ex-Marine (husband, Steve) just returned from his yearly travel talk to a fourth grade accelerated class in a Chicago suburb. He always takes a few of our collectible items that would be of interest to children. Steve narrates true travel adventure stories, explains what these items were used for, and relays world facts that these affluent youngsters probably aren’t aware of. The teacher also happens to be his sister, Kathy, who encourages the children to write Steve “thank you” notes. Below are excerpts from a few of these notes (including grammatical and misspelling errors) that have both hysterical and perceptive comments. Here we go…

“I learned so many interesting fact but my favorite would have to be hearing all the different foods you ate when you were traveling. Some of the food I didn’t even knew exsited…”

“I also like how you don’t go as a tourist. My favorite artafact was the necklace. How all of it was from Eroup and sent to Africa for money…”View image…

“It was neat that women had metal peices in their mouth the size of a grapefruit! I didn’t know that temperatures in Antarctica could be above zero either. Thank you for coming in. I learned so much!…”

“What surprised me was that a whole mountain was made of crystal. I really liked learning all those facts! I didn’t know that some people must sleep on a hard floor…”

“I also learned that even since you travel a lot, you don’t see a lot of tigers…I hope I get to travel like that someday too…”

II really liked the story about the head hunters. And I found it surprising that some people slept on those wooden pillows…”

an Arbore wooden pillow in Ethiopia used for sleeping
“Dear Mr. Simkin, thank you for coming to our class and teaching us about different cultures. I never knew that people smiled even though their government was in trouble or they worked hard every day. ….p.s. How did the chief smoke a pipe that big?…”…View image

“Your facts were really fascinating and I loved all the treasures you brought. Something you shared with me was that a Mountain Gorrila is as big as a table. If I saw that in person I know I would be scared, you must be really brave. Out of all the artifacts you brought my favorite was the statue that you got for one dollar. It was carved out of wood and had many beautiful bracelets on it. I can’t believe you got that extrodinary statue for one dollar…”…View image

Silverback gorilla in Rwanda

“Another interesting fact I learned is that all penguins are different…”

“I had fun learning all about different cultures. One fact I found surprising was that some people cut their lips to put something in their mouth. Is that really to make someone beautiful?…”

Ethiopian Mursi tribe woman wearing her lip plate
“I loved the story about the gorillas and I loved how you shared some of your valuable objects. My favorite piece of the objects was the necklace with all the cool beeds….It’s so cool that you got to visit camp Leakey and all other different kinds of places… I would like to see all different places like that. Thank you so much…”

Two favorite items the children referring to were: African slave (or trade) beads used as currency in the slave trade; and a huge lip plate that the Mursi women wore. Isn’t it interesting what they take for granted in their privileged lives?