settling in (c)

The Carlin children and I played a game of tag this afternoon. As we ran around, three of the staff who are regularly on the compound were sitting on a bed where one of them sleeps in the evenings and which he has pulled outside under the second story deck. They were watching and laughing as we chased each other. After a bit, I decided to pick up some of the large red (practically a cranberry color) leaves that fall from the almond trees in our courtyard so that I can use them to decorate my space later. Two of the gentlemen soon joined the game with the children. One played in his bare-feet, running on the rocks and shells that constitute our gravel. Tessa commented on it to Nicole and me at one point when she took a short water break in the middle of the game. I don't even like to walk without shoes in my house (anywhere) becuase I don't like getting dirty feet or having things stuck to the bottoms. We ended up discussing the differences in life and the impact in even this way, but just imagine how tough our feet would be if we did not have a pair of shoes for the first however many years of our lives. We too would grow accustomed to living, working, and playing barefoot.