LAW AND ORDER

Law and Order: Uganda style
The other week, my fellow PCV visited me; during which I had two encounters (one direct and one indirect) with law and order here:
1.Indirect: My friend, (we’ll call her Jane) has been disturbed from sleep at 5am every morning since arrival in her small village by a rooster crowing. Being a true American fresh out of university, she prefers going to sleep at that time, not waking, so she was more than a little annoyed. After using all her community integration tools (asking everyone and drinking a water buffalo’s share of tea) she failed to find the owner. The next day (early in the morning) she found a small boy and paid him the equivalent to a fortune, $2.50—yes that is AFTER INFLATION!—to catch the offending rooster. He hired an apprentice and they chased the rooster for half of the day. After tying the rooster up, he brought it to Jane and received his handsome reward. She then transported the rooster to the police station and angrily had it charged with disturbance of the peace. It offered no defence and was booked. As I now write, it is either in the jail house or on some guard’s dinner plate. Lesson: Don’t mess with Jane!
In all seriousness, a very different encounter happened one night when she was visiting me. At about 3:30am, I woke to the sounds of watchmen shouting and some loud beating right outside my house. I was indecently dressed (scrubs and a t- shirt for all of those with other ideas) and had to put on a skirt before going outside. When I opened the door, I saw a group of nuns (the veils, etc. had been donned in the manner as my skirt), the small school nurse, two watchmen, and many other unknown persons. The watchman was beating a man on the ground, who, in turn, was crying for mercy – Onsaasire! I did not want to watch the beating, so I returned into the house. Things did not stop, however, and at 4AM I went out to the same scene again. This time, I asked the sisters what was happening. It turns out that the man was found in the vocational school at night with his group of bandits, all armed with flashlights. He (the only one caught) claims they were trying to steal the sisters’ goats and cows. Light dawned in my mind-- stealing cows! Of course, that is the worst offence in Uganda (equivalent to stealing a child)! Furthermore, in this neighborhood, of course, the police do not come when called, and so we were left to do our own interrogation. The school nurse was now beating the man and asking him to reveal the names of his cohorts, which he had not yet done. By the next day, the man was in my village’s small jail