www.fccethiopia.com

If I grew up in Africa, would I know what a starburst was? What about a bursting star? Or a burst of stars? Would I feel differently about stars? If a small village in Africa was all I knew, would I know how to tie my shoe? Would I even have a shoe to tie? Would shoes matter to me? I was born in America and shoes do matter to me. Sometimes I wish they didn’t, but I put them on every morning before I leave the house. Sometimes I even wear one of my many pairs of different colored shoes within the walls of the house, even though the floors of our home is clean, not covered in dust or dirt. And sometimes I spend time cleaning my shoes, either in the fancy washing machine, which uses gallons of water, or I take a fancy toothbrush with a soft rubber handle for a comfortable grip, and I carefully brush clean my slightly worn shoes, one square inch at a time. Great care is put into these shoes so that they always appear just right, as if every day was their first. The care I put into my shoes is quite impressive, I’ve actually just impressed myself thinking about it and that says a lot because I am not impressed easily! I’m not even sure why I care so much about shoes. Like I mentioned before, if I had, by chance, been born and raised in a small African village, say in Ethiopia or Sudan, would I have ever been the owner and caretaker of a pair of shoes? Perhaps no. What, then, would I have spent time doing in order to impress others as well as myself? Maybe I should go to Africa, a small village, meet a girl my age and ask her what she does to impress herself. Maybe I’d discover that secretly she dreams of owning a pair of Air Force Ones, along with a rubber gripped tooth brush, so she could spend time cleaning away all the dust and admiring her hard work. Or maybe she wouldn’t. But I think maybe she does. I think that because I think we can’t, as young women, be all that different, right? Deep down, where we can’t reach to clean with a toothbrush, even the extra professional ones, maybe we’re the same, give or take some dust and dirt. I’d like to hope so, at least. I just wish it was easier to reach her and offer a newer pair of my shoes…