In Thai culture, the feet are considered the lowest, dirtiest part of your body. It is incredibly disrespectful to touch someone with your foot, or to point your feet at someone.
And after eight months on the World Race, I can kind of understand why – feet are gross. I’m wearing sandals 99 percent of the time these days, I walk a lot more than I do at home, and I’ve walked through a lot of dirt roads and paths. At the end of each day, the bottoms of my feet are pretty disgusting, covered in dirt and dust.
The problem is that you can’t just wash it off. Over time, your feet toughen up and you have layers of dead, rough skin building up. The dirt seems to fuse with these layers, making it pretty darn hard to get rid of even with intense scrubbing. For months now my heels have had a permanent layer that won’t go away.
…well, until our last night at Sending Hope.
That night we had a bonfire with all of girls, which we did once a week. At first it was pretty typical – worship, skits, and all of that stuff we usually did at bonfires. Then, it got interesting. Three pairs of chairs were set up, and we were escorted to them based on who had taught English together that month: Racquel and Amber, Gretchen and Brittany, and Lyndi and myself. Then, a bowl with water and rose petals was set in front of each of us, and the girls who had been our students lined up behind them.
One by one, they washed our feet. It’s a powerful gesture on its own, but even more so in a culture where you’re not even supposed to let someone see your feet, let alone touch them. I could tell that these girls knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it.
Once all of the girls had finished, the staff approached us and did the same thing. At that point the night was a blur for me – not only was I blown away by what they did, but it was our last night at this amazing place that had become my favorite ministry on the entire Race so far.
Finally, I went to put my sandals back on, and I looked at the bottoms of my feet. They were unrecognizable; for the first time in months, there were no traces of dirt. Even my rough, cracked, rugged heels were completely clean.
A selfless act of love can remove even the deepest-set stains, as if they were never there in the first place. After all, isn’t that why we’re here in the first place?
