Posts

Even Faster Than J-FASTER

/5 Comments/in /by

Delivering the Final Report to Chief Justice Odoki

One of the hardest things about leaving Uganda three weeks ago was the fact that the Masindi J-FASTER session for children imprisoned at the Ihungu Remand Home was scheduled to begin the following week.  While the Kampala J-FASTER session had taken the full 90 days we had allotted for it, we believed we could deliver justice to imprisoned children even faster.

Accordingly, the Masindi session was fast(er) tracked.  Our goal was to reduce by 30 days the time it took to get the children through the process.  The Pepperdine lawyers flew in from Malibu and the Pepperdine students drove up to Masindi from Kampala to interview the kids and prepare their cases in mid-June.  As mentioned previously, joining the Pepperdine team was Abby Skeans, a Regent Law student who was also spending her summer in Uganda.  While in Uganda, Abby served as a legal intern for Sixty Feet – a Christian NGO headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.  Given my close friendship with the Sixty Feet team, and given the good relationship Pepperdine enjoys with Regent, I had the privilege of “supervising” Abby during her eight weeks in Uganda.

From the beginning, Abby blended in easily with the Pepperdine students.  She was also very proactive and eager to get things accomplished.  For example, Abby took Pepperdine’s idea of creating a digital tracking system for all juvenile prisoners in Uganda (so that no kids would ever fall through the cracks again) and ran with it.  She and I initially met with the various Ministry of Gender officials who could approve such a project, and then she took the baton and sprinted forward.  Since I left Uganda, the final approvals for a pilot database project have been secured, and the database has been developed, thanks in no small part to computer wiz Dan Owens of Sixty Feet.  We hope to have the database project in place in the next few weeks.  A more complete description of this program and its current status is here in Abby’s blog.

Since Abby came to Kampala a few weeks later than the Pepperdine students, she was also staying in Uganda several weeks after we all left.  This meant that she would be around when the Masindi J-FASTER session started.  Additionally, a court official named Sarah, who had worked very closely with us in the Kampala session, also agreed to travel back and forth to Masindi in order to ensure that the J-FASTER procedures were both understood and observed by the court officials in Masindi.  Sarah’s expenses were covered by Sixty Feet.  An additional bonus is that Sarah had previously worked closely with the High Court judge who would be presiding over the Masindi J-FASTER session.  This same judge had worked closely with the Pepperdine team that had first traveled to Masindi for a juvenile justice project in January of 2010 during my first visit to Uganda.

As I experienced during my time in Uganda, it is foolish to expect everything to go according to plan.  That simply never happens.  Indeed, in Masindi, plenty went wrong.  For example, the lawyer who was supposed to represent the children went on leave the week before the trials were to start.  Fortunately, Abby was able to cajole her back from a different part of Uganda just in time.  As with the Kampala J-FASTER session, Sixty Feet generously funded the costs of the session so that these kids would not continue to languish in prison – some had been there for more than two years just waiting for someone to do something.  Additionally, as the session began, some “irregularities” developed with respect to the funds that had been deposited with the court.  Abby, Sarah, and others got this straightened out and recovered the “misplaced” funds. Abby and Sarah also gently, or not so gently, urged the rest of the players to complete their tasks – the role I had played in Kampala – and the session finally got underway in late July.

Just before I left, I had traveled to Masindi with Sarah, another Ugandan attorney, and two Pepperdine law students for a plea bargaining session with the prosecuting and defense attorneys. During that meeting, we had reached plea agreements on approximately three quarters of the twenty-two cases.  At that time, the lawyers agreed to continue discussions about the others.  When the court session began two weeks ago, however, they attorneys had reached deals on all but one of the cases.  Accordingly, the session moved forward with virtually no work to be done by the trial judge.  The following week, almost all of the children were sentenced, mostly in accordance with plea deals had been reached.  Most of these kids are now being resettled back home as I write this.  While each case is unique and tragic, one case really stands out from the others.

One of the boys, call him Sam, had been charged with murdering his father.  There was no dispute that his father had been killed, the question was simply who did it.  Prior to his arrest, Sam was in school and doing well, even though his father had moved his family from place to place about once a year.  Sam’s father was a physically abusive alcoholic and dabbled in Ugandan traditional healing (witch doctor stuff).  The family’s frequent moves were usually occasioned by his father being driven out of town by the locals.  From everything we could gather, it appeared that either Sam or his mother had killed Sam’s father after a particularly brutal series of physically abusive episodes against Sam and his mother.  After Sam was arrested, the police say that Sam initially confessed that he had killed his father, but he later insisted that he didn’t do it.  While in the Ihungu Remand Home, Sam had become the spiritual leader of the boys.  He also ached to resume his education.

During the plea discussions, the attorney representing the children reported that Sam would not plead guilty to a crime he did not commit.  Since he had been at Ihungu for less than a year, and since the maximum sentence for a juvenile is three years, he very likely faced more than two additional years in prison if he was convicted of the crime.  After I returned to the United States, I learned that a plea deal had later been reached that would result in Sam serving only an additional ten months in exchange for a plea of guilty.  Reluctantly, Sam accepted the deal, even though it is increasingly clear that he is taking the fall for another family member who actually killed Sam’s father.  Sam’s plight had so captured the attention (and heart) of Sixty Feet that they had agreed to sponsor his continuing education after he finished serving his additional sentence.  Earlier this week, I learned that after hearing about Sam’s case, the sentencing judge rejected the plea deal.  The judge had been so impressed by Sam, and had been so touched by Sixty Feet’s willingness to sponsor Sam’s return to school, Sam was sentenced to . . . time served.  Abby reports that upon hearing his sentence, Sam dropped to his knees and began offering a prayer of thanksgiving to God.  He has since been transported to Kampala where he will resume school in two weeks.

