Sunday

So - remember what I said about today being a "low-key" day?

Wrong.

The day started with the optimistic plan for the ladies to "do the stairs" as a morning exercise. Moments later, Megan came off the bottom step, severely turned her ankle and was down for the count. So down, in fact, that a particularly husky Kenyan woman managed to fling (literally) her up and over her shoulders and carry her down the remaining stairs to the couch in the lounge near our rooms. (before you read further, stop and visualize that scene)

Fortunately, her ankle doesn't appear to be broken (we don't think) - but she is not able to put any weight on it. So... crutches. More about those in a bit...

After trying to get Megan comfortable with Ibuprofen and ice, and leaving her to rest at the hotel, the rest of us loaded up to go to morning church services at the Pangani Center where Oliver (pastor of the churches associated with MOHI) preached. On the way we picked up two other American visitors - Joe and his nephew Josh - who are from Westside Christian Church in Springfield, IL. Joe teaches financial planning to the micro-business leaders and staff of MOHI.

We all enjoyed a very celebratory worship service at Pangani. I was able to get up, introduce our crew, pass along greetings and love from LifeSpring, and have them all pray for Megan.

Afterwards we had lunch at the center and began the strategy for locating crutches in Nairobi.

Meanwhile, Megan was treated to the amazing hospitality of the Kenyan hotel staff. They brought her lunch, fruit, a "get well" card... Either they are very hospitable, or they have heard about overly-litigious Americans. Just kidding - they ARE extremely hospitable. Their generosity is overwhelming.

After lunch, we learned about a medical supply place that supposedly sold crutches. It was near a Naku-mat (Kenya's version of Wal-mart) where we could pick up some other items and color-match paint for the mural... so we headed that way into the heart of downtown Nairobi. However, upon arriving, Fred Juma (head of CHE, acting Director of MOHI) led us to the medical supply place only to find it closed! Strike one. He set out to hunt for other options while we tried our hand at Naku-mat's paint services. Closed also! Strike two.

Probably 30 minutes later, Fred re-emerged by cell phone to say he found a place that had crutches that was open... and that he was coming back to us to walk us to the place. 15 minutes later (the place he found was not close) he called again and said to meet him at the car and van. When arriving at the car, he very calmly revealed that while we were were all gone, someone broke into the car and stole his bag - which included his LAPTOP! STRIKE THREE.

When we asked him if the information was backed up, he said yes, on a flash drive... that was in the same bag. Ugh.

To his amazing credit, Fred shook it off, saying, "Well. That's it. It is gone. Let us go get the crutches." And without a single word of complaint he led Linda and I through a literal maze of downtown until we found a tiny little medical supply shop - that sold crutches!

When the lady reached to get them down, she first grabbed an old-lady walker... and Linda and I had a briefly shared temptation to say, "We'll take the walker." But we figured Megan wouldn't find that as humorous. So, we went with the crutches.

Finally, we made it back to the van and car, wiped the collective sweat from our brows, and headed back to the hotel.

After some rest - and a very gracious visit from Oliver who stopped by the hotel to pray with Megan (this, after a long day of visitations including one with a major bishop in the area - yes, Megan is on the same visitation list as a major bishop)... we went to eat. 5 of us and "hop-along-Megan" made our way over to Java House, an American-style restaurant in the mall next door to the hotel. We shared plenty of laughs and good food.

So much for a "low-key" day... but oh well, it makes for good memories and great bonding.

We are now finishing up craft preparations for tomorrow and will soon be hitting the sack. Tomorrow the work begins!