“We didn’t just find these two kind ladies on the street”

While we were introduced as the “three eminent professors from Seattle” during each of our presentations in India, our introduction in Uganda was equally flattering, but in a different way. To open the first of three training sessions for magistrates, Justice David Wangatusi, the Director of Uganda’s Judicial Studies Institute, told the participants that “these were not just two kind ladies we found on the street; they are our friends.”

We spent two days working with approximately 30 Grade I magistrates, the judicial officers who handle petty crimes, property and contract disputes, and family matters. Because Uganda does have a jury system, these magistrates must write a judgement (opinion) for each case that they hear. They will then read that judgement to the parties in open court.

The magistrates were an eager group and quick study despite fairly poor teaching conditions. The air conditioning was broken, and because it was quite warm, we had to open the windows. Unfortunately, the building is on a very busy thoroughfare jammed with trucks and mini-busses throughout the day, which left us feeling a bit like we were teaching in a sweaty, polluted tunnel. Nonetheless, we all persevered.

As this was our third formal training session in Uganda, we are finally mastering at least some of the protocol. While we remembered to call the judge, my lord, and the magistrates, your worships, Laurel got in trouble by launching into her thank you speech without waiting for the invitation to begin.

Speaking of old friends, after the seminar was over, we had dinner with Elizabeth Musoke, the Director of Legal Affairs at the Inspectorate General of Government. Elizabeth is the one who first invited us to Uganda and by doing so set our work in Uganda in motion. We ate at Haamdi’s, an Indian restaurant, with food as good as we had in India.

The next morning, sitting our hotel room, we heard a loud crash in tree outside our window. We looked and saw a macaque monkey sitting in the tree. While we have seen many monkeys on safari, and even in the cities in India, we had never seen one in Kampala. Apparently, very few other people had either because when we went to breakfast, everyone including tourists and staff, were up from their seats and watching the monkey run around the roof of the hotel.