Honey, I bought 17 pairs of shoes yesterday

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...and that was just for the kids up to about age 14. They start school next week and they had no shoes. All kids are entitled to at least one pair of shoes, no? Now the question is, shall I stop here as the older teens have no shoes either. Those are going to be more expensive....will have to pray about that one.

What started this was Margarita had a fungal infection on both feet, and it was starting to bother her. I gave her mom a lesson on how to care for her daughter´s feet. Included in this was to give her daughter a big hug and kiss for being such a brave girl (she´s about 10). This Mom, who has 3 kids and pregnant for her 4th, is very passive. I´ve been told she was arranged to be married with an older man when she was very young. Thus was always taken care of and doesn´t seem to know how to express affection with her kids. Or so it appears. I was a bit nervous about being so adament in giving her this lesson as I was concerned about losing trust with her. Well Margarita´s foot has gotten better in two days and her Mom thanked me. When Margarita got her shoes her mom came over and thanked me again and gave me a really big hug.

We actually got all these shoes in two days. Gabriel is Cherito´s "right hand man." He is absolutely fantastic. He has been in the business of carrying people on missions for many many years. I think I found someone who is closer to heaven than Eric! So Gabriel, me and 1 other of the adult woman from the project took about 5 kids to Pay Less shoe store. But here Pay Less really means "Pay More!" Unfortunately, I don´t have enough cash to buy them in the mercado. First of all, I forgot to have them clean their feet before coming in. Some of them had flip flops on, but their feet were less than "ideal." Only one kid really got the shoes ...really dirty! Now I know how hard it is to get the right size, at the right price, and still have the 9 year old girls approve of them. The younger were a bit easier. So after about 2 hours we finally get shoes for all kids. I pull out my credit card and of course they asked me for my identification. I stood there speechless. I had none! I guess I was worried about losing it! !Que tonta! So these poor guys put our shoes aside and we went back to the project without shoes.

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