Everybody, Always

the safeties on their machine guns as I passed, and entered the office
through a large doorway. Behind a big wooden desk was a pleasant
woman who asked how she could help me. Not knowing whose office it
was, I simply asked if I could see the judge.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“Not really,” I said, looking down. “But I’ve come eighteen thousand
miles to get here.”
“Just a moment,” she said as she rose from her desk and disappeared
behind another pair of huge doors. She came back a few moments later
and said, “The judge will see you now.” I hid my surprise and walked past
her through the doorway, trying to act confident and lawyerly. The judge
was sitting behind a massive desk, writing something, and didn’t look up
as I entered. When he did look up, he rose and gestured with his hand
toward a seat.
The proper greeting for a judge in Uganda is “my lord.” Saying this
takes a little getting used to at first. Where I was raised, this is reserved
for the guys in the book of Psalms talking to God. In San Diego, we’re
also more likely to call someone “dude” than “lord.” But I had practiced
in the mirror that morning until I had it, so I was ready. The judge asked
why I was in Uganda and I told him I was a lawyer and the only
qualifications I had were that I loved justice, I loved people, and I wanted
to find a place I could help.
We talked about his kids and my kids and hope and how Ugandan
courts had been closed in the northern half of the country for more than a
decade while the civil war raged. As our time was wrapping up, we both
stood up. I came around the desk and gave him a big hug. I think he was a
little taken aback. I told him I was a hugger. He told me he wasn’t, and
this was actually the reason he has guys with machine guns guarding his
office. I took out my key ring, slipped off the key to the front door of our
house, and gave it to him. I had my first friend in Uganda.
It turned out this was no ordinary judge. This was the chief justice of
Uganda’s Supreme Court. That would explain the machine guns. He had