“How many pairs of shoes do you own?”

When I lived in NYC, a local magazine had a feature that highlighted local folks and their individual fashion style. The set of questions included “how many pairs of shoes do you own?” I was never selected for an interview, but I always had the answer to that question ready, just in case anybody ever asked . . .

Megan Ribbens, who along with her husband Mike serves with CRWM in Nigeria, sent along a BBC article about people in that country who are “rubbish scavengers”, attempting to find useful things to sell among the piles of garbage.  One photo in particular really struck me . . . here’s a quote:

This is Abdullahi. The 15-year-old has brought a haul of rubbish to sell.

He hopes to make between 40 and 50 Naira ($0.42) for half a day’s scavenging.

In his haul is a single flip-flop.

Decent sandals are cleaned up and re-sold. Shoes that are beyond repair are shredded up and bought by upholsterers for stuffing leather footrests bought by visitors to the Kano tannery nearby.

I was struck by this (convicted?), and it just reminded me again of how working for an international agency has changed my perspective . . . and how far I still need to go.

So . . . how many pairs of shoes do YOU own?