I am the 12th man on the field, playing for the Fightin' Texas Aggies. But there are only about 100 people in the stands and they are all wearing red. The student section is filled with large flowering shrubs. The red flowers are in full bloom and gardeners are tending them.
Last week was a lot of hard work. I helped dig a foundation for one of the nursery school buildings and the stone is almost up. I am feeling more comfortable in the culture, but I am still trying to learn my job. There was a moment when I imagined that there was a magic door that would take me back to the states, I asked myself if I would walk through it if such a door existed. The final verdict, it would be a decision I would regret. So maybe that means I am adjusting ok.
This weekend was pretty cool, apart from Lindsey being gone. Bobby is one of the Church of Christ missionaries here. I spent Saturday helping him work on his car. He is installing a vegetable oil conversion for his 1997 diesel suburban. Then Saturday night I read a really good Alistair MacLean novel, and went with bobby to his friends house to help them harvest from a bee-hive. Got stung once through my suit.
Book Recommendation: Pursuit of the Common Good. By Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner. I wept.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Crab-Walking Through Middle School
A dear friend from high school is following me around my old middle school in Panama. Curundu Middle School, to be exact. I am sliding trough the halls on my back, propelling myself with my legs. Kind of like crab-walking. We travel through the halls this way for a while. Finally we come to the cafeteria, only to discover that the school has been converted to a women's college.
I pitched in with a lot of the work this past week, mostly carrying stone and mixing mortar. The problem has been that by becoming more of a laborer, I lose some of the clout I need in order to be a manager. I got really frustrated when some of the workers did not want to do their jobs because it was something that I had been doing. "Oh, Andrew will do it". No, Andrew is reading plans and trying to talk to the stone-cutters right now. So you need to mix the mortar. Lindsay and I talked about it for a while. It is more important for me to do my job and keep track of quality control than it is to feel good about pitching in with the work. I plan to keep working hard, but giving more attention to my managerial duties. The building is going up, the plumbing is installed, and we start digging foundations on the nursery school next week.
This weekend was AWESOME. My friend Lacey just got in country a few weeks ago and is the librarian at a Christian school in Kampala. She and her friend Jean came in to Jinja for the weekend. We celebrated my birthday, ate cake, had some great conversations, went to the official source of the nile (tourist trap, but fun), and watched Lost.
Lindsay is moving back to Kampala next week. I am really pretty busted up about it, I won't have my Jinja buddy to eat pizza with on Friday nights. But now that we know it isn't that hard to travel back and forth from Jinja and Kampala it will probably happen a little more often.
Other news, I am going on a project trip to Kenya in May. There aren't a lot of other details yet, but I will let you know as I get them. Time to work on my Swahili!
I pitched in with a lot of the work this past week, mostly carrying stone and mixing mortar. The problem has been that by becoming more of a laborer, I lose some of the clout I need in order to be a manager. I got really frustrated when some of the workers did not want to do their jobs because it was something that I had been doing. "Oh, Andrew will do it". No, Andrew is reading plans and trying to talk to the stone-cutters right now. So you need to mix the mortar. Lindsay and I talked about it for a while. It is more important for me to do my job and keep track of quality control than it is to feel good about pitching in with the work. I plan to keep working hard, but giving more attention to my managerial duties. The building is going up, the plumbing is installed, and we start digging foundations on the nursery school next week.
This weekend was AWESOME. My friend Lacey just got in country a few weeks ago and is the librarian at a Christian school in Kampala. She and her friend Jean came in to Jinja for the weekend. We celebrated my birthday, ate cake, had some great conversations, went to the official source of the nile (tourist trap, but fun), and watched Lost.
Lindsay is moving back to Kampala next week. I am really pretty busted up about it, I won't have my Jinja buddy to eat pizza with on Friday nights. But now that we know it isn't that hard to travel back and forth from Jinja and Kampala it will probably happen a little more often.
Other news, I am going on a project trip to Kenya in May. There aren't a lot of other details yet, but I will let you know as I get them. Time to work on my Swahili!
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