Send me gifts!

Yesterday, I was talking with a missionary who had just come back from Burkina Faso, and we were talking about what sort of things I should bring out to Malawi when I go. And I asked her what toys I should bring over for the kids, and she said that the kids absolutely love balloons! She brought all these balloons with her and blew them up and released them for all the kids, and this one girl actually started crying hysterically because she had never seen them before and was just so happy to play with them. Another big hit for the kids is stickers. My friend put a sticker on the face of one child, went back to the city to work for a week, came back to the village and saw the exact same child with the exact same sticker on his face, in the same spot! Apparently glow sticks are really popular too, except when they start breaking the sticks and start smearing the liquid gel on their face. There is a fear that it might be a little toxic.

So, if any of you people who read this can think of anything that would impress kids and make me the most popular missionary they have ever seen, and actually send it over to Malawi, I will do something uniquely special for you, like etch your name on a tree in the village of Malawi or something like that. Or you'll be my person of the week. Something cool like that.

So, ignore my previous pleas for toilet paper and all things sanitary. I would rather have toys and little trinkets that would make me popular with the kids. Then I'll be rock star Kit Kat all over again :)