San Luis Obispo businessman Craig Cowan thought giving would be easy when his 9-year-old son, Cole Bradley, decided to collect shoes for orphans in Nicaragua -- where the unshod can't go to schoo. The footwear was supposed to be a Christmas present.

Locals enthusiastically donated 5,000 pairs within weeks, but shipping problems and customs bureaucracy delayed the delivery well past New Year's.

I joined Cowan in Costa Rica in January, 2005 and traveled with him to Nicaragua -- where he learned that giving isn't so easy after all.

As a result, I wrote and photographed this 3-day series, which later won third place in explanatory journalism in the Inland Press Association's 2005 national newswriting contest (25k to 75k circulation division).