Here are a couple other quick updates.  First, the trial in the final case in the Kampala J-FASTER session concluded just before I left, but the judge had not yet entered her verdict.  The two adults charged with murder in this case (the juvenile had been dismissed from the consolidated case) were convicted and sentenced to 40 and 35 years, respectively.  Had they accepted a plea bargain, they would have saved themselves about twenty years each.  Hopefully the word will spread around the prison so that more will be willing to plea bargain.

Second, Henry has now finished his second of three terms of his Senior 5 year.  He continues to very much enjoy school and has lots of friends.  It is difficult to tell for sure how well he is doing because the school intentionally grades the students very hard the first two terms.  (Henry’s understanding is that he is somewhere near the middle of his class in the top school in the country where he is studying).  Only two of the two hundred in his class met the standard that the school says it will require everyone to meet next term in order to advance to the final Senior 6 year of secondary school.  I understand from numerous sources that the top schools routinely give low marks in the first two terms as a motivational tool for their students.

Final Dinner with Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice

My intent is to resume posting once or twice a week from this point forward.  In my next post, I will add my perspective, for what it is worth, to the recent debate about Chick Fil A, free speech, and marriage.

Caring For, Rather Than Caring About

/2 Comments/in /by

Caring about those in need is good.  Caring for those in need is better.  Why did it take me so long to understand and act on this?

Neither Joline nor I had ever been on a “mission trip” until we were in our forties.  My first such endeavor was coming to Uganda in January of 2010.  Recognizing that if I could do it, so could she, Joline (accompanied by Jessica) went to Honduras six months later.

Looking back on why we waited so long to get personally involved in missions work, Joline and have been able to identify plenty of excuses.  We both came from families of limited means – my parents were both public school teachers and there were four kids to feed and clothe, and things were even tighter for Joline’s family with seven kids at various times living under the roof of her blended family.  We were both involved in sports and we (well, at least Joline) took our studies very seriously.  Additionally, growing up, our worlds were quite small.  We could recognize third world countries on maps, but had little information about them and no one we knew was going there.  Our experiences were limited to periodic reports from the few missionaries our small church supported.  Both of us cared about the suffering and oppressed around the world.  We had contributed over the years to various mission-related organizations and groups and are sponsoring a child through World Vision.  This support is, of course, critical to the whole mission enterprise, and I don’t at all want to diminish its importance.  Indeed, providing financial resources can make a huge difference in the lives of the recipients, as my former student Holly proved by organizing a crew of people to bless Henry’s family as I posted about here.

But we had done virtually nothing to care for those in need in person.

When we were praying about whether we would respond to what we believed to be the recent call to Africa, we gradually came to the realization that perhaps this call was more about our children than it was about us.  We ultimately concluded that it was time for us to move beyond caring about and get to caring for.

This distinction had been brought home to me in a different context early in my teaching career.  Ken Elzinga, a renowned economics professor at the University of Virginia, had visited Pepperdine and delivered a series of lectures about what he thought it meant to be a Christian professor.  One of the points he made irrevocably changed me from that moment forward.  When students come to your office with challenging life problems, he implored the audience of professors, don’t just tell them you will pray for them.  Instead, take the opportunity (and the risk) and ask them if you can pray with them, right then and there, he encouraged.  In other words, be present with them in their pain and struggles, rather than caring about them from a distance.  Since then, I have endeavored to pray with my students whenever the opportunity arises.

Our time in Africa has been deeply impacting for Joline and me; it has been life changing for our children.  They are not hearing and praying about abandoned orphans and lonely widows.  They are holding them, singing to them, praying with them.

Joshua and Jennifer with a Widow

Jennifer at an Orphanage

Jessica in the Clinic

 

This experience is transformative.  Some of the changes are immediately noticeable, but I am confident that most of the impact is yet to be fully understood.  For example, this experience has already altered Jessica’s life and career trajectory.  She has now resolved to be a medical provider on an international level.  She is already researching medical schools and their programs for after she graduates from Pepperdine (more than five years from now).  She is in her element with the sick and hurting, and embraces opportunities to get into the middle of their suffering in an effort to provide relief.

One of the events God used to start working on my heart was a visit to Pepperdine by Baroness Caroline Cox, a member of the British House of Lords who is one of the leading humanitarians of this generation.  One of our students asked her whether it is better to visit the oppressed around the world or to instead send the money it would have cost to visit in person.  Her response made a significant impact me and prepared me to heed the call to Africa when it came at the end of a Bob Goff speech in 2009:

“Please go.  The fact that you visit . . . will be a great comfort for those people you do visit, because the kind of people we have been talking about, they often feel forgotten . . . and the fact that you care enough to go will be a blessing to them.  You don’t necessarily have to take anything specific in terms of professional skills.  The fact that you are there will mean a lot to them – you care enough to leave your comfort zone, you care enough to go.  And when you come back, you’ll be able to be an advocate for them . . .  Other opportunities will open up which will show you your way forward through whatever door God may want you to go through in your life . . . When you come back, you’re going to have a massive ripple effect.”

I have been privileged to see this modeled in several individuals who have become heros to me, three of whom have written books about how God whispered (or yelled) to them to become involved.  While I have only read one of these books, I highly recommend all three.  The first is “Kisses from Katie.”

Kisses from Katie

I have written about Katie Davis previously and have very much enjoyed the opportunity to get to know her here in Uganda.  She is a remarkable young woman and her book is about how and why she ended up moving to Uganda at the age of 19, and how and why a few years later she is the mother to 13 girls and the director of a huge ministry serving a large portion of a poor, rural area in Uganda.

The second is “Love Does” by Bob Goff.

Love Does

This book was just released in the United States two weeks ago, but doesn’t come out on Kindle or Audiobooks until May 1.  I am positively jealous of my friends who have already read this book.  As I have written about previously, Bob is the person most directly responsible for the Gashes moving to Uganda.  The reviews are uniformly favorable for this inspiring book about love in action.

The third is “Go and Do” by Jay Milbrandt.

