Elephants & DayTimers

Once in a while we are privileged to enjoy visits with those who have received their training at MMS and moved on to continue to serve where the Lord has called them. Recently we got to visit with Holgar and Maria Zeissler. They came to MMS from their home in Germany and left here to serve with Mercy Air in South Africa about 10 years ago. They have been there ever since.

In the past they have brought us pieces of their hand made and fired pottery. This time they brought us something quite different... an African calendar.

You may or may not be aware that the concept of time is very different in varied cultures. We have our "Day Timers" with a page for each day and a line for each hour so we can track our busy schedules. When we meet for appointments, even socially, we expect a pretty high degree of promptness.

A typical American Calendar

Not so in Africa. When one goes to Africa from the United States or Germany, the concept of time has to be greatly adjusted. It's either that or the blood pressure gets greatly adjusted! The African calendar we received from the Zeisslers is a good example of what I mean:

Here is an African calendar....all twelve months of it!

Compared to My Daily Calendar

Have you figured out the African Elephant calendar yet? The biggest elephant is January, the next in line is February etc. It's July now so all of the elephants are facing to the left except for August through December. That's because they are not here yet! When August comes, we'll turn the next elephant so we know it's August. Isn't that simple? You know what else is nice? You don't have to get a new calendar every year!