Getting off on the right foot

Jessi started school the first of June, and we have been waiting for school uniforms to arrive since then.  The school had asked in mid-March, prior to the end of the school year, for an inventory and sizes of all items we needed, which, of course, is a bit preposterous due to the fact that all children grow.  However, we do live in India, and prescience is a practiced art here; so, maybe the locals can predict the sizes of clothes their kids will need, but being burdened with the reality of Western thinking, I cannot.

So, July 3rd the school announces the uniforms are here and to c'mon down and get what you need, which BTW they acknowledged the data gathered in March was pretty much junk - go figure.  At any rate, I had to wait a few days before I went to the school to pick up Jess's new duds.  They had most, but not all items - at least not in her size.  But the most amazing thing happened, which is the point of this rambling.

Shoes are part of the uniform, and after a year in the same pair of shoes, well you can imagine the state of last years models.  So, a new pair was needed, and I sized her foot.  After paying for all the items, you then proceed to the order pickup door - I think this whole process is modeled after the US Army boot camp clothing distribution.  The order fulfillment guys stuffed all the stuff into bags, and I did a quick check to see if the sizes were appropriate for Jess, as you see, Asian sizes are not the same as North American sizes.  I even opened up the shoe box to check the size of the shoes, and since I saw the guy pull the box out of a bigger box, and since the shoe I checked was still stuffed with the filler paper, well, I didn't check the 2nd shoe in the box.

So, this morning rolls around, and I got Jess up for her shower before school.  She was excited to wear her new uniforms, and she put on her new duds.  We dashed downstairs to put on new socks and shoes.  The process is that the right foot goes on first; so, no problem with that, and the size was just right.  We moved to step two in the process, the left foot.  I pulled the shoe out of the box, pulled the paper out of it, and began to undo the laces from their factory tie up.

That's when I noticed a problem.  We had two right footed shoes.  Now, I know that Indians work very hard to get their kids moving into life on the right foot, but I thought this was a bit excessive.  So, now, I have to go back to the school, plead my case and hope they have a box with two left footed shoes, which I hope has not gone out to someone in the dance class.