Go and Do

Jay’s book was also released in the United States earlier this month, but just came out on Kindle yesterday.  I have downloaded it and have already begun to dig into it.  As detailed in Chapter 14 of Jay’s book, Jay was integrally involved in convincing me to come to Uganda in January of 2010.  Chapter 14 also provides an overview of how and when Henry and I met and kindly alludes to the book Henry and I are writing about how our lives providentially collided.

In addition to these three members of my cloud of witnesses, I am also encouraged and inspired by the Gregston family (our Twin Family) as they continue to travel around Uganda providing medical care to those who otherwise have no access to it.  They have been “adopting” various children with serious medical needs along the way and arranging for life-saving treatments and operations that would otherwise be out of reach to them.  I encourage you to follow along with their blog here if you are not already doing so.

I have also been regularly inspired by my students at Pepperdine, many of who travel around the world to serve those in need.  Equally inspiring, however, are the students who regularly feed the day laborers at the Malibu Labor Exchange, who drive down to skid row in Los Angeles to assist the homeless in various endeavors at Pepperdine’s legal clinic at the Union Rescue Mission, and who visit incarcerated youths at a local detention center.

It is self-evident that there are innumerable opportunities, locally and internationally, to care for those in need.  I have come to the realization that simply caring about them isn’t enough anymore.

Coming Home . . . for the First Time

/3 Comments/in /by

We have been blessed to have Henry with us this weekend after we picked him up from school on Saturday at the end of his first term at the top secondary school in Uganda.  While we don’t have his grades yet, he worked very hard and gave his very best against the top students in the country.  He was near the top of his class on the only paper he has gotten back so far (in Physics).  On Saturday morning, our kids gave Henry a swimming lesson at our pool (he is learning to swim).  On Saturday afternoon, we took him to see the first movie he has ever seen at a theater.  It was supposed to be The Hunger Games, but the theater didn’t get it yet, so we saw Lorax instead.  To call it a poor substitute would be charitable.

Henry at his first movie

If The Hunger Games is not released here next weekend, I’m afraid I will be “forced” to resume my pirating adventures.

Tomorrow, we are getting up early and taking Henry home.  On the way, however, we are going to spend some time in Masindi where Henry and I met — at the juvenile prison where Henry spent nearly two years of his life.  More on that visit in the next day or two.

But today’s post is about a very different homecoming – one that we (and many of you) have been praying about for several weeks.  Tomorrow (Monday), Lindsey Doyle is bringing Eden Hannah home.  I posted about the Doyles previously here.  Briefly, Eden’s birth mother is mentally ill and does not have even a minor grasp on reality.  Eden wasn’t expected to live after she was found, but was nursed back to health by a couple of American nurses before she was matched with the Doyles.  After several weeks in Uganda, the Doyles were granted legal guardianship over baby Eden in November.  Unfortunately, however, the US Embassy in Uganda sent their case to the Nairobi Embassy for further evaluation.  While the matter was pending in Nairobi, the Doyles had to return to Nashville to wait.  Eden was overwhelmed with love and protection by a remarkable family in Jinja while the Doyles waited for a ruling from Nairobi.  Unfortunately, the ruling came back unfavorable – the Nairobi office issued a Notice of Intent to Deny the visa application.  The problem revolved around the language used in the Ugandan judge’s legal guardianship order and its relation to American visa law.  Nothing was intrinsically wrong with the order – it said all of the right things for all of the right reasons – but the mental illness of the mother was not addressed in a way that allowed the US Embassy officials to determine that US laws were met.

Stalemate.

It is very difficult to get a revised ruling in Uganda in the less than a year, if ever.  After lots of prayer and a little well-timed encouragement at a God-orchestrated unofficial meeting, a new order was issued in time to meet the response deadline to the Embassy’s Notice of Intent to Deny.  We were all thrilled when on Monday, the US Embassy changed its position and issued its final decision – VISA APPLICATION GRANTED.

Lots of tears of celebration.

As I write this post, Lindsey and Eden are here at our apartment having a sleepover.

Lindsey and Eden Doyle with Jim

Tomorrow morning, they pick up their visa and tomorrow evening, they fly home to the rest of their family.  Praise God.  Thanks for all of your prayers on their behalf.

Facilitation

/4 Comments/in /by

The Largest Currency in Uganda -- Worth $20

Lots of things frustrate me in Uganda – the lack of chocolate chips in this country, the lack of access to basic hygiene among a substantial portion of the population, the length of time it takes to get even the most simple tasks accomplished, etc.  But the most frustrating thing I have encountered here is “facilitation.”

In the United States, “facilitation” means “the act of making easier.”  In Uganda, however, “facilitation” means something entirely different.  As mentioned in an earlier post, Uganda is largely a cash-based society.  While the advent of Mobile Money (electronic transfer of funds via cell phone) is starting to make an impact on this, most transactions still use cold, hard cash.  Unfortunately, this includes transactions involving the government.  Accordingly, the opportunities for corruption are ubiquitous.  In fact, nearly one-third of the articles in yesterday’s local newspaper directly or indirectly concerned corruption and/or unaccounted for governmental funds.  Children are unable to attend school, starving, and dying of malaria because there are “insufficient funds” to provide basic services.  And don’t get me started on the two fighter jets that were recently purchased by the Ugandan government, which represented an embarrassingly high percentage of the government’s annual budget.

But “facilitation” is not corruption, at least not in the usual sense that word is used.  When government officials insist on being paid cash they keep themselves for tasks included in their job descriptions, that is corruption.  This type of corruption is rampant in various governmental departments, particularly the police.  For example, in order for the police to investigate the burglary of the Gregston’s apartment last month, the hotel management had to pay the officers to come out to the hotel.  It was extra to bring Rover, who supposedly could follow the scent of the burglar.  The hotel just learned on Thursday that the investigation was complete, but, alas, the hotel would have to pay another 280,000 Shillings to get the report.  This is corruption, plain and simple.  More subtle, however, is facilitation.

