When my most favorite musical band (Hanson) released their last studio album "The Walk," the band also started hosting walks, which aimed to help the less fortunate kids in Africa who didn't have any decent shoes/slippers to wear. It was a successful cause that Toms Shoes worked hand in hand with the band. For every pair of Toms Shoes bought, one pair will be given to a kid in Africa. As a fan, it had been a wonderful moment to be happy about.

A small group of Hanson fans here in the Philippines had been friends since the late 1990s, and just a year ago, one of us opened a Hanson Fan Blog - Hanson Philippines - where we write different articles related to the band.

Recently, Toms Shoes released a new campaign, "Go Barefoot," and in relation to that, Hanson encouraged people to go a day without shoes. It was on April 16th, but sadly, I wasn't able to watch Hanson's video about it, so I wasn't able to do it on that specific day, but I go barefoot inside the house anyway, so I guess that would still count. =)

Anyway, one of the Hanson fans - Laarni posted her "I went barefoot" photos in the Hanson Fan Blog and she dared us to do the same. At first, I tried what the other three ladies that followed Laarni did, but I admit I don't have a good pair of feet, so I thought of a different take on the dare.

Last Saturday, I attended the Singles for Christ CLP, and while we were listening to some announcements before calling it a night, I asked my friend Ecko if he could take my photos since it would be impossible for me to do it by myself. I told him, "You're the photographer so I will leave up the concept to you. You just have to take a picture of me barefoot in public." At first I hoped of doing it by the market area, but just a few minutes earlier, it rained so hard. The road had been so wet and the traffic made it impossible for us to shoot there. Ecko already had his concept, and together we walked by the entrance of our village to execute his concept.

In the middle of the village's entrance was a row of mango trees. He wanted to take a picture of me walking with the two mango trees as the frame, but it was difficult to execute. In the end, we just did my own take of the shot.



I took a picture of a similar image without me in it, of course. Ecko seemed to get the idea, so I made the pose. Even though this was a staged pose, it was candid in a way that I was just asking if my position was already okay. The camera just fired - so I assume all was okay.

I borrowed Ela's guitar, because my concept was that I would be this poor musician walking without shoes on. Sadly, not only don't I look good, I also don't know how to pose. Hahaha. Somewhere in the middle of the shoot, one of our SFC friends walked by and while he and Ecko talked, I leaned on the mango tree as the guitar was way too heavy. I put up one of my leg to check how dirty my feet were, and it just sparked a different kind of take on the barefoot shoot:







It just looked awful to see how big my legs were - well, I thought walking and traveling would make me lose weight, but all it did was to make my legs bigger and bigger. Hehehe. But, with much conviction, I am going to say that I am NOT embarrassed going barefooted in a public place, I am NOT embarrassed getting my feet dirty, because I know there are people who had to live their lives without any footwear. Not just in Africa, but also here in my own country, there were kids who had to go to school barefoot. The reason? They were too poor that they would rather just use their little money to buy food than to buy shoes.

For whatever purpose this may serve, I am happy to be able to do this.

*** Jenn ***

ps - Just so you know, here's how the others in the group did theirs - Laarni went barefoot at a bookstore, Meri did it in a vacant lot, Zee did it in their yard, Yne did it at a mall, and Dhana did in the supermarket. We were waiting for the others to post their pictures, but all of us would meet on May 9th to celebrate Hanson Day (which falls on May 6, but it's a weekday so our celebration was moved on a weekend), and all of us will "Take the Walk" and we will walk in public barefoot.

Big thanks to Ecko for taking the pictures!