Gifts to Children

This is a photo from Angkar Wat in Cambodia. I’m flashing back to this because it fits with the topic of having small gifts to give to the young children.

When we went to Egypt 20 years ago, we were surprised at how the young children were so enthusiastic to get a pen from us. One had asked for a pen and we gave one to him. Others then also wanted one. Since we had many, we handled many of them out. Because of this, we intentionally brought several large packets of pens and pencils to hand out during this cruise. We also have collected the chocolates that they put on our pillow each night to hand out.

In India this trip, one child asked Kathleen for a wet-wipe when he saw her dispensing one. She gave it to him, and we thought this was strange (and sad) that a wet-wipe could be seen as a prize. (Now we understand.)

In Oman, we took the pens and chocolates ashore, but saw no children. Last night I saw the guest expert on Egypt and asked him which of the two upcoming Egyptian ports might be good to give out these items.

His reaction was, “you are creating a monster.” What the kids really want is just to “make contact” with a westerner. It used to be that they wanted to shake hands, have you repeat their name, and have you tell them your name. They could then proudly tell their parents or friends that they had made this contact.

Once they learned that they could ask a tourist for some trivial item and get it, that became the new means of making contact and proving it. The pen is not special because they can typically get them for a few cents locally. They may have a whole collection of these type of items, not because they needed or wanted them, but just as proof that they were able to make contact, ask for something, and get it.

The picture from Angkor Wat is a little different, but deals with the same issue. Here, a passenger had been carrying a teddy bear to photograph at each destination. The young kids go to school half a day, and sold post cards, books, bracelets, or similar items to tourists the other half day. Here the kids were asked to hold the teddy bear for a photo. They each wanted a turn holding it. They gave it bracelets. For 5 minutes of so, they were no longer child laborers selling items, but they were kids again. Later one of them realized they had to get back to work and they all reverted back to salepeople.

We’ll still give out the candies and the pens. It makes you feel good to see the children enthusiastic, but the pen is not the important part. The candies are still nice, especially for the youngest children (so long as too much is not causing a dental issue in some of the countries), but the pens are not much better than a hand shake and a half minute’s worth of attention.