At Pepperdine, employees – from the top to the bottom – are reimbursed for expenses incurred in the course of their duties.  So when, for example, I travel to a conference on behalf of the University, I am reimbursed for my airfare, hotel room, rental car, etc.  I must, however, produce receipts (or an explanatory memorandum if I don’t have a receipt) for the expenses incurred.  I am given mileage reimbursement (approximately $.50 per mile) for the distance I need to travel to get to the airport.  This rate approximates the cost of fuel and wear and tear on the car, and is equivalent to a rate set by the government for governmental employees.  These same rules and rates apply to every single person in the University.

Things are quite different in Uganda.  Many government officials are provided a “facilitation” allowance for travel associated with their jobs.  Since receipts are exceedingly difficult to come by, and since most Ugandans don’t have either credit cards (governmental or personal) or extra cash to pay for expenses in advance of reimbursement, this facilitation is usually provided in advance.  And the amount of the facilitation is not tied to actual expenses incurred, and it varies (quite dramatically) depending upon the level of the governmental official.  So, for example, if a clerk needs to travel to Jinja (two hours away) to attend a conference and stay for a night, that clerk will receive a much smaller facilitation allowance that would, for example, a judge.  And, of course, no receipts are necessary, so some officials sleep in their cars in order to supplement their salaries.  Since the facilitation allowances are actually quite generous in relation to the officials’ salaries, there is a huge incentive to attend conferences and other official gatherings for all governmental officials.  This, in turn, leads to a breathtaking loss in productivity because officials are traveling at every opportunity.

I am not saying, however, that this type of facilitation is corruption.  It isn’t.  The law provides for a certain level of payment for a certain type of activity, so it all legal.  It is incredibly inefficient and terrible policy management, but it is not corrupt.

Another type of facilitation is, however, corrupt to the core, and it is both driving me crazy and threatening to have a serious impact on the long-term future of international adoption in Uganda.

I don’t want to get too deep into the intricacies of Ugandan family law, so suffice it to say that to get an order from the court allowing an international family to gain custody of a Ugandan orphan, a Ugandan official has to complete an investigation and prepare a report.  That official is paid a salary by the government and these investigations and reports are a recurring part of the official’s job.  In order to properly (and honestly) conduct the investigation, the official will be required to travel various places, including to the orphanage and to interview family members to ascertain to the true status of the child.  For this type of work, however, there is no government facilitation allowance, no government vehicle to use, and no government credit card to cover the out-of-pocket expenses associated with this travel.  This leaves the officials only a few options – pay the expenses out of their own pocket (ain’t happening), lie about making the visit (happens sometimes), or charge the adopting families via their Ugandan lawyers a facilitation fee in order to perform the necessary work (happens frequently).  Herein lies the problem. Money is being paid to government officials to perform tasks contained within their job descriptions that otherwise wouldn’t be performed.  No receipts are provided.  No mileage rates are used.  And the facilitation costs are completely unstandardized and seemingly unrelated to actual expenses incurred – official X charges 100,000 shillings ($40), and official Y charges 300,000 shillings for what seems to be the exact same work.

Would-be adoptive parents from the US (or elsewhere) don’t have any sense of any of this and pay what they are told to pay because the necessary investigation work otherwise won’t be completed.  Out of this quite distasteful scenario emerges claims that children are being “trafficked” because unjustifiable money is changing hands in conjunction with international adoptions.  For the record, this activity (in and of itself) doesn’t even remotely rise to the level of legitimate use of the “trafficking” terminology, but it is raising questions in lots of people’s minds about the whole international adoption arena in Uganda.  (To be fair, there are other questions being raised by some that are more serious than this facilitation problem, but the jury is still out on level of fraud in the system).

All of this is to say that there is still much work to do in this realm and I am gratified to be increasingly included and consulted in conjunction with challenges related to international adoption.  Many of the meetings and much of the work are taking place behind the scenes, so I won’t be writing about such meetings here.  I will say, however, that if you are considering (or if someone you know is considering) international adoption in Uganda, then please, please ask lots of questions of your lawyers and insist on doing everything honestly.  Do not pay any bribes at all, and do not pay facilitation fees beyond that which is reasonable.  Your Ugandan lawyers will be glad to answer your questions and will be glad to stand by your refusal to give in.  Don’t tell your lawyers to get it done, whatever the cost.  Every time an official is bribed or improperly facilitated, then the next family will be put into a worse position because the official will be expecting such a payment.  If things get out of control, then the whole process could be shut down.  It has happened in country after country recently.

And another thing, don’t come to Uganda and begin caring for the orphan child until all of your paperwork has been completed.  And if anything goes wrong, you may be here for a while, so count the cost in advance.

There are 2.5 million Ugandan orphans.  Last year, about 200 of them were taken back to the United States with their new families.  All indications are that this number could potentially double, or even triple, this next year.  While this represents only a tiny fraction of Ugandan orphans, each individual child is precious to God and deserves to have a loving family.  Things need to be done right or these kids will continue to languish in orphanages and never know the love of a family.

Sorry to be preachy, but there is quite a bit at stake here.  I will try to be funny in my next post.

Separation Anxiety

/3 Comments/in /by

We recently passed the two-month marker on our African adventure and experienced another event that has caused me to start thinking about the sadness of separation and joyfulness of reunion.

On Monday, March 26th, we woke up to what we thought would be another “ordinary” day in Uganda as we kicked off the second one-third of our six-month adventure.  Within a few minutes, we realized that things had taken a decided turn for the worst.  At some point between 11:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., the Gregstons (our Twin Family) had been burglarized in their apartment immediately below ours.  While they slept, a thief had crawled in through a window of their ground-floor apartment and stolen a wad of cash, four laptops, and several other valuable electronic items, leaving through a sliding glass door.  Needless to say, this shook all of us up quite a bit.  You can read the Gregston’s post about it here.

