18 And Life To Go

One of my favorite songs when I was in college was “18 and Life to Go” by Skid Row.  That pop-metal song crashed back into my life as I traveled to Uganda this weekend for the 18^th time.  My commitment to my beloved second country ensures that while this is trip 18, I do have “life to go” in my travels here.  But before discussing this upcoming week’s activities, here is a quick recap.

The Divine Collision book tour Henry and I started in late January ended in early March after a whirlwind spin through Texas involving three chapel talks at Baylor, a national radio interview, and three screenings of REMAND in Waco, Dallas, and Houston.  It was so good to catch up with dear friends along the way.

Breakfast in Dallas with Echols and Delaneys

Prior to Henry’s departure, the BBC broadcast the radio interview Henry and I did with them and published an extensive feature on our story.  The Washington Post also published a nice article.  Following the BBC story, I received calls and e-mails from Nigeria, Ghana, the UK, and Uganda, some of which have raised intriguing new possible projects.

On March 3^rd, Henry traveled back home to resume his medical school studies.  We loaded him up (down?) with lots of first-world “essentials” (developing world “luxuries”) for his family – frying pan, Tupperware, chocolates, etc.

We stopped at the beach in Malibu on the way to the airport for one last photo and said our emotional goodbyes as Henry boarded the plane for his 21^st flight during the trip.  Memories to last a lifetime.

Farewell to Malibu

I also sent Henry home with the near-final cut of REMAND – the documentary about how his case led to substantial reform in Uganda’s criminal justice system.  (Incidentally, the final cut will be shown on April 12^th at the Historic Egyptian Theater for the first and only time prior to going on the film festival circuit – tickets available here.  Please pass along this invite to others).  Henry showed the documentary in his local village to a crowd assembled the night before he returned to medical school.

Prior to returning to Uganda, Henry had learned that he was among a list of approximately 200 of the then-remaining 360 students in his medical school class (which had started with 500 eighteen months ago) who had to re-take one or more of his examinations from the prior semester in order to advance to the second semester of his second year.  Henry was quite surprised that he had to retake Immunology, which he had believed was one of strongest subjects.

Upon returning to school, though, he discovered that he had not performed poorly on the exam, but instead that his was one of eighty students’ exams that had been lost by the professor.  All eighty had to take it again.  Soon thereafter, Henry was notified that he passed the retake and advanced to his fourth semester.

When all the dust settled on the third semester, only 280 of the original 500 students remained.  The “sifting” process will continue for a few more semesters, with the expectation being that around 200 will graduate at the end of six years.  Henry is quite confident he will be among them.

During this 18^th trip, I will be nailing down the details of the upcoming summer prison project (June 17-27), finalizing a couple national conferences we will be hosting in late June/early July, arranging everything for this summer’s student intern class, and exploring new projects and expanding existing ones.

Before I left Malibu, I had my second call with a government official in Nigeria about potentially working with them on judicial reforms, and hosted a delegation of Guatemalan lawyers who are exploring possible criminal justice reform along the lines of those undertaken by Uganda.

Divine Collision continues to be received and reviewed well – thanks to those of you who have shared your thoughts on Amazon.  If you have had a chance to read the book, please let your voice be heard.  My publisher tells me that getting to 100 reviews on Amazon is an important benchmark.  As of today, we are nearly halfway there:)