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I was privileged today to help fit 33 children for new shoes. They were led in to me one by one. Each one came with a look of excitement as I motioned to each to sit on the chair in front of me. I was on the floor kneeling amongst the boxes of shoes – one of each size for girls, and one of each size for boys. Some would sit on the floor next to me, obviously, a bit uncomfortable with someone else waiting on them. Each child came with his or her unspoken story. I would ask each child what size he wore – mostly to see if he spoke/understood English. About a third answered; the rest continued to smile nervously and nod their heads. I would help them remove their disheveled shoes, only to uncover threadbare socks with holes large enough to put your fist through. And those were the lucky ones. Many had no socks at all. Many wore shoes that were so oversized; they barely stayed on with the frayed shoestrings. Again, those were the lucky ones. Many had shoes that literally were coming apart at every seam. My favorite was a little girl who came in with no socks, and her brother’s shoes were HUGE on her. I asked her the question, “What size shoe do you wear?” “Three,” she answered sheepishly. I removed her oversized shoe easily without untying the laces and reached for the girl 3’s. Her foot barely squeezed into it. She immediately saw the new shoe on her foot, smiled from ear to ear, and said “YESSSSS!” much as our own kids would say. It didn’t seem to matter to her that the shoe was much too small. I removed the 3 and put on a 4. Again, as I had her stand so that I could feel her toe, she says, “Yessss!” One more try with a size 5 finally gave her a shoe that was the correct size, and her response was equally excited on this last attempt … “YESSS!” She continued to walk around the chair, one shiny new shoe and one very dirty and “fragrant” bare foot, as proud as she could be. I felt badly that I had to ask one of our interpreters to tell her that these were just sample shoes, and hers would be here tomorrow. She reluctantly let me remove the shoe, unsure that she would ever see the new shiny black shoes again. I gently retied her own shoe, careful not to break the lace, and motioned for my little girl to continue on in line to receive her winter uniform, a maroon and gold track suit … Next …
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