Over the course of the next week, the Gregstons prayed about it and decided that they needed to move to a more secure apartment complex that was nearer to their home base for their medical mission work.  After having lived most waking moments with them for the past two months, we are experiencing a good bit of separation anxiety.  We understood their decision and will likely still see them quite often.  For the time being, since we are on the second floor, and since the place we are staying in beefed up its security measures following the break in, we are planning to stay put.

This week also marked the kick-off of the juvenile justice pilot programme (that is how they spell it here) that I have been working on, and those of us who are involved are pretty excited about the prospect of curing the separation anxiety that the juvenile inmates feel as they wait in prison (many of them for more than a year) for a chance to go to court.  Phase I of this programme is officially underway, and we just learned that the prosecution is going to dismiss one of the fourteen cases immediately because the evidence is insufficient to proceed.  One down, thirteen to go.

On the legal guardianship front, the top-notch attorneys for the Doyle family filed yesterday the formal response to the US Embassy’s prior unfavorable notification with respect to their attempts to bring home baby Eden.  I have posted about them before here, and their heart-wrenching blog is here.  Eden just turned one last month and has been here in Uganda separated from the Doyles (who were granted a legal guardianship order over Eden in November).  I just learned that the Doyles have boarded a plane and are on their way to Uganda right now.  It will be good to meet them in person after having exchanged countless e-mails with them and having spoken with them on the phone several times.  Please be praying that the US Embassy will rule quickly and favorably so that they will never have to be separated from Eden again.

Late last week, I met another family from Atlanta who is here in Uganda in conjunction with their hoped-for adoption of three orphan siblings.  After the Skype conference call between the Ugandan attorneys and American attorneys I wrote about here, the family’s Ugandan attorney realized that the way the events were playing out could potentially put the family in a very difficult position with the US Embassy after the Ugandan court was awarded legal guardianship over the children to the family.  Accordingly, their Ugandan attorney had them contact me, and I connected them with the American attorneys who are now working with this family to ensure that the right procedures are followed between now and their application to the US Embassy for a visa.  It is heartening to see tangible evidence that the connection between the Ugandan and American lawyers is paying dividends for these orphan kids and the would-be adoptive families.

Finally, our family’s separation anxiety from the United States was temporarily diminished when Shane Michael (one of my former students and colleagues here in Uganda) brought back a few bags of chocolate chips after a brief trip he made to the United States.  We knew we were missing chocolate chips, but didn’t know how much until we were able to make a fresh batch of Nestle’s Tollhouse cookies.

Goffing Around in Uganda, Part II

/5 Comments/in /by

Continuing on from yesterday . . .

When Bob Goff, the two pastors, Margaret (court registrar), and I walked into the warden’s office, it was clear that he remembered Bob, Margaret, and me from our visit in November.  I suspect that having a witch doctor give his life to Jesus while praying with a couple mzungus and a charismatic preacher woman is not an everyday occurrence for the warden in his office.

Before Kabe (the witch doctor) arrived, we talked with the warden about the prison conditions and learned that Kabe shared a cell with 106 other prisoners.  In trying to envision what this looked like, we asked where everyone slept.  The warden explained that there wasn’t room for beds, so the prisoners slept on the floor.  Most of them had small mattresses, but some of them slept directly on the floor.  After a few minutes, a guard walked Kabe into the warden’s office.

As before, Kabe was in the prison-issue bright yellow shorts and shirt.  But his demeanor was very different than last November.  He was much more confident and smiled when he saw Bob, who, of course, gave him a big hug.

“Thank you for coming back to see me,” Kabe said in pretty good (and loud) English.  He had spoken no English last time and had spoken just barely above a whisper.

“I told you I would, and I have been thinking and praying about you a lot.  How have you been?” Bob replied.

Kabe turned to Margaret and asked for her to interpret because he said it was easier to speak in his native language.  Kabe proceeded to explain that he has been doing much better since the prior visit when he “got saved.”  He says he thinks about home less often, and doesn’t get sad when he does.  He also reported that he has decided that if he ever gets out of prison, he wants to become an evangelist for Jesus.  He said that he has been talking to some of his fellow prisoners about his conversion.  Kabe also told us he was grateful for the money we had left with the warden to put on his account – he had purchased sugar, rice, and a few extra things.

Bob then presented Kabe with a Bible printed in his native language, though his English Bible was in his front shirt pocket and appeared to be getting quite a bit of use.

During the course of our thirty-minute visit with Kabe, we learned that his father was a witch doctor and Kabe took over his “practice” when he died.  Kabe said that earlier in his life, he had been Christian but had turned away.

It was so encouraging to see the palpable change in his life that his decision to follow Jesus had brought.  I will confess to having previously wondered whether his conversion would “stick” or whether it was a case of him doing what he thought we wanted him to do.  The pastors shared some scriptures with him and we had a big group prayer and exchanged lots of hugs.  At one point, Bob asked Kabe where he slept.

“On the floor.”

“On a mattress on the floor, or directly on the floor?”

“On the floor.  I have no mattress.”

Bob then turned to the warden.  “How can we get him a mattress?”

Within a few moments, Bob had arranged for the warden to get the mattress, and we left some additional money for more sugar and rice for Kabe.

“One more thing,” Bob said.  “Are the prisoners allowed to wear shoes?”

“Yes, if they have them,” replied the warden quizzically.

Bob sat down and instructed Kabe to do the same.  Bob then removed his dress shoes and put them on Kabe.  Perfect fit.  Kabe looked into Bob’s gleaming eyes through his own wet eyes and they hugged again.

Margaret then asked the warden if she could come back to preach the gospel to the prisoners.  The warden said that as long as he had advance notice, that would be fine.  How many of the prisoners would attend, asked Margaret.  All 732 of them, replied the warden.

One of the pastors with us loved the idea so much that he said that he would come back for it.  He asked Kabe if he might be interested in sharing his testimony with the other prisoners.  Kabe said that he would be happy to do so.  No date has been set, but there was some talk about this happening in May.  I definitely won’t miss this.

