Small gifts to bring a motorcycle trip?
 

So we just left on our South American journey and are soon entering mexico..
and I was thinking. Would it be cool to bring something small we can give to people or kids we meet.
Does anyone else bring anything on their travels? We can really carry much more stuff but what would make a kid happy?

Small bags of sweets works well in South East Asia.


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We travel with small spinning tops with led lights, little robot 'type' figures & mostly novelty stuff from a $2 shop. Small bouncy balls, frisbees go down well too. YES, you can fit them in LOL
Kids go crazy for them & the parents light up with smiles from ear to ear :thumbup1:
In Asia & Pacific Islands, these are toys that kids have not seen before & gives
weeks on end of joy :funmeteryes:

I try not to be negative anywhere on the HUBB. Rant comming..

BUT PLEASE THINK what this can do!

giving gifts sweets anything to kids as you travel only creates a culture of harassment to other tourist and ethic of "get something for nothing". What happens to the kid that gets nothing cus they were doing chores or school work, If you insist on giving gifts give them to the orphanages or schools.. not to the kids on the streets..

Small to you may not be small to them...

yes it makes them smile.. Sugary treats might make them lose their teeth..
I have been chased by kids all over the world shouting Pen Pen, Cadeau Caedeau, or even just gimmi gimmi gimmi..

Once the culture depends on this it can become a business. Lonely planet did a test they gave marked pens to kids in cambodia, it took 7 minutes before it was found in the local market NOT sold by their parents..

Your actions have impacts always try and consider this before you doing things that can effect a culture...

Blimey! now you've got me thinking that maybe I've done wrong in the past. :confused:

Gifting money? No, never .. ever!

But, we made a habit of giving out blow-up plastic globes to the local kids from time-to-time. Just to show them where they live on the planet .. and where I/we came from. Not expensive, you can pack loads of 'em, and they weigh next to nothing.

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I know, for a fact, that some of these globes ended-up in various classrooms; whereas, I'm reliably informed, others spent the remainder of their useful lives as beach balls!

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Smiley (emoticon-type) sticky-labels always went down well too - and a dollar buys 100s .. therefore no 're-sale' market value whatsoever with these quick and easy hand-outs. Again, oh-so lightweight and simple to pack a few sheets of them alongside your other travel documents.

In addition, little packs of pencils and crayons were also gratefully received by children everywhere we went.

Did I/we do wrong? Possibly .. but I think not.

When you've been shouted at for the 250th time to give a sweet, money or pen, you really get peed off with those who went before and set unrealistic expectations.

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So this is what the Moroccan authorities have posted—don't make too much noise, keep a distance from wild animals, respect places of worship, avoid behaviour likely to shock locals, don't give to people--especially children--sweets, pens, drugs, so as not to encourage begging.

It is true that in Morocco children have come to expect getting gifts. So much so that they're pretty persistent in asking for them from every tourist who passes.
I agree that there are better ways to put a smile on kids' faces. Just talking to them and being interested is sometimes already enough. You can play a little game with them. Or, like mentioned above, the blow-up globe is very useful as well. I never hand them out, but use it to talk to kids about the world and where I'm from. You can even use them to organise a small beach volley match.
The pic below was taken in a phone shop / internet cafe in a small mountain village in northern Iran. A friend we were travelling with was playing Fifa in the public computer with some of the boys while I was telling some other boys about our trip and my wife was handing out autographs to school girls outside.
It can be incredibly easy to put a smile on a child's face, even without gifts or candy.
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Along these same lines, we were dismayed last August in Tajikistan by the kids running out into the roads to 'high 5' us as we rode through their towns and past their homesteads. Obviously they had been taught to do this by previous motorcyclists. They ran out without regard to traffic, potholes, debris, dogs, pedestrians or anything else a rider might need to avoid- to get close enough