Wande Coal’s song, ‘se ope’ from his debut album, Mushin-To-Mo’Hits, reminds me of Meng Weixin, 14, a little boy in China who was born with congenital neurofibromatosis – a rare disease that caused his feet to balloon to several times their normal size, leaving him unable to wear shoes.
In that song, Wande sings, “Some have shoes but they got no legs. Some got legs but they got no shoes. We have shoes and we have legs, glory be to Jah Jehovah… ”
In place of sneakers, Meng wears large denim cloths around his Elephant Man-like appendages, which provide no protection during the winter months in the Guangxi Zhuang region, an autonomous region in southern China near the border with Vietnam.
The boy’s right foot was so large it bent back on itself, and his toes swelled to the size of oranges.
“I wish I could wear shoes like my classmates, ” the boy said, according to The Sun. “I wish I could run fast like they do. I wish I could go everywhere I want.”
Meng may well get that wish soon after undergoing a successful operation at a hospital in Shanghai, China on Thursday.
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