I couldn’t help but grin broadly as I walked out behind Bob who was walking a bit more gingerly in his black socks.

Out in the prison parking lot, Hero was waiting for us.  He had ridden with Margaret (with whom he is now living in Kampala), but didn’t have any idea where we were or with whom we were meeting.  He was every bit as playful and silly as ever, so it was good catching up with him.

Jim and Hero Outside the Maximum Security Prison

Earlier that morning, Hero had seen his mom and younger brother for the first time in five months.  Margaret tells us that it was a joyful reunion.  Later that afternoon, our group had lunch with nearly all of the judges who had previously visited Pepperdine (about ten of them).  In fact, it was the Chief Justice’s birthday so we all sang happy birthday to him and the restaurant owner presented him with a huge bouquet of roses.

The following day, the Gashes got up early and drove out to see Henry at his school for “Sports Day” – one of two days in the semester that we are allowed to visit him at the school.  It resembled an American version of “Field Day” with lots of races and tug-of-war contests among the various dorms/houses.  We enjoyed catching up with him and hearing how things are going – quite well.

Henry, Joshua, and Henry's Physics Teacher at Sports Day

Unfortunately, I had to miss the Goffing that took place on Saturday.  Bob rented a house, and then the big group split into several smaller groups and spent the better part of the day buying furniture and furnishings for the otherwise empty house.  By the end of the day, it was ready to provide a fresh start for more than a dozen former prostitutes that will be rescued over the course of the next couple of weeks.  Bob’s organization, Restore International, and a couple churches are partnering to provide for these vulnerable girls with a new life.

Needless to say, all of this has been quite inspiring.  But then again, time with Bob always is.

Reflections from Uganda on “Kony 2012”

/5 Comments/in /by

Like more than 80 million others around the world, I have watched the moving and professionally done “Kony 2012” video produced by Invisible Children.  Unlike the vast majority of those who have watched the 30-minute video, however, I am actually in living in Uganda and have had the opportunity to experience this phenomenon from the inside.

I will leave to the social scientists to explain why this is the most widely viewed video in the shortest amount of time in the history of the world.  I simply hope to offer a few thoughts and a window into how the video is being received here in Uganda, both in the popular press and by those who lived through the nightmarish war in the north.

From my perch in Kampala, it appears to me that Americans are choosing sides – pro and con.  Though that is likely too simplistic.  More accurately, Americans appear to be choosing whether they are for or against Indivisible Children as an organization and/or its founders.  While there are those who contend that the issues surrounding the war in Northern Uganda is much more complex than the 30-minute video captures (duh), no one appears to be coming out in favor of Joseph Kony or the LRA.  That is a good thing, for he is a very bad man.

So what are people against, exactly, and why?  And how do Ugandans feel about this video?

In the immediate wake of the release of this video, Invisible Children was the subject of quite a bit of criticism based upon the way it uses its money and the alleged lack of transparency relating to its finances.  IC immediately responded in a way that seemed to provide much-needed clarification in light of the criticisms.  Here is their response.  I have neither the time nor the inclination to independently assess whether they are using their money in precisely the way I (or anyone else) think they should use it.  But they make crystal clear that they are an advocacy organization and that among their core functions are (i) producing high-quality videos that bring awareness to the plight of otherwise-forgotten children in Africa, and (ii) traveling around the country and world in an effort to build awareness.  It seems to me indisputable that they are doing an excellent job on first point, as witnessed by the fact that most of the developed world is talking about Joseph Kony right now.  And with respect to the second point, I can personally attest that traveling around the world in an effort to get things done is very expensive.  It is also true that there is no substitute for being here, there, and everywhere in person.

I personally don’t know the founders of IC – I met one of them only briefly and he seemed like a good guy to me.  One of my former students works for IC, and I know he is a stellar guy.  (Hey Jed).  I also know that what IC did about a decade ago to put a spotlight on Uganda and the “Night Commuter” children was nothing short of spectacular.  Their original video inspired a generation of young people to look beyond themselves and to come to Uganda, Congo, and other places in Africa and around the world in order to bring relief to the suffering.  That simply is not in dispute.  (Please do not allow the recent public indiscretion by one of the IC founders to at all distract you from the real issue here – the suffering population in Northern Uganda).

Granted, whether or not IC spends “enough” of its money on relief, counseling, rehabilitation, and reconstruction is a legitimate point for discussion.  But critics of IC should understand that they are not solely a relief organization – they are an advocacy organization as well.  For those who think that IC should be spending more on relief, then there is an easy solution.  Find an organization that does solely relief work and send some money there also.  Better yet, come to Uganda or South Sudan or wherever and get involved, rather than simply heckling someone else who is trying to help.

Here are a few organizations who are trying to bring relief to the oppressed around the world:

World Vision

International Justice Mission

I also want to commend to you Sister Rosemary who runs a relief operation for those affected by the LRA in Northern Uganda.  She is truly an amazing woman, and I had a chance to speak with her earlier this week about her take on the Kony 2012 video.  I don’t feel authorized to quote her, but I will say that those who are looking to do something tangible to help those directly affected by the LRA should look into supporting her and her work.  Here is a fairly recent CNN story on her.  Also, Restore International (Bob Goff’s organization) runs a school in Gulu (the epicenter for the war in the north) and is helping to re-educate and re-vitalize this part of Uganda.

OK, so how is the Kony 2012 video being received here in Uganda?  Unsurprisingly, it is getting lots of press attention.  Also unsurprisingly, the responses are mixed, but trending mostly positive.  There are certainly questions being raised about the timing of this video.  I will admit to scratching my head when I first heard “Kony 2012.”  Kony was driven out of Uganda in 2006, so why are they doing a video about him now?  But after watching the video, and seeing and hearing IC acknowledge that while Kony and the LRA are no longer here in Uganda, they are still active in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.  That was news to me, and it appears to be news to lots of Ugandans.

