Shoe Disaster

Tom and I needed to visit a friend’s family. His stepfather had died and we needed to stop and give our condolences to the family. We decided to walk— it was a longish walk and quite a bit of it uphill, but it was still too short to justify taking a taxi in our minds. I dressed in the traditional clothes that women are supposed to wear for a such a visit and grabbed my nicer shoes. We were about to walk out the door, when I remembered that my go-to ‘nice’ shoes were sliding off my feet a lot lately and would bother me on the uphill and then downhill return trip. So even as Tom was walking out the door, I dashed back, opened up our shoe bin and grabbed out some other sandals. 

Megan's poor blistered toes

I hadn’t worn these sandals for a long time, but it seemed to me that they would work better that my other shoes. A couple blocks into the trip I realized that I may have made a mistake. The straps were stiff from not being worn in so long and were digging into my toes strangely. I was probably going to have blisters. We passed a few shops with women’s sandals out front and briefly considered buying something, but nothing looked like good quality. Lots of products on the islands don’t last because of poor quality. I could buy something and have it fall apart on the first wearing. I kept walking. 

We were half way to our destination when one side of the back strap broke away from the left shoe. It was annoying and made me walk a little funny, but it was okay. 

Next, one side of the back strap on the right shoe went. Now at least I was even with both shoes flopping in the same way. It was better than being lopsided. The shoes were still digging into my toes, but it was working. 

As we neared the house, the other side of the back strap on the left foot gave way. The once sturdy sandal was only hanging on my foot with the two thin straps around the toes. I had to drag-shuffle my feet to keep them on. It was becoming comical, but it didn’t seem appropriate to trouble a grieving family with my shoe mishap. I shuffle-stepped to the house and we were properly somber for the visit. 

We got up to leave and I shuffled away from the house. Once we were out of sight of the house, I told Tom that I didn’t think I’d make it all the way home. We decided we’d look out for something on the way. But we were in a residential neighborhood and it was a Sunday afternoon so lots of shops were closed. We didn’t see anything. I was walking slowly and awkwardly and the pain in my toes was getting bad. 

The defeated shoe

I don’t think it was the sandals’ fault. They weren’t low quality.  There is another reason why things don’t last here: the climate. The heat, humidity and salty sea air has a corrosive effect. Glue gives out, plastic cracks, electronics die. In this case the glue holding the shoe together had given up the ghost. The islands climate was claiming another victim.

I could almost see the main road when one of the toe straps went. Two more steps and it was over. The destruction was complete, there was no more shoe to speak of. 

Now in another culture I could have perhaps walked home barefoot, but not on the islands. At least not all the way across town and definitely not while dressed nicely for a visit. I sat down on a bench next to a couple of old men working on a boat engine while Tom went to the main road. 

In around 10 minutes, my hero was back with some simple sandals for me to wear home. 

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our island brother was able to get medical treatment in mainland Africa and is safely back on Clove Island. We have a visitor from mainland Africa, come to see and understand the work here— it is exciting to see more and more Africans excited about the work on the islands. The strikes are over and life on the island has gone back to normal for now. Our son did a great job in his drama performances this past weekend. Our daughter recovered from her illness and didn’t have a flare-up afterwards. 

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for peace and good governance on the islands. There continue to be concerns about the price of living and potential shortages. At the end of this week is a big local holiday, pray that we could use it as an opportunity to share truth. Pray that our visitor would have a good visit and catch a vision for how he and his organization might encourage the work on the islands. Pray with us as we consider how to connect the people that we study with regularly with island brothers and sisters in meaningful ways. Pray for our teammate in her work at the hospital— several colleagues are away or not working much meaning she is sometimes the only one there for her department. Pray that the hospital could find more people to work in PT/OT.