Darn Those Socks!

(blog post by Kim)
  When we were in Cuba, I learned how to get every bit of medicine out of a tube of ointment.  Anabel, from our companion church, took a knife and cut open the tube so she could get out just a little bit more.  It works with toothpaste too.  I never realized how much toothpaste was still in the tube.  In times of scarcity, inventiveness finds ways to get every bit.  Cubans are champions in inventiveness. As the scarcities intensified before we left, I began to appreciate this not just as an innovative and creative strategy, but as a concrete way to make what we had last just a bit longer.  
Our socks also began to wear out and so, being the practical but not very talented seamstress—(I should not even use that word to refer to me)—I started to try and repair socks and other clothes.  When I would show my work to friends in the Kairos Center, they would laugh as my the stitches were all over the place and everyone agreed I had quite a unique style.
As I would sew up our socks, I began to wonder if Jesus darned his own socks.  Did he even wear socks?  I imagine he did when it got cold, but I had never thought about it before now.  Somehow I like the image of Jesus darning his socks and I have no doubt that he was better at it than me, but he would smile on my attempts. 
So when Carmita, our friend and sister in the church, gave me a pair of socks as a present, I was deeply moved, as socks, along with most everything else, are hard to find.  I wanted to make her take them back, but I knew I had to keep them in honor of her generosity and love.  It made me realize again how completely included Stan and I had been in the church in Matanzas.  They never leave us out of anything, whether it be socks, food or toothpaste. 
One evening after supper, I remember Wanda getting her sons’ toothbrushes ready for teeth cleaning, and she put on the smallest dab of toothpaste on the boys’ brushes, as the toothpaste was running out.  It made me concerned for them and I was always on the lookout for toothpaste.  I never was very successful in finding it, but occasionally I would and when Wanda would find some, she always asked if we needed some.  After seeing how she used it so sparingly, I began to be much more careful with what we still had. 
I have begun to see what a consumer and throw-away culture we are in the US.  I would never have thought to cut open a tube of toothpaste to get just a little more out of it.  I would never have thought to darn my socks until living in Cuba.  There simply are no other options.  We see our friends recycle clothes, dishes, tools, you name it.  Here I would just buy more socks.  I would use the old ones in the garden for staking up tomatoes or maybe to make puppets, but there was no concern about where my next pair of socks was coming from.
I am still enjoying the practice of darning my socks though I have to confess my skill is not really improving, but my socks last a little longer. And I feel just  a bit more Cuban.  And that is reason enough to do it.