July 27, 2012

Ode para mi zapatos


So I may be headed home in barely a week, but part of me will be staying here a bit longer. I'm donating my hiking boots to one of the gals I work with at Primeros Pasos. These sturdy feet protectors have been with me for six years now, and they've finally come to the end of their waterproof life. Already well past their recommended retiring date, they've developed a couple of legit holes on this trip and I'd already planned on replacing them when I got back. I figured passing them on to someone who can still get some use out of them was the right thing to do.


These boots saw me through two seasons of outdoor school and one season of summer camp. They still bear the marks of the first coats of paint on the Tween Creeks cabin ceilings, as well as paint from my first apartment in Boston. We've hiked parts of the Appalachian trail together, kicked up dust in Memphis, splashed through puddles in Niagara, and walked in the shade of redwoods. They were the butt of many a joke for their first three months of existence as I went to the store to get shoes...and came back with a date. Of recent note, they've been doubling as soccer shoes, which is also a bit of a joke, although they do the job as best they can.

I don't want to fathom how many layers of donkey poo, pond muck, and goose poop have graced their soles, and I can barely imagine how many miles of earth they have covered. I have been glad to count them in my shoe selection. They haven't always made me the most fashionable, but they have always made me the most comfortable and usually very well prepared for adventures. I am sad to see them go, but I hope they enjoy their new life walking the streets of Xela and the dirt roads of El Valle. If hiking boots ever deserved a retirement community certainly a land of volcanoes and mountains begging to be climbed would be it.

1 comment:

  1. "Those boots were made for walking...." :-)))

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