About Shoes

In the photo below, you can see Ben wearing his shoes:

This was in Kenya, on holiday and these are the sturdy, hard-wearing shoes I bought for him in England last July.

Generally, my children do not like wearing shoes. In Africa, it is often more comfortable to be bare-footed; to have your feet free and cool, to better cope with the heat.
Unfortunately, this is not always practical- the hot ground burns unsuspecting soles, vicious ants bite unprotected skin, thorns, spiky caterpillars and even snakes can be a threat. We found a snake in our garden on Tuesday- a good reminder to us all to wear our shoes out and about!

I find that my children wear their shoes as they start the day, but it is not long before the shoes are kicked off outside somewhere. More often than not, the children come home bare-footed and unsure of where they might have left their shoes.
At the trampoline in the compound, perhaps?
At a friend's house? (we always take our shoes off to go into people's houses)
Maybe by the climbing frame, where bare feet are much more efficient for climbing UP the slide?

Last week, Ben returned home from his afternoon compound-wanderings. His feet, which had left our house clothed in the shoes you see above, returned bare and shoe-less.

On Tuesday morning, we realised that his lovely English sandals were not on the shoe-rack. Did Ben know where his shoes were? No. He did not. He was sent outdoors to go and find them, He could not find them anywhere, he said. So Esther went to look. Then I went, with Joel, as I dropped Joel off at school. Then we had to start lessons and go through the school day and Ben still could not find his shoes.

Over the next week, we all searched everywhere. Andrew looked after work. The South Sudanese worker who maintains our compound looked as he worked and even dug up the garden where our neighbour's dog has been known to bury shoes (!!). I sent an email to ask all the compound residents to look out for them. All to no avail.

It is over a week later and Ben has no sandals to wear. He has had to endure the sweaty ordeal of squeezing his baking feet into his trainers, which are normally only worn in Nairobi or England, as they are simply too hot to wear here.

I cannot get boy's sandals in Juba. It is very frustrating that Ben has lost his sandals!! Have they been stolen if he left them outside all night? Or have they just ended up somewhere random and will turn up again unexpectedly in 5 years??

Children's shoes are one of the items top of our shopping list in England. It is so difficult to find good shoes once we leave England. The shoes the children need must be hardy enough to last in the heat and dust of Africa, strong enough to cope with the sweat and inevitable washing. We also need to make sure the shoes are small enough to fit well but big enough to grow into, as they are supposed to last until our next trip to England. When Ben lost his fantastic pair of Clark's shoes last week, it proved MOST  inconvenient!

However, on this occasion I found a solution: friends from Juba are visiting England and return here next week: and "Amazon.co.uk" delivers products to UK addresses.... so thanks to online shopping and to a well-timed trip to England on the part of our Juba neighbours, Ben should receive a new pair of sandals next week!

They will not be expensive. They will not be Clark's. But they will be sandals- and here's hoping that:
1) They fit him
2) They do not get lost!