> I understand completely. To throw in support from the male side here, I own roughly twenty pairs of shoes.

Glory be, but how glamorous American excesses are! My great grandmother Luisa, God rest her soul, she told us about the land of opportunity, where sometimes people besides political rulers get to have protection for their feet, but never in my wildest dreams did I think anyone, not even Greta Garbo, God rest her soul, would own more than one pair of the fabled shoes!

In El Salvador, the upper class, sometimes they save up enough money to purchase tree bark and vine, to tie protective soles on their feet -- ah, to live in such luxury and only have two or three blisters every day! -- but my Poppa, he always taught us not to covet what we did not need, and so I was raised to think of tree bark sandals as frivolous excesses -- I mean, would not this money be better used to buy drinking water with only a few bacterial diseases for the poor? Course, Poppa would have little use for footwear anyhow, his legs having fallen off, poor man.

Someday I will make it to USA, where everything is gold, and I will get a job and buy a pair of these shoes and send them home to Momma. The great irony, of course, is she could sell them for enough to buy the whole country, except nobody has that kind of money, so instead she could sell at a loss and get enough to buy a minimally stale bread crumb, perhaps, if the buyer is rich enough.

I must leave you all now; the mud, it is leaking in our soda carton, so I must scoop it out. It's not much, but it's the only home we have, and better than some. When I get to USA, if my greatest dreams are realized, I will afford to buy two soda cartons, knock out the wall in the middle, and live in luxury. Course Momma, she don't want twice the household chores, but if USA has this thing called "day off" I can help her out.