hours to Kigali, Rwanda, with a one-hour layover, but I didn’t have to change planes.

Another highlight of the trip was finishing the audiobook on my iPod of Moneyball – a book based upon movie that came out a few months ago starring Brad Pitt.  It is really amazing to me that they could produce a book so quickly after the movie release.  And the fact that the book had so many more layers of detail and so much more character development than the movie makes it all the more impressive.  I can’t wait until the book comes out based upon the final installment of the Harry Potter movie series.

Seriously, Moneyball is an excellent read, I mean listen, and provides a level of texture that the movie can’t quite replicate.

Also on the trip I had the opportunity to do another edit of the appellate brief I wrote in an effort to overturn Henry’s conviction.  This brief has still yet to be filed with the court because appellate briefs of the nature written and filed in the United States are essentially unheard of in Uganda.  The appeal is typically one or two pages and simply identifies the errors the appellant contends the trial court made.  The arguments and legal authority are presented orally.  Parties are, however, permitted to submit supplemental memoranda a few days in advance of the argument if they so choose.  I so choose.  I struggle against over confidence because the facts and law are so compelling that a reversal and acquittal seems to be the only possible result.  I hope to find out next week exactly when the oral argument will take place.

I also had the chance to edit a proposal that Shane Michael and I have been working on and plan to present to the Ugandan Judiciary in the coming weeks or months.  Shane is one of my former students who moved to Uganda in September after graduating in May and taking the California Bar Exam in July.  Shane is serving as Pepperdine Law’s Nootbaar Fellow this year, working for the Ugandan Judiciary on a variety of projects.  The proposal we are working on will, if adopted, create a pilot program whereby juvenile’s arrested for crimes in Uganda will have their cases dramatically expedited so as to avoid the lengthy delays they often experience now (up to two years).  The acronym for our proposal is called J-FASTER – aren’t we clever.

On the final leg of the journey I listened to some Casting Crowns, probably my favorite band.  I listened to the song “Somewhere In the Middle” several times and couldn’t help but feel convicted by its lyrics:

“Somewhere between the hot and the cold, somewhere between the new and the old,

Somewhere between who I am and who I used to be, somewhere in the middle you’ll find me.

Somewhere between the wrong and the right, somewhere between the darkness and the light, Somewhere between who I was and who You’re making me, Somewhere in the middle, you’ll find me.

Just how close can I get, Lord, to my surrender, without losing all control.

Fearless warriors in a picket fence, reckless abandon wrapped in common sense, deep water faith in the shallow end, and we are caught in the middle.”

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I have just arrived at the hotel in Kampala.  We have a team of eight here for the trip: Bob Goff (President and Founder of Restore International); John Niemeyer (Country Director for Restore); Greg Monroe (Owner of aviation business in Northwest USA); Darla Anderson (Producer for Pixar (THE producer for Bug’s Life, Monsters Inc., Cars, and Toy Story 3)); Deborah (works at Restore in San Diego); Hunter (college student who works for Young Life); Simon (local who is one of our drivers); and me (just glad to be here).

I just heard the final itinerary for the week.  Should be quite a bit of fun.

More tomorrow.  Thanks for the prayers.

Jim