A couple days ago, the video was played on an outdoor screen in Gulu.  About halfway through the screening, some teenagers started throwing rocks at the screen and at the organizers, so it was halted.  When asked to explain their actions, the teenagers reported that they were kids during Kony’s reign of terror and the images on the screen were still too haunting for them.  This was a sobering reminder of how much in need of relief this region still remains.  Other public commentators have acknowledged that the capture of Kony would be helpful in bringing closure to this entire episode, so they are pleased that this video might enhance the international pressure to capture Kony.  Still others – largely those who oppose the current government – complain that that video does not acknowledge the destructive role of the Uganda government and its army during the war and in its aftermath.  While that is certainly true, making a video long enough to get one’s point across, and yet short enough that people will watch it, necessarily means that it will not contain all of the details.

So, in conclusion, I am pleased (and most Ugandans are pleased) that there was a video created to bring attention to Kony and the LRA.  If you have not watched the video, I encourage you to do so.  If you feel inclined to support IC, then do.  If you would rather focus your generosity on organizations that exclusively provide relief, then do that.

As Forrest Gump memorably said, that’s about all I have to say about that.

Kisses from Jinja

/3 Comments/in /by

Day Two in Jinja was every bit as exciting as Day One.  It began as the day before had ended – with Katie Davis and her family.  For those of you who don’t know who she is, you should read her book – “Kisses from Katie.”  It is engrossing, inspiring, and available on Amazon here.

Briefly, about four years ago, Katie moved to Uganda from Tennessee after graduating from high school.  Her profound faith and love for the people of Uganda (especially the children) led her to start an organization called Amazima Ministries (which means truth in the local language) and to become the mother of thirteen Ugandan girls.  The book chronicles the journey of this “modern day Mother Teresa,” introducing the reader to each of the girls that God led to Katie.  This brief summary does not do the book (or Katie) justice.

I met Katie last November in Kampala at a lunch put together by our mutual friend, Bob Goff.  I had already read her book and blog, and had a chance to chat with her then.  At that time, she invited our family to come and visit her family in Jinja after we arrived.  The Gregstons had also read her book and blog, and so we decided to come see her family together.  On Friday afternoon, Katie brought her girls over to our hotel to swim with our kids at the pool.  Our kids instantly bonded and played together until they were exhausted.  After swimming, we had dinner at the hotel.  With Katie on Friday was a young boy she was nursing back to health (from severe malnutrition complicated by a medical condition).  He is seven years old and weighs just 10 kilos (about 22 pounds).  He is so thin and fragile, but Katie is utilizing all of the best techniques to rehabilitate him in way that restores his long-term health.

Then this morning, Katie and the girls stopped by our hotel on the way to their Saturday gathering at the property Amazima owns outside of Jinja.  At this gathering, there are over four hundred kids who come for a time of worship, a Bible lesson, play time, lunch, and who then receive several kilograms of food (and soap) to take home for the week.  It really is quite an impressive production.  We were allowed to join Katie’s girls and Amazima staff members in the food serving.

Praise and Worship Time

Feeding the (nearly) 500

I also got to meet a sweet young girl named Jane.  For those of you who have read the book, you will remember that Jane is a girl Katie was foster parenting, but then had to give up after a painful turn of events.  If you want to learn how and why I was able to meet Jane, you will want to read the updated version of “Kisses from Katie.”  (As all good stories, this one continues to unfold long after the original publication date).

Jim and Jane

After lunch and some playing with the kids, we said our goodbyes to Katie and had our picture taken with her.

The Gashes with Katie Davis

From there, the Gashes headed back to the Nile River for Round Two of bungee jumping.  I still wasn’t convinced that I had conquered my fears, Jessica wanted to do a solo jump, and Jennifer wanted to join in the fun.  When we registered to jump yesterday, we had been told that Jennifer was too young.  Later, we learned that the limit was more weight-specific than age-specific.  Accordingly, if Jennifer were to jump with someone, then her age was immaterial.  She wanted to jump with her daddy, and I had more than enough weight to meet the minimum standard.  (Joshua decided that yesterday’s jump was enough excitement for the weekend).

I didn’t think it was possible for me to be more scared than yesterday, but I was.  As we stood on the platform waiting to strap in before the jump, “You don’t have anything to prove – you did that yesterday” kept running through my mind.  Jennifer was growing increasingly nervous, even as Jessica was growing increasingly excited.  Ultimately, Jennifer and I sucked it up and took the leap.

Take Off

Reaching for the Nile

Kissing away the fear

Jessica really enjoyed her solo plunge, but learned a quick lesson in pendulum physics on the way down.  Since the jumper is tied to the bungee cord by the ankles, the goal is go head first.  If one jumps feet first, there is a rather jolting correction at the bottom.  Jessica experienced this correction, but squealed with a mixture of panic and delight the entire time.

Jessica going solo

Right side up, when supposed to be upside down

After the correction

All in all, it was another adventurous and memorable day in Uganda.  (We will be posting the videos of our jumps in the next day or two).  Tomorrow is the one and only Open House Day at Henry’s school for the term, so we are all going to visit him on the way back from Jinja.

Mobile Money

/3 Comments/in /by

As is the case for all developing countries, Ugandan is a cash-driven society.  The lack of widespread use of credit cards creates numerous challenges for all sectors of society, including the judiciary.  In the United States, the court system can purchase supplies and pay all sorts of suppliers and vendors via government credit cards and/or a system of invoicing.  The same is not true in Uganda.

There are no government credit cards and virtually every purchase is a cash transaction, most of which don’t usually generate receipts.  Consequently, opportunities for corruption are widely available and too often utilized.  This, in turn, leads to the creation of systems that cause immense delay and incredible inefficiency.  For example, many of the courts in Uganda operate via “session” calendaring.  Criminal cases are not heard on a rolling basis, but rather in “sessions.”  This means that forty cases are set for a session that will occur over a two or three month time period.  A judge may have two or three sessions a year.  This is solely driven by the fact that the cash to pay for the session has to be requisitioned in advance.  The cash is largely to pay for witnesses to come to court (who otherwise won’t or can’t afford to come), to pay for fuel for the transportation for the buses to bring the defendants from prison to court, and to pay for the transportation of files from the police station or from one court to another.

