The Masindi Project II, Part 3

It was another full day of interviewing the juveniles out at the Remand Home for most of us.  Unfortunately for me, I was on administrative duty for most of the day and spent precious little time with the children and the students.

The day began quite well with a 7:00 a.m. meeting with an American law enforcement officer who lives in Masindi and provides much-needed training at the national law enforcement training center in Masindi.  I briefed him regarding Pepperdine’s activities in Uganda since we started coming in 2007.  Fortunately, these sorts of meetings are becoming more and more common as the word is getting around that Pepperdine has a special relationship with the judiciary and various other legal-based governmental entities.  Over the past couple of weeks, several opportunities to collaborate more closely with the United States Embassy and other foreign-based legal organizations have emerged.  Nothing is final yet, but things look rather promising.

After breakfast, we went out to the Remand Home to resume the interviews.  Since my driver Michael was a necessary party for interviews (so he could translate), I drove a group out to Ihungu before returning with a couple of my “teammates” to town to meet with the prosecutors about getting more police files.  Here are the teams:

Team One – Samantha Placeres, Jacob Franz, Amanda Martin, Abby Skeans (Regent Law), and Michael Mudgett (lawyer/pastor)

Team Two – Morgan Franz, Ashley Cook, Jenny Arnold, Jay Milbrandt, me

Team Three – Megan Callaway, Rachel Robinson, Nathan McKenzie, Steve Dixon, Carol Chase (Associate Dean)

We were able to secure permission to get copies of nine more police files (we got six over the weekend), but the copy machine at the prosecutors’ office wasn’t working.  Accordingly, we “hired” a clerk in that office to accompany us to a local photocopy business to have copies made.  She initially was quite miffed at having to leave the office, but after I bought her a Coke and two Chapatti’s (bread) we became BFFs.

In Uganda, the fancy brackets typically used to keep paper organized in legal files look eerily similar to string.  Consequently, removing documents, copying them, and replacing them is quite an ordeal.  Accordingly, it took about three hours to get the copies made.  Each time three were finished, I drove them the fifteen minutes out to Ihungu to deliver them to the Teams who were reading the files and interviewing the kids on the fly.  It actually felt quite good to see that my highest and best use for most of the day was as a courier.  The students are really into it and they are doing a fantastic job on the first draft on each of the twenty-two briefs we are preparing.

I spent a good portion of the afternoon meeting with the defense lawyers, prosecutors, and court officials making sure that everyone was on board with the path forward.  I will return in two weeks and we will see how many of these cases we can resolve prior to a trial session beginning.

As I type this, the students are gathered in the hotel restaurant finalizing the first draft of the briefs.  The lawyers will then begin the editing process.  Tomorrow, a few follow-up interviews will take place (we finished all of the first interviews today), and then we will feverishly work toward finalizing them before the group returns to Ihungu for a final goodbye in the late afternoon.

During the final goodbye, we will present them with photos we took of them, show them the briefs we have prepared, and pray with them.  All of this will take place after the most important part of the trip – an epic soccer match: USA vs. Uganda.  I am betting heavily on the kids of Uganda beating the lawyers and law students of the United States.  Unfortunately, my driver and I are leaving for Kampala at 5:15 a.m. tomorrow so I can be in court when the J-FASTER pilot program resumes.  I am sad to miss the farewell, but I would probably only get hurt in the soccer match anyway.