Shoes

My black shoes are split from mid-foot to almost the little toe, I am hoping they will last my final 8 days of teaching. Those shoes have been with me for all 4 years, I remember buying them at Shoe Carnival cheap in 2007, so I could just leave them behind. Somehow they have lasted. They marked up the dance floor at Tim and Terri's anniversary party, before I knew how bad they would leave marks. They started at Awere SS, and have been my school shoes at Gulu SS, and through the mud and dust at Atanga SS, to make their final appearance this year at Pope Paul VI. I tried to fix them a week ago, with a piece of gray duct tape, that I meticulously colored black with a Sharpie....only to see that method fail one short trip through the school grounds.

The black shoes are the Yin to the Yang of my Crocs, also 4 year veterans. The Crocs are so worn down that I slip on them constantly on any kind of wet surface. I took a big header when we were walking in the dark to Okot Jolly's house and the other teachers were quite amused. I had put myself as the favorite to fall first with odds of 3-1 much like Spain's World Cup odds. I bought another pair of Crocs for the trip, but I am such a slave to tradition that they got left behind.

So many of our students are working hard to reuse and recycle and not waste in America. If you want to really see recycling, come to a country much like Uganda. There is almost no trash, everything is reused. The plastic water bottles we give to students will soon be sold in town for 40 shillings to hold a small amount of gasoline or kerosene. The other day, a man had their mimeograph machine apart into several dozen pieces. He was taking a hack saw and cutting down one of the rollers to make it run smoother. I do not see a lot of people fixing things in America, but here almost everyone is handy in some way. The bicycle repairmen can probably fix the transmission on a Toyota, or at least get a few hundred more kilometers out of the vehicle. Students have sandals made out of old tires, and children play with a wide variety of once useful parts of something as toys.

Today, Kelley and I saw two little boys, maybe they were 4, work together to get water out of the well. The boy was not tall enough or strong enough to work the handle so instead of lifting it 3 feet, he went back and forth raising it an inch or two in a rapid motion. It would have been probably the 5 cutest pictures I have taken in Africa, but unfortunately neither one of us had a camera. As they walked away with their half-gallon containers, both boys raised them to their head, and started practicing how to carry the water.

Last night was movie night and we watched Millions. If you have never seen that movie rent it now. I have a copy that I somehow left behind, so I took 3 weeks here to slowly but surely download it on iTunes. Not much else, except think about you have the ability to reuse or overuse in your life, and try it. Some say that my black shoes look nice (by the way I am still looking for that some, so comment at the end if you believe that)....

John


Update: My friend Daneen Leidig (T/EX 2009) is trying to help a young man go to the University to help repair medical equipment. There may be only 3 people in the country who know how to repair medical equipment. A statistic I believe after the cord fiasco with little man, Samuel. Anyway I contributed, and if you would like the email or want to contact Daneen... Here is her email daneenleidig@gmail.com