Interestingly, this incredibly inefficient and antiquated system of having to pay for everything by cash has combined with the ubiquity of cell phones to create a money movement innovation that is actually somewhat ahead of the West.  This innovation is called Mobile Money and it is rapidly gaining popularity in Uganda.  In fact, my prediction is that Uganda will skip credit cards altogether.  (A similar thing happened in telecommunications – cell phones became affordable before infrastructure was in place for landlines.  Accordingly, virtually no houses and not many businesses have landlines, which is where the US is clearly heading).

Mobile Money operates off of the cell phone platform (MTN is the biggest player in the cell phone market and got an early jump on Mobile Money relative to its competition).  Here is how it works: a customer will take cash to an authorized Mobile Money dealer (there are tons of them around within easy reach).  The dealer creates a Mobile Money account for the customer and places the amount of the deposit on the customer’s account (minus a very modest fee).  The customer then merely needs to input a passcode into the program on the phone to get access to the money.  At that point, Mobile Money works just like PayPal – the most popular system in the US for moving money around via the internet.

Mobile Money

With the increasing use of Mobile Money by regular folks, an increasing number of businesses are accepting Mobile Money as a form of payment for goods and services.  One person with a Mobile Money account can immediately transfer money to another account holder with the stroke of a few keys on the phone.  Accordingly, borrowing a few bucks (or shillings) from a friend is more easily accomplished via text message than it is to reach into a wallet, remove the bills, hand them to someone else, who then puts the bills into her purse.

Old fashioned theft mechanisms of purse of wallet snatching may quickly become a thing of the past as cash may soon be unnecessary.  (Phone theft is pointless because the money can only be accessed with a password and the account can be frozen in a matter of minutes via a Mobile Money dealer).  I can imagine a day soon where beggars on the street will be holding up signs with their Mobile Money account numbers.

In a very real sense, then, Uganda may actually be closer to going totally cashless than the US.

P.S.  Henry just called from his school and reported that his first three days have gone exceedingly well and he has “very many” friends.  Thanks for all the prayers on his behalf.

They Both Used Knives

/0 Comments/in /by

The day began with Bob Goff leaving San Diego at 2:00 a.m. on his way to Cedars Sinai Hospital.  Bob had convinced nearly everyone involved to allow him to scrub up and assist with the operation, but alas, he couldn’t get past the hospital’s final line of defense – the lawyers.  Lawyers too often mess up the fun.  Unable to complete a last-minute reversal and get into the operating theater, Bob was there in the waiting room when I arrived at 7:30 a.m.  Bob had spent some time with the surgeon that morning and had presented him with a framed picture of Hero, the 9 year-old Ugandan boy on whom the surgeon was preparing to operate, hoping to at least partially reverse the damage done by a witch doctor now in jail for the rest of his life.  Bob and I caught up for a few minutes and then connected with Ted and Fayanna Worrell, the husband and wife with whom Hero is living while he is here in the United States.  They are volunteer host parents through Mending Kids International, a wonderful organization that, well, mends kids from around the world.  The Worrells had just left Hero with the operating staff and they reported that while he was a little nervous, he was quite brave.

The surgery started at around 8:00 a.m. and was scheduled to last for eight hours.  The plan was for the surgeon to use most of the skin and tissue (including blood vessels and a nerve) from Hero’s left forearm as the donor skin and tissue, and then to take a skin-only graft from his right thigh to be placed over the new void on his left arm.  We spoke with the Worrells for twenty minutes or so and then set out in search of some breakfast.  We fanned out at the coffee shop and worked separately until the early afternoon when we reconvened for lunch.  Bob and Ted each received a text message from the surgeon at the halfway point and he reported that all was going according to plan.  We were later joined by one of the coordinators for Mending Kids and we all waited and tried to work for the last couple of hours, checking the clock and wondering aloud regularly when the surgery might be over.  Finally, at 4:00 p.m., we left the coffee shop and returned to the waiting room.  About a half hour later, the doctor came out.

I will stop short of declaring that what the surgeon did with Hero today was a miracle because only God perform miracles.  I will say, however, that God worked powerfully through the surgeon to take a huge step toward restoring to Hero what the witch doctor took away from him.  As the surgeon explained to us what he had done and how he had done it, I was struck with the realization that he and the witch doctor had both used knives to accomplish their purposes — another reminder that so many things we encounter in our daily lives (including our words) can be used to destroy or to restore.

After another two hours of waiting, we finally got to see Hero.  At first he was asleep and had tubes down his throat.  Within a few minutes, however, he started coughing, so the nurses removed the tubes and let him breathe unencumbered.  We gathered closely around him and offered a prayer of thanksgiving and blessing on him.  About ten minutes later, he started opening and closing his eyes for a few seconds at a time.  He had that faraway look that we all know and have seen in post-operative patients.

A few minutes later, he started focusing and responding to our encouragement and well wishes.  At one point, he said “I got this.  I have been cut with knives before and I have the strength to endure.  I was made by a God much bigger than you realize and I know he has plans for me.”  He didn’t say this with words, of course, but he communicated it in the way that many Ugandans, especially children, do.  I had been with Hero enough to see him do it about a dozen times – a barely perceptible nod (simultaneously jutting his chin slightly, raising his eyebrows just a hair, and tilting his head a couple degrees).  That was all we needed from him tonight – he came through it wonderfully and was able to let us know that he was OK.

We also learned from the surgeon today that he had been able to accomplish the whole thing in one shot such that unless there are complications, there will be no more surgeries.  This was an unexpected surprise for all of us and means that he will likely be able to return home to his mother within three months, rather than six.  He will be in the hospital for the next five days and has numerous checkups and tube removals ahead of him in the coming weeks, but our prayers have all been answered.  God is good.