Shoes, shoes, and more shoes!

We have been trying to decide what we could take with us on our first trip to Ethiopia that would be useful for the care center the children are in. Many of the suggested items are either not available in China or are such poor quality that we don't want to take them as donations. What's the use of taking something that's just going to break after a few uses? We emailed a mom who had recently traveled to the kids' city when she adopted her 15 year old daughter. Not only did the mom see first hand what the needs are, but her daughter had lived in the care center and truly knows what's needed. We asked her if shoes were a need as we knew a place here where we could get overruns/seconds of Crocs (i.e. the company that's going out of business because they made their shoes indestructible) for about $2 a pair. This was her response:

"That would be my first choice of things to bring. S (her 15 year old adopted daughter) also gave all of our shoes to street people who had no shoes. That was her priority........if they had no shoes, give them shoes or Birr. The older people and young adults that you will see with huge swollen legs (elephantitis) is caused by not wearing shoes. The most common irritant is silica found in the soil which plugs the lymph veins and causes the extreme swelling, leading to being cripples and then death. Most have come to Addis in the hopes of getting help. There is no help available to them. Take as many as you can. The kids in Mekelle really had poor shoes. The croc type shoes were ripped and many sizes too big and occasionally too small. Wonderful idea!"

Matt and I had a date night last night and went to the shoe store afterward to get shoes to take with us. We hoped to get 50 pair, but actually walked out with 57 pair of Crocs! The owner of the store asked why we were buying so many. We told her we'd be going to an orphanage in Ethiopia and were bringing them to the kids. Instead of the 15RMB (US $2.20) she should have charged us per pair, she only charged us 10 RMB (US $1.46). For only 590RMB (US $86.38) we walked out of her store with 57 pair of genuine Crocs! We're excited to be able to bring new shoes to the kids and hope we have enough of each size that each child that needs a new pair of shoes can have a new pair!