Taking a break from Uganda

Saturday, February 12, 2011

We should receive all of the necessary documents from the judge on Monday.  There are a few other loose ends the lawyers have to take care of, so by the end of the week we'll be ready for our U.S. embassy interview.  Monday, February 21 we have our appointment scheduled at the U.S. embassy where our objective is to get an IR-4 visa for the kids.  I'm leaving Uganda this evening, flying to Europe for a week of business meetings.  The timing of the court hearing worked out well since I already had these meetings scheduled.  Angie will meet me in Brussels next Saturday and we will travel to Uganda together.   

There is the potential for a wrinkle in our schedule...the presidential election for Uganda takes place the day before Angie and I arrive.  Every 5 years there are presidential elections and in 2006 there was some violence and unrest after the election.  Everyone I talk to seems to think things will be calmer this time since the opposition candidate doesn't have as much support this time around.  Because of the elections, I jumped through some hoops to be in Uganda for our court date.  After election day, the courts get tied up with a lot of petitions related to the election.  These cases take priority over guardianship hearings, so it might have been months before we'd get another chance to be in court.

The best case is that everything is calm and there are no issues.  In the middle would be isolated pockets of rioting in the rural areas outside Kampala.  The worst case is widespread rioting which would lead the State Department to issue a Travel Warning and restrict Americans from traveling to Uganda.  Right now, there are Travel Warnings for Egypt and Pakistan as you'd expect, but also for Mexico.  The Travel Warning can be issued when the embassy is closed or the staff is reduced.  In either case, it would create a delay for us since we would be unable to process the visa for the kids.

Based on talking to a lot of people, it sounds like the most likely outcome will be somewhere between the best and middle cases and it would be unlikely a Travel Warning would be issued.  Ugandans are expecting the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, to win again and the police and army are ready to move quickly on any unrest.  In the weeks prior to the 2006 election, there were numerous violent demonstrations.  This time around, the country has been peaceful.  Please pray for continued peace in Uganda during this time.  In any event, we'll be safe and stay away from situations that have the potential to be dangerous.