I also want some pink shoes

Hi! Good morning to all the members of this community, I hope you are doing well. I am a primary school teacher and a couple of years ago I had the pleasure of training several children with limited resources in a very poor peasant community. Totally defenseless children without any malice, and in the following text I would like to share with you a situation that I experienced with two of my sixth grade students.

That Monday, I remember that I arrived at school very early, my students always when they saw me arrive they welcomed me with a warm good morning, suddenly one of my students (Raquel) approached me and said, teacher, do you know what is life? of Mariana? (Mariana is another of my students, 12 years old) I told her that I did not know, and she told me with great interest -because this weekend they bought Mariana some beautiful pink shoes- I am very happy for Mariana my girl I told him. -If the teacher continued the girl, a man arrived at Mariana's house that we had never seen before, this man was the one who brought her the pink shoes and the next day he took her to the city and bought her other things such as clothes, products for hair and some pretty earrings. Her mother was also very happy because she bought them food and a small kitchen. Teacher, this next week I am turning 13 years old and I too would like to have the luck of Mariana and that they give me some pink shoes- so much information set off the alarms in my head and made me very curious, but I continued with my daily work.

Several days passed and I immediately noticed Mariana's absence in my class, so I went to her home to find out what had happened to her, her mother came to meet me - teacher, it's good that she came, Marianita hasn't been able to go to class because a cousin came and she is helping him with cleaning his home in the town - I commented on the importance of education and civic training that the girl should receive and I left. But she felt a tremendous concern for that girl. I wondered if that information was true, although in my head I knew it was not entirely true.

So a week passed and I arrived on Monday, Raquel welcomed me to meet me at school - this weekend Mariana came to her house, she was made up, with new clothes, she had a fragrant perfume and she had on pink shoes. I asked her how was she? And I asked her for the pink shoes so I could put them on, she agreed to lend them to me and she said it was fine. But on her face I noticed some sadness and I hugged her I know that where she is she needs her mother, but she looked at me again and this time her eyes were watery like the river, I thought she was going to cry and I turned her back to hug- my heart was beginning to break and I took Raquel by the hands and led her to the address, and then Raquel, what happened? -She burst into tears, teacher, she told me that they didn't want her where she went, that they had mistreated her and she showed me some bruises on her skin, that man is hitting her- Her mother knows about that, Raquel, I asked her and she affirmed me with his head.

That day I met with other teachers from the school who live in that community and explained Mariana's case, and to my disbelief they told me not to get into that problem, that Mariana's mother had agreed to give her daughter to a man over sixty years old because he could not support her and in return this man was helping her support her other three smaller children. How was this possible? I began to investigate and I realized that Mariana was not the only girl who was going through this situation in that community and that other young women and adolescents already shared a similar case like Mariana's. Many other girls had been offered to older men for money and this was seen as very normal in that place.

I met again with my student Raquel, she knew everything Mariana had been going through and I asked her, Knowing everything Mariana goes through, do you still want to have pink shoes? And he told me - yes, teacher, I also want some new shoes, new clothes, sanitary napkins, deodorants and many other things that my parents will never be able to give me, I want to be a woman and have my own home to attend to, no matter a few strokes- and your happiness? I asked her, if you study and then work you can buy what you want, have a car and even a house, help your mother and your brothers, you will be free and independent, you can buy all the shoes of the colors you want.Although things cost, it is better to earn it with the sweat of effort. Sometimes it is good to put yourself in the shoes of others, but it is never good to keep borrowed shoes, do not repeat the same story.

Those pink shoes are the shoes of pain and unhappiness, they are the shoes of pederasty dressed in goodness, they are the mistakes that some parents make daily.