Saturday our Senegal team heard from a Latin American missionary who works among African Muslims. He said, among many other things, that they get along swimmingly because of similarities in cultural values. The story that struck me the most? He said you Americans have the watches, but we have the time.

Sunday I left the house at 7:30 in the morning and returned at 10:30 at night, with only an hour that wasn't accounted for by a meeting, or a luncheon, or a command appearance. This is acceptable to me because it's the final weeks before we head out to Senegal -- things have to be done and it's just too bad if, every so often, there's a confluence of all day events. When we get back I'll return to my busy though not always hectic lifestyle.

However, I know many people near and dear to me who live hectic-ly as a matter of course. I'm sorry to report that I didn't have a grand epiphany to solve the American problem of over-schedule-ization. ;) I just found it interesting to ponder this weekend in light of other cultures.