Back to School, Back to Cali
After finishing his first term in “A” levels three weeks ago, Henry headed home for a two-week break with his family in Hoima. While there, he snapped some pictures of the calf that was born during his first term, and the chickens that have grown from the baby chicks they were a couple months ago. For more on the cool story of how Henry’s family got these cows and chickens, read this post. Incidentally, “Big Jim” has been carrying his load, impregnating two of the females in the herd.
First-Born Calf
Chicks no More
Last weekend (at the end of his term break), Henry hopped on a bus in Hoima bound for Kampala. From the super-crowded and crazy Kampala bus park, Henry took a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to meet us at the mall. We knew Henry would be transporting his backpack and the extra-large suitcase we loaned him, but when he showed up in the mall parking lot, he also had with him an additional parcel he had lugged with him. We watched him dismount the motorcycle clutching . . . a live chicken. The chicken’s legs were tied together and it was wearing a makeshift diaper, fashioned from a plastic bag.
Henry explained that the chicken, which wasn’t from his family’s flock (they weren’t old enough quite yet), was a gift from his mother. She knew that we bought our chicken meat from grocery stores and really wanted us to have a fresh chicken. While we were quite flattered that she would think to send us something, and while we were impressed that Henry had ridden the four hours on a bus while holding the live chicken, we were a bit perplexed as to what we would do with it, especially since we had planned to take Henry bowling for the first time at the mall.
“We can just leave the chicken in the car,” declared Henry. “She will be fine while we are . . . doing what?” he asked. “I will prepare the chicken for you when we get back to your apartment.”
So, we left “eggy” (as Jennifer had named the chicken) in the car while we went inside to bowl. Not only had Henry never bowled, he had never even seen anyone bowl, and had never even heard of the sport.
Being a pretty good athlete, he picked it up quickly, though he opted for a two-handed delivery.
Bowling in Kampala
When we got back to the car, eggy was waiting patiently for us in the back of the car. And when we got back to the apartment, Henry showed us city folk how to “prepare” the chicken. I helped him hold eggy while Henry deftly separated her head from the rest of her body and then held her by the neck as she flapped around for the next thirty seconds. (I had heard about this phenomenon, but had never witnessed it. Jennifer opted not to witness it, and Joshua is still scarred. Jessica was on ten-day medical mission road trip with the Gregstons).
Henry and Headless Chicken
We then plucked, skinned, gutted, and quartered the carcass. While fresh chicken tastes materially better than frozen, the mess and work associated with the preparation has not convinced us to forego supermarket chickens.
The next day, we took Henry back to school for the beginning of his second term. Upon arrival, Henry was given his report card. Always at the top of class in rural schools, Henry was accustomed to receiving top marks. For the first time, however, Henry was competing against the top of the top in the country and was clearly disappointed with his grades. He did quite well in Physics, decently in Chemistry, but left himself plenty of room for improvement in Biology. These scores were perfectly in line with how he had done on the national exams; biology had been his Achilles heel then also. The saddest part of the whole scene was that he really felt like he had let us down. We told him how proud we were of him, but he was pretty bummed.
Later in the week, he called and was in much better spirits. He had spoken with other students and with his teachers, and was better able to understand that he hadn’t done nearly as badly as he thought. He is determined to improve, and we are confident that he will.
Tomorrow, we are going to visit him at school after church, and then I’m . . . “Goin’ back to Cali.”
Since I became Associate Dean for Student Life in 2005, I have been the official name reader at the law school graduation. Since I preside over first-year orientation, I really enjoy closing the loop by announcing their completion of law school by inviting them one by one to cross to stage and receive their diploma from President Benton.
When my family and I decided to come to Uganda for six months, we talked about all the things we would miss while we were gone. One of the biggest disappointments for me was that I would miss graduation.
To my surprise and delight, Dean Tacha called me into her office just before I left and told me that a group of students had scheduled a meeting with her and encouraged her to bring me back for graduation, even offering to help fund it themselves. She informed me that if I was willing to come home, the law school would pay for it. Done.
So I will be home from Monday afternoon through Saturday morning. I have a huge shopping list prepared by my family, the Gregstons, and two Ugandan judges. My first stop? Chipotle. I cannot wait to see my students, my colleagues, my friends, and several members of my family.
When I arrive back in Kampala next Sunday, ten Pepperdine law students will already be here and will begin their internships with Ugandan judges the following day. The day after that, our friends from Texas (Alan and Holly Brown) arrive in Kampala for three weeks in conjunction with their efforts to adopt a Ugandan orphan. I am really looking forward to this final stretch of just over two months. Thanks for following along on our journey.
Dean Gash, so glad you will be back for graduation. When I was back there for my sister’s undergrad ceremony, I had at least five students tell me how happy they were you would be coming back. Enjoy the weather and tell the Gash family hello for me!!!
Julia
Love hearing about Henry. Amazing how God brings “strangers” into our lives. What a beautiful friendship He has created.
Safe travels home! Love keeping up to date!
If you forget something on your “list” let us know and we will try to cram it in our bags! lol have a safe trip and we will see you in 2 weeks!
The chicken story brought back lots of memories with my grandparents and helping them with their chickens and yes “headless” chickens flopping around. A good experience for Jennifer and Joshua….that is the way most of the world lives.
The baby calf is beautiful. I love the black marking on the white. I would say “Big Jim” did well. When I was a kid on the farm, my mother would pick the chicken up by the neck and that chick would start going round and round until the neck came off and it would flop on the ground. That chicken got cleaned and was chicken dinner on Sunday! ! ! Jake and Jared have experience cleaning chickens. Love reading your post. Give everyone a big hug. Sorry we aren’t going to be able to make it over. MiMi
So are you “Little Jim”?
I cried thinking about you reading names at graduation, what a blessing. I saw your name on a picture of the program for the 3L breakfast and wondered what was up!
Hey Jim,
I heard about your trip to Cali through Julie and was sorry to miss you. But what I didn’t miss was your story. Last time Ben and I were babysitting, I saw it sitting on the couch and starting reading. I completely neglected my job as babysitter, leaving all the work to Ben because I was completely immersed in your story. Julie lent it to me so I could finish, and I did in about 3 days. I cried probably 15 times while reading it (a lot even for me!), and your cliffhangers at the end of every chapter definitely achieved their desired effect- I didn’t want to put it down! She said you had met with someone who mentioned the lack of direct discourse, but I never felt that anything was missing. Keep pushing its publication, because it is a work that deserves to be read by MANY!
Sienna
cool, i love it.http://www.silencioso.org
I like this post, enjoyed this one thanks for posting. “The goal of revival is conformity to the image of Christ, not imitation of animals.” by Richard F. Lovelace.
It’s a very wise answer of Mr/s Snout.The first fetlirity test commonly performed in order to diagnose the cause of male infertility is the semen analysis test. Any problems affecting sperm shape (morphology), sperm movement (motility), or sperm count will require a semen analysis test. The cost of infertility tests can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending on the sophistication of the required fetlirity test.Good luck.