My last full day on the ground in Uganda was again filled with meetings and introductions of David to the relevant participants in juvenile justice work placed before us. Before the June departure of Shane Michael (David’s predecessor as a Pepperdine Nootbaar Fellow in Uganda), he and I drafted a funding proposal on behalf of […]
Sunday mornings in Kampala bustle with activity, though little of it takes place on the roads. Uganda is a predominantly Christian nation – roughly 80 percent Christian, 10 percent Muslim, and a smattering of other religions – and the vast majority of Ugandans attend church. Because there are so many church goers, churches are ubiquitous. […]
Saturday started off really early, though not intentionally. I have previously written about my troubles sleeping in Uganda, and they re-emerged on this trip. It is hard to discern whether the challenges stem from the natural difficulties adjusting to the ten-hour time difference, the excitement and busyness of my schedule while I am in country, […]
Kampala was as I remembered it – a bustle of activity on the road from the airport into town, even at close to midnight. David Nary, Pepperdine alumnus who is serving a one-year Nootbaar Fellowship in Uganda, along with the trusty Daniel who has served as the driver for the prior Fellows over the past […]
Today, at long last, I was inducted into “good enough.” No candles on my favorite cake, no balloons congratulating me, not even a whisper of congratulations. Just some Dutch lady in a KLM uniform grudgingly acknowledging that I was now good enough to enter the VIP lounge at the Amsterdam Schipol Airport. “I have been […]
I have received many really great presents over the course of my lifetime. A train set. A bike. Lots of ties. A trip to Vegas. And when I turned 40, my wife even bought me a car. But I have never received a cooler gift than I got last night. And it wasn’t even my […]
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 […]
We made the most of our last few days in Uganda. On Sunday, we visited the Kampala Church of Christ for the first time, and got to say goodbye to a couple of good people we met shortly after we arrived. We also spent two hours with Justice Kiryabwire, who runs the Pepperdine/Uganda Judiciary program […]
This past week was a busy one, as I worked to complete a final report of my six months in Uganda. Late last week, I went to Masindi for the last time to finish the work that the Pepperdine students, Pepperdine lawyers, and I started in an effort to help the twenty-two juveniles currently imprisoned […]
Raise your hand if you hit a boda driver this week while driving to work, sending him tumbling off of his motorcycle into the intersection right in front a police officer who was directing traffic during rush hour. What? No one else? Am I the only one with my hand raised? With less than two […]
