Weekend Without Shoes: The Welcomed End

I've been sick, so I haven't been able to get to blogging the end of my weekend, yes I realize it was three days ago, sue me. OK, don't. I was very happy to be able to put on some shoes and walk out the door on Monday. It's a comfort I'll appreciate from now on. My feet, even a few days after being able to wear shoes again, hurt. The blisters are finally healing, but not fast enough.

As I was hoping, I was able to speak with Devon about growing up barefoot, this conversation shifted my thoughts a bit on the situation.

I opened up by explaining to him about Tom's and their purpose. Devon Porteous grew up in the slums of Jamaica, only having one pair of shoes to wear only during special occasions. He says it was a normal thing for kids to go out and play barefoot, that he would get cuts and often step on glass. However, infection wasn't a worry. I almost felt let down hearing that, but the reason is, there are simply bigger things to worry about, like food. Medical care wasn't readily available in Jamaica; we have clinics and emergency rooms in multiple hospitals per city, that's not the case in Jamaica. People live in too much poverty to think about going to the hospital.

Devon started wearing shoes regularly when he moved from Jamaica to Washington, D.C., at age 10. It was normal to him, having hardened feet, not knowing any better. Which in itself is a bit of a sad statement; people living on an island no further from the shores of the US than Salt Lake City, Utah is from Las Vegas, Nevada don't know what it's like to have a pair of walking shoes, something each one of us takes for granted.

When I asked Devon to think back, knowing what he knows now, would he be happy to have had shoes as a kid. After a bit of hesitation, he admitted that something like a pair of shoes would have been a big deal, saying, "We would have taken them and put those bad boys away to only wear a couple times a week for only a few minutes each time." He went on to say if he went to Jamaica and saw all the children running around without shoes, he wouldn't be very happy about it, he'd want to change it. From a person who's lived through it, "It's a good idea, but there are millions of people without, we've gotta get to work."

The first step in fixing a big problem is taking away the smaller problems. If we want to help pull other societies out of poverty, we have to start, literally, from the ground. We have to get aware.