Running Around Town

Tuesday was an action-packed day of meetings with Ugandan Judiciary members and Ugandan lawyers. It began early again – I can’t seem to sleep past 4:30 a.m., but I am going to bed early each night so all is well. When I got up this morning, I had quite a few documents waiting for me to review relating to the American couple who is desperately trying to bring home the two Ugandan children who have become as much a part of their family as their biological son. I never expected to become an expert in international adoption law (or even involved in it), but God has ways of putting you where you can be useful. And I feel like I can be useful with this, so I have delved headlong into learning all that I can about this stuff. The metaphor of drinking from a firehose comes to mind. While I am nowhere near being an expert yet, I am getting my arms around it faster than I expected.

After about four hours of e-mails and adoption law reading, I met up with Shane Michael at the Commercial Court. Shane is a 2011 Pepperdine Law graduate and is serving as a Pepperdine Nootbaar Fellow for one year in Uganda. This program is named after our dear friend and benefactor, Herbert Nootbaar, who turned 103 on Sunday. I was quite disappointed to miss his birthday party, as he has become a good friend. Shane is embedded with the Commercial Court and is serving as a Court-appointed mediator. Shane is also a utility infielder of sorts and will be helping with the juvenile justice projects on which I will be working; he has also jumped in to help the American couple seeking to adopt.

Shane and I met briefly with Justice Kiryabwire, the Head of the Commercial Court and liaison for Pepperdine’s relationship with the Ugandan Judiciary. It is always good to see Justice K, and I had the opportunity to deliver to him a computer he had ordered during his trip to Pepperdine last month. Justice K gave me an update on the logistics of my visit also, confirming that Shane and I will be sharing the huge office Shane currently occupies, and that they have been able to secure a car and a driver for me so I can get to and from work. I had briefly considered trying to drive myself, but five minutes back in the city confirmed that this would be a horrible idea. The road conditions, the fact that there are two stoplights in all of Uganda, and the fact that they drive on the other side of the road would be a recipe for disaster if I got behind the wheel.

From there, Shane and I headed off to the court of appeals to see if we could get some more clarity as to when Henry’s appellate case would be heard. This is a critical piece of information because my family’s arrival date in Uganda in January has not been set precisely because we don’t know when the argument will take place. Since I am arguing the case, we will move here a week or so in advance of the argument unless the argument is in February or later. In that case, we will likely come in late January. Fortunately, one of my Ugandan friends is the one who sets the hearing dates. Unfortunately, he was in meetings all day, so we didn’t connect in person. We did, however, connect telephonically, and have set up a meeting for Wednesday morning.

From the court of appeals, we headed back to Bugolobi (the suburb where I am staying now and will be living next year) to meet with a Ugandan lawyer (Valentine) who is directing a huge juvenile rights project. This project involves all aspects of Ugandan juvenile law, and is being overseen by the Chief Justice of the Ugandan Supreme Court, but funded by both public and private sources. Shane became aware of this project a few weeks ago, and we have been asked to play an active role in the juvenile justice/criminal law side of the project. I look forward to working closely with Valentine when I return in January.

While we were meeting with Valentine, the rains came down and the floods came up. The streets turned to rivers. When it rains in Uganda, it rains hard. I wish I had filmed it – it is too hard describe in words. Picture the best shower you have ever had. None of this pansy spray or pin-prick strands of water, but streams as thick as a baby’s arm gushing from the faucet at you. Then picture that as far as the eye can see. The roads that are paved have asphalt about a quarter inch thick, with red mud yawning through the surface every few feet. Add this to a national allergy to any sort of drainage system, and you get red mud rivers that would support kayak races. As we were driving (wading) through these rivers on the way back to the courthouse, I asked Tango (the driver) whether traffic slowed down when it rained (like it does in the US). Negative. It actually gets much lighter because people just don’t drive in it unless they have to. (Ugandans’ sense of being on time is another national allergy, so they just wait).

I arrived at the office of the lawyer with whom I am working on Henry’s appeal at about two minutes before our scheduled meeting time of 3:00 p.m. They were stunned to see me, and told me that they didn’t expect me to arrive at 3:00. As I was saying . . . I had a chance to chat with another lawyer in the office about the case, and the lead lawyer arrived around 3:15. We talked for about thirty minutes, much of which time we devoted to Ugandan adoption/guardianship law. This lawyer is truly top-notch and I have connected him with one of my former students in Texas who is very seriously considering adopting a Ugandan orphan. This lawyer has also agreed to meet on Thursday with the American couple here in Uganda to see if he can be of assistance to them.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped in to see the Criminal Court Registrar, the lawyer who manages the criminal court docket in Uganda, and we talked about some of the work I will be doing with that court next year. I also stopped at the grocery store in Bugolobi, somewhat near where I will be living. Joline had given me a list of things I was supposed to look for, but I could only remember one – American peanut butter. Check. What they don’t have, though, is Diet Coke (Coca-Cola Light). Fortunately, there are plenty of other places in Kampala that do have it.

Back at the hotel, I met with the apartment manager and got another tour of the apartment where we will be staying next year. (Actually, the apartment I looked at was the one below ours, where some new friends of ours from Oklahoma will be living for the same six months we will be here. God has really blessed us with built-in community with a family who is eerily similar to ours. More on this in a later post).

After catching up on some e-mail, I went down the restaurant to order some dinner to eat in my room. They told me it would be 25 minutes, so I told them that I was going to get in a quick work out in the gym. About a dozen curls (with barbells I borrowed from a ten year-old girl), two full minutes on the stationary bike (I went an entire kilometer), a handful of lat flies (like I know what that means), and I was done. I hate lifting weights, and I really don’t want to further feed the rampant rumor mill at Pepperdine that I eat Steroids like Skittles. Back at the restaurant, the waitress said “Wow, you are huge – that must have been a great workout.” Actually, she said “Back already? Your food should be here in fifteen minutes.”

I enjoyed my club sandwich and fries – after all, my two minutes on the exercise bike burned more than enough calories to cover the meal – then resumed reading about adoption law until about 9:30 a.m. Lots more meetings tomorrow.

As I look back at how long this post is, I realize that I have violated the important principle I learned at the Restore Leadership Academy on Monday. This piece of paper was taped to the wall: