Lazy Friday

Sigh. Today was such a slow day! Let me begin with yesterday. We had some things planned, but we ended up with two unplanned visitors that took up most of the morning. That's okay. We are flexible and they were important.

In the afternoon we took boda bodas to Nyalanda. There we walked into the slums to visit a family the missionaries are teaching. They are a great family. We spoke about repentance and read Alma 36 where Alma recounts his conversion story.

Before we left, they insisted on feeding us cocoa, bread and butter and ground nuts (peanuts) and it was all tasty. I had made a pot of gathere-- beans and maize-- that was simmering, but we ended up being less hungry for that. For some reason, my wrist started hurting while we were visiting. By the time we got home, I could hardly move my fingers and the sharp pain was constant. Remembering to give thanks for all things, I was grateful it was only one hand, it was my right hand, and perhaps I needed to be more sympathetic to those with malaria whose joints all ache. And I realized I was a wuss. Just a little pain seemed like such a big deal. I am so blessed to have had a life mostly free of pain for so long. If I had been given the lot to endure pain through my life, this would have seemed like a small thing. So I slathered it with oils and it improved incrementally. We wrapped it in a makeshift "ace bandage"-- a dish towel folded in thirds and pinned.

And, surprisingly, I slept that night and awoke being able to move fingers and thumb without pain. And the swelling was reduced to just one area that was a bit red and swollen. I think it must be a sprain, although I didn't do anything to it that I can recall. I am a bit disinclined to seek out medical attention here. So I will continue to doctor it and hope it improves. I washed my hair one-handed and through the day the pain level has lessened, but I have little strength in the thumb. I can even type (as is proved by this blog) for short periods of time.

But I can't practice the piano. I can't sew. And holding things is sometimes difficult. Thus the slow day. We had plans to go out. After all, I can visit one-handed. I had several people lined up to visit. But we have not had water for 3 days and the tank was getting low. So we called the water people. "Someone will come out before 1 to check it out." Okay. I guess we don't visit the morning people. We worked on lessons to be given on Sunday and read scriptures. Elder Fox often turns on "Mormon Radio" while he sits at the computer. That's a good way to learn a lot... and slow down our work... as we get captivated by the great talks and music.

1pm came and went.... no water person. About 2:30 we called again. "You'll have water by 5pm." So Elder Fox went out and ran some errands (and got me an ace bandage) and it was okay, we had someone coming to be trained at 4 pm. But we got "bounced" as the missionaries say. He called and canceled due to sickness. So we went to town and made some copies of the church directories and roles for the leaders-- our big excitement for the day.

We hope that tomorrow will bring a new spring into our steps. See the video below.