Western Carolina University’s theme “Africa, more than a continent” will last from Fall of 2015 to the Fall of 2017. The university has partnered up with Samaritans Feet to give shoes to the kids in Burundi, Africa. Lane Perry, director of service learning at WCU, challenged his students and people around him to walk barefoot around campus on Thursdays for the months of September and October to raise awareness. I took his challenge plus more. I want to see what it’s like to live without shoes for a week. Read about my experience below. 

10:30 a.m.  – My essential thoughts going into this week was “people are going to give me the weirdest looks”, “what if I step on gum or something?” and “I already have ugly feet, but by the end of this week I’m going to have some J.R. Tolkien’s ‘Hobbit’ feet. Luckily I only have one class and I’m blessed enough to drive to class instead of walking. This morning at the sound of my alarm my first instinct was to get dressed and throw on my shoes. That was an urge I had to fight. As I walked down the stairs, at my apartment, I step on this tiny piece of gravel protruding from the sidewalk. It was pretty painful. It could be compared to walking across a living room barefoot, in the dark, and the floor is covered with tiny Legos. It’s safe to say it wasn’t a pleasant experience. At this moment I realized I would be walking with my head down because I had to watch my step. When you skype with the person that Manny give’s you ask him if he/she remembers was he/she doing the same thing. Were they paying attention to that? Will you be paying attention to that by the end of the week?

6:45 p.m. – I have almost completed my first day without putting on shoes. All I’ve done is drive to class, step on a rock or two and sat at work. My feelings revolving around today’s experience could be easily described as “vulnerable”. This is because I am very self-conscious about where I’m stepping or I catch people looking at me funny. I heard comments about the lack of shoes on my feet including “that’s unsanitary” and “did you lose your shoes?” But nobody prevented me to go to class or go to work – granted I work at a computer lab on WCU campus. Overall, a lot of my thoughts today were about what kind of day does a kid without shoes in Africa experience. All day I’ve thought about what kids in different counties without shoes face on a daily basis

Tuesday 9/29/15

11:00 a.m. – I woke up this morning, took a look outside my window and of course it was pouring. The thing about Cullowhee, NC, is that it always rains! I shouldn’t have expected

anything less on my first day walking to school barefoot. As I started down the hill to head to class, the asphalt made the bottom of my feet burn. It was a weird feeling, it felt like I was walking on the blacktop after it sat in the sun all day. I was using puddles around me to attempt to make my feet feel better. But it wasn’t until I got to the gravel that I realized how much walking to school was going to suck. I thought my feet burn from the asphalt…that was nothing compared to how the gravel made my feet feel. Eventually I got to my saving grace, grass! As my feet slowly started to feel better I got to my destination. I was soaked, cold and realized that today is going to be miserable.

2:00 p.m. – My feet are freezing. In honor of this assignment I have also ruled out the use of socks. My thoughts are that if kids in Africa are barefoot, they wouldn’t have socks. Plus my feet still hurt so much from my walk to campus this morning. It hurts to walk on things that used to be soothing like tile and carpet. My favorite comment from a classmate so far today is, “you’re going to get a cold!”

10:00 p.m. – I just got off of work, the rain has stopped and the only way for me to describe today is “miserable”. Everywhere I step hurts. Specifically the balls of my feet. My feet are cold, wet and not as tough as I thought they were.

Wednesday 9/30/15

11:30 a.m. – This morning has been much better then yesterday. The sun is out and my feet don’t hurt as bad. I just got lunch at Subway, and that interaction happened a little different then I thought. In my head I was assuming that they wouldn’t serve me because of the old saying, “no shirt, no shoes, no service”. Well, they served me and didn’t even notice that I wasn’t wearing shoes. So that was cool, from now on I know that if I want a sub sandwich, cheap, I don’t have to wear shoes.

12:20 p.m. – Since Subway was a success, I wanted to push the limits and try grocery shopping at Wal- Mart. This has been the worst part of my day so far because THE PARKING LOT was disgusting. I had to dodge oil stains, gum and trash. That is only all the stuff I managed to dodge and not including the nasty gunk on the hot asphalt. Other than that, no one said anything to me about being barefoot while looking through the different types of deli meat.

2:35 p.m. – I’ve survived Wal -Mart. I am back on campus, walking to class and I think I’ve found my new barefoot kryptonite…Manhole covers. Those suckers get really hot.

9:00 p.m. – Today, I think, I burnt the bottom of my feet from the hot roads and sidewalks. The sun started as a blessing for taking away the rain, but it turned up being a downfall for the bottom of my feet. Whenever I would come up to a big black parking lot I would imagine it was like “firewalking” (you know, the practice of walking across hot coals barefoot). All I know is my feet hurt and it’s only the middle of the week.

Thursday 10/1/15

9:30 a.m. – The first day of October, when most people consider the first day of fall. Well today the weather is what Cullowhee, NC is best known for…Overcast.

Which is a good thing because I have to walk to school today. The weather reminds me of the “Goldilocks” story. It’s not too cold or rainy and it’s not too hot or sunny; it’s just right.

10:10 a.m. – The gravel still sucks! I feel like I have a piece of gravel stuck to the bottom of my feet, but there is nothing there. Maybe I bruised a bone on the bottom of my feet because every time I take a step it feels like there is one single rock under my foot.

12:00 p.m. – This classroom is freezing and I’m the only one who thinks so. Someone told me that most of your body heat escapes through your feet and the fact that I’m not wearing shoes could be why I’m always cold!

6:00 p.m. – I only have one more day without my shoes, Friday. I can honestly say that I miss them. But not the way you would miss a loved one or something to that extent. It’s more of an “I miss the taste of Coke” after trying to kick your bad habit of drinking one a day. It’s like a daily struggle not to break down; to not put on those super warm, wooly socks and those shoes that could protect you from the evil tiny pieces of gravel that find joy in making you wince! Look at me, this is pathetic, I’m almost drooling at the idea of wearing shoes.

Friday 10/2/15

10:00 a.m. – I think I’m going to snap. I’m going to put my shoes on today, even though it is the last day! It is raining and it is cold. I thought maybe I’d be able to just sit around my house today but I actually have a bunch of meetings on campus. So I got up and dressed. The first day I wore jeans, I kind of felt like I looked like Huckleberry Finn. I had to roll my jeans up so the bottom of them didn’t get wet. I guess when I where my shoes they add about of inch to my legs so I don’t step on the back of my pants legs.

12:00 p.m. – It finally happened…someone stepped on my foot. I was just minding my own business when a size 11 hiking boot found my barefoot. I knew it was going to happen sometime this week. Someone would be walking to class, not paying attention to where they are walking and bump into me. Eventually leading to someone clumsily stepping on my foot. Luckily it was on my actual foot and not on one of my toes.

2:00 p.m. – This experiment almost just ended. I almost put my shoes on. I’m tired of being cold and miserable. I hate the crazy looks I get when I walk around in public. I am going out to dinner with friends to a decent restaurant and really don’t want to be kicked out. That’s how I’m feeling about not wearing shoes. But I’ve made it this far, might as well finish it out.

9:00 p.m. – Just got back from dinner. They didn’t kick me out, but I can’t tell if it’s because they sat us outside. I don’t even think our waitress realized i was barefoot until I made a comment on how cold I was and my buddy pointed it out to her. Her reaction was priceless. She said “EW, where are your shoes!? why would you come to a restaurant without them!?” After she made her point about how gross my feet were, she cut on the heater on so I wasn’t so cold.  Now I’m in for the night. I’m really happy I didn’t give up and talked myself into finishing out the project. Tomorrow I get to put on my shoes and couldn’t be more excited!

Saturday 10/3/15

8:00 a.m.  – My socks are on. My shoes are on. I couldn’t be happier to put them back on my freezing feet. Before this experiment, the idea of shoes was nothing.

I didn’t appreciate my shoes, they were just a thing that was. But now, after this week, I look at my shoes as a blessing. It’s like that song  “I’m walking on sunshine.” Honestly though, I think if I had done this experiment in a more urban area, like Charlotte, NC, the outcome would have been different. Because I did this experiment in Jackson County, people are more accepting of a guy walking into their stores and restaurant barefoot.  Whereas in a more populated, urban area people see the barefoot guy as a vagabond who will bring the price of their community down.

Overall, I wanted to do this experiment to see what living without shoes is like. I originally came up with idea when I heard about the kids in Burundi, Africa who cant’ afford shoes. They wake up everyday and don’t have the choice to put on their shoes or not to put on your shoes. Having shoes for them is a true blessing and a privilege, whereas in places like America it is taken for granted.

Be careful where you step! 

What’s your biggest fear when walking around barefoot? Stepping in dog poop or a glass shard? The kid’s in Burundi have those and more. From parasites to Ebola, more than 1.5 billion people are infected with parasites alone. Read more about the health risks here Importance of a Healthy Sole.