How One Word Shouted at His Car in Uganda Shaped Jeff Davis’s View of Himself

DescriptionJeff Davis has spent forty-five years married to his high school sweetheart, twenty years in corporate tech, and twenty more in ministry and nonprofit work.This conversation went almost nowhere I planned. We started with a word he picked up in Uganda, Mazungu, which literally means “white man busily running around looking at his watch,” and spent the first half hour on what cross-cultural work does to a Westerner’s sense of superiority.From there Jeff walked me through the curriculum he’d design for Gen-Z if anyone let him, the moment he realized his corporate ladder was leaning against the wrong wall, and why he says the hardest thing he’s ever done isn’t raising two daughters, it’s staying married well.His wisdom on marriage, family, and leadership is something I really appreciate and I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak with him.Lessons from Jeff1. Mazungu — The White Man Looking at His WatchJeff picked the word up in Uganda by hearing children shout it at his car and then asking what it meant. The literal translation is a white man busily running around looking at his watch — a piece of colonial residue baked into everyday speech. What makes it land is that Jeff doesn’t flinch from it. He treats it the way he’d treat gringo: self-deprecating, field-leveling, and true enough to be useful.~01:562. Fail in Their Language and the Barrier DropsThe fastest way into a relationship abroad, Jeff says, is to attempt a greeting badly. People laugh at how miserably you’re failing — and in that moment the hierarchy inverts. They become the expert, you become the student, and suddenly there’s a project the two of you are working on together. The project is you.~00:383. The English Camp That Wasn’t About VocabularyIn Cambodia, Jeff’s team ran an English camp and discovered students weren’t coming for vocabulary. They came to hear pronunciation from a native speaker. That single, narrow thing people actually wanted turned into the opening for everything else the trip was there to do.~07:034. You Arrive With Superiority Whether You’re Humble or NotJeff admits to feeling less superior for being monolingual, but the sharper observation follows: coming from the West, you show up with a sense of superiority regardless of your character, and it takes time to even notice it before you can set it down.~08:215. Sheer Randomness, Not MeritThe place he was born put resources in his hands. Jeff’s read on the person across from him who has none: they probably work harder than him and they’re probably smarter than him. Once that lands, the relationship stops being patron-and-client and becomes person-to-person — which is the only foundation worth building on.~08:516. The Curriculum He’d Build for Gen ZGiven the chance, Jeff would teach cross-cultural experience, language learning, history, literature, Bible — and other religious writings alongside it, specifically so students would have something to compare against. His logic mirrors his travel philosophy: you understand where you’re standing only by engaging something alien to it.~09:537. The Scottish Enlightenment Nobody Talks AboutJeff traces American ideas about equality not to the French Enlightenment but to the Scottish one, and to fifty years of preaching that preceded the founders — the Judeo-Christian ethic arriving through pulpits rather than being invented in a room. He notes it emerged out of four centuries of feudalism and injustice, which is what makes it remarkable rather than inevitable.~16:258. The Book That Didn’t Feel RightAs a high schooler just after the civil rights era, Jeff read The Light and the Glory — a widely accepted book in Christian circles arguing America’s westward conquest did indigenous nations a favor. He couldn’t articulate why at the time, but it didn’t sit right. Learning to trust that instinct against the consensus of his own community is the quiet skill underneath most of this conversation.~23:079. The Testimony He Used to EnvyJeff has no dramatic conversion story — no rescue from addiction or crime, just faith absorbed at home and taken for granted through adolescence. He used to envy people whose testimonies had teeth. At sixty-six, he understands the dramatic testimony comes at a great cost, and that he never had to pay it.~30:0510. Climbing a Ladder Leaning Against the Wrong WallTwenty years into a successful tech career, disillusioned, Jeff told the dean at Azusa Pacific that he couldn’t afford him. The dean didn’t blink: the money’s your problem, figure that out, I’ll give you a job. That answer reframed the whole thing, and Jeff took the job — eventually taking a 50% pay cut while Julie saw the security they’d lose and he saw only the opportunity.~33:3011. Raising Kids is Easy, Maintaining a Marriage is The Real WorkForty-five years in, Jeff says raising kids was easy — maintaining a harmonious marriage is the most thrilling and challenging thing he’s ever done. He describes needing someone five-foot-four who could stand toe to toe with him, and calls being broken on her the thing that finally made him dependent on God. ~35:00 Get full access to Matt Heisler at mattheisler.substack.com/subscribe