The Trifecta

I took advantage on Friday of the J-FASTER court session being dark until Monday by beginning the painstaking task of preparing a report reflecting upon my soon-to-be-completed six months in Uganda.  I scheduled a 10:30 meeting with Justice Bamwine, the Principal Judge of Uganda.  In Uganda, the Principal Judge is the head of the entire trial court system and is the third ranking judicial officer in Uganda.  Prior to the meeting, I finished an executive summary of the forthcoming report, so I delivered a copy to him during our meeting, which went quite well.

While I was meeting with Justice Bamwine, Jay Milbrandt, Associate Dean Carol Chase, and Pastor Mudgett and his wife Karen went out to Uganda Christian University to continue our friendship with them.  On their way back, they met me at a café where I was having lunch with a friend of a friend, who is in Uganda in conjunction with his efforts to gain legal guardianship over a boy in an orphanage.  Josh and his wife are very early in the process and have not yet fully completed the long process in the United States necessary before even coming to Uganda to seek a guardianship order.  We had a good talk about the system, the pitfalls, and the tasks he needs to complete before adding this boy to his family.  I very much enjoyed meeting and praying with him. He is and his wife are so committed to giving this boy a family that they have decided they will move to Uganda for three years if that is what is necessary.

After say goodbye to Josh, we all went to meet with the Deputy Chief Justice, Alice Bahigeine.  Justice Bahigeine and I bonded during a prior visit to Pepperdine and she remains one of my favorite people in Uganda.  She was one of the first women lawyers in Uganda, and only the second woman ever appointed to the Ugandan judiciary.  She is now the second ranking judicial officer in Uganda.  This summer, one of our students, Amanda Martin, is interning for her.  Amanda joined us for the courtesy call and J-FASTER briefing.  Justice Bahigeine raved about Amanda and was as charming as ever.

We completed the trifecta by ending our business day by meeting with Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki, the father of Uganda’s Constitution.  As the top ranking judicial officer in Uganda, Chief Justice Odoki travels quite a bit on behalf of Uganda and had just returned that morning from a meeting in Brazil.  He was kind enough to make a special trip into the office to greet those who had flown in for the Masindi Project.  This summer, one of our students, Ashley Cook, is interning for him and the two of them have become good friends.  Ashley joined us for our meeting with him, and he marveled to us at how sharp and efficient Ashley is.

After leaving court, we had dinner at a Gash favorite restaurant called Caffe Roma (and yes, it is spelled that way).  I also chose that restaurant because I knew a group of students and teachers from Oaks Christian High School (Jessica’s school) were having dinner there as well.  Jessica and Joline had spent a day with them last week before leaving on their Kenyan adventure to join up with the University Church of Christ youth group.  We enjoyed chatting with the students and learning about their two-week mission trip to Uganda.

The next morning, we arose early and headed to Jinja with the ten Pepperdine students here in Kampala and two of our students interning for the Chief Justice of Rwanda this summer.  We spent the morning and early afternoon at Amazima, the organization run by Katie Davis.  Katie authored “Kisses from Katie,” which is a fantastic read about a woman who took seriously the call to serve from a very young age.  Many of our group had read Katie’s book and were eager to meet her.  Katie was, as usual, quite gracious, and we all enjoyed spending lots of time with the 400 or so kids who came for a Bible Study and Worship time before having lunch.  This afternoon, we all relaxed by the Nile in advance of tomorrow’s full-day rafting and bungee jumping adventure.

Since I have recently done both, I am returning to Kampala when the others set adrift.  I am hoping to the meet up with the Masindi prosecutor, who is in Kampala this weekend, and to see Henry.  He called me earlier today and told me that he and his classmates are competing in an all-day choir competition in Bugolobi, where I live.  Before he even had a chance to tell me that he was feeling better, I could already tell from how he sounded – good as new.  We are both thankful for your prayers and well wishes for his speedy recovery from another bout with Malaria.

Quick update about Joline and the kids – everything is going very well in Kenya, and they had a great safari on the Masai Mara during which they saw several lions, a leopard, and tons of other animals.  I will be joining them on Tuesday for the last five days of the youth group trip.