Oh My Gosh, Shoes

Most kids (and some adults!) that I run around with in the mountains don't wear shoes. Shoes are expensive, kids loose them. It's easier to kick a wet soccer ball in the rain with bare feet than sandals. Parents just can't keep shoes on their squirrely kids' little feet, if they try at all. 

Shoes are an important part of heath when you live in an area where there are no floors, only dirt and grass. Chickens run free and even if you try you can't totally avoid animal feces. Parasites like hookworm are evolved specifically to enter a host through bare feet. Hookworm is found in feces of cats, dogs, and humans and and travel up to five feet in any direction while looking for a host. Tiny, blood sucking hookworms can cause anemia and growth retardation in children and infants of infected mothers with no symptoms. 

This is not a blog post promoting Toms Shoes, but they do a pretty good thing. If you're not familiar, Toms Shoes is a company that makes stylish but basic shoes for people in America to purchase. The company charges a price that includes the cost of a second pair of shoes and has promised, for every pair bought, to use part of the profits to make and send a pair of shoes to a developing country. 

I've known plenty of people who proudly stride around in Toms Shoes, with an air of righteousness because they not only look good,  but save lives too. Skeptically I've wondered who gets the promised shoes, where, and what is their effective rate of use. 

Well, folks, I've finally seen Toms in the wild. I found this little girl and she shyly allowed me to photograph her. I pleasantly wonder who has the matching pair of shoes in the US, and I think they should be happy with themselves.