A Foot Washing

Something that has been a challenge for me since first arriving here, has been encounters with seemingly shameless and unwarranted demands (not requests) for money and material items. For me, it isn’t so much the money or specific item, but the idea behind the demand. Integrity, character, honesty, and dignity are priceless… they cannot be bought nor should they be compromised for money, especially meagre amounts of money. It is here where the problem lies for me. If it was a sincere and warranted request to help with a true need, then this is one thing, but a cold, rude demand, as if it were a game, is quite another.

I cannot begin to count how many times a sassy young lad has blurted out “Whi’ mon, gimme mo’ney” with an outstretched, open palm, paired with a subdued smile. Sometimes they are eight, other times eighteen. Sometimes it is the raincoat tied around my waist. Other times, the sorry looking bicycle I am sitting on (a bicycle that I wouldn’t even bother to lock up back home.) The worst is the demand for food. Spotting the group before being spotted, the group is perfectly normal and content. They’re talking or laughing or sitting. But when I walk by, a boy says ‘food, gimme food’ meekly, pointing to his open mouth with one hand, holding the stomach with the other. If I look over my shoulder once I am past, they are all laughing together. It encourages the heart to grow cold to sincere needs... There is a similar effect when a price is solidly agreed upon for a taxi ride, before even touching the door handle to enter the car, yet upon arrival there is a demand for more based off of some frivolous or fabricated reason. At this point I find it challenging to not think less of this particular man. It is hard to imagine some positive cultural explanation or innocent excuse for it, when it happens over, and over… and over again. Thank God, this is not always the case.

I eat dinner from time to time at my favourite Liberian Food Ready Now establishment. I am given honest change back when paying for food! When walking back from there last night, the mud/dirt road was extra soupy. The thin, hard packed, dirt trail on the side of the road for pedestrian use disappeared a few times without a makeshift bridge, leaving one to guess the depth of the mud (and who knows what else) you’re stepping in, with your sandals. At one such point, we were clearly on the wrong side of the street as I watched my two friends venture in front of me, accidentally covering half of their feet in the stuff. (It left a funny, distinct line on their feet, like when you wear socks for a whole day when you’re out in the sun, and then when you take them off you have a fantastic tan line. This time, it was a mud line!) We laughed, shrugging our shoulders. The people in the stand next to us on the street laughed too. Fortunately for me, they graciously guided me on a route across the road to keep my feet clean. It worked, and they would know, because despite their flip flop foot apparel, their feet seem to always be clean of the stuff. It is what happened next that was a huge encouragement to me.

A lady had seen what had happened, went inside to get a small pitcher of water, and emerged from her house offering it to my friends to rinse their feet off. She gently insisted without a spoken word. So, my friends took the little plastic pitcher, full of water that she must have purchased, and rinsed their feet off, slowly dripping the water on their feet and sandals on the side of this road.

I nonchalantly passed Kelly a small bill while this was happening to offer the woman as a thank you. I had been conditioned to do this from so many people asking for money in response to favors-turned-services. Well, when Kelly offered, the shy woman declined. Kelly offered again, kindly, thinking she much not have understood what we were offering. She again declined graciously, gesturing that it was a gift. In this moment, she served us, shattering the callous expectations that have grown inside of me here. We were complete strangers and she blessed us. She blessed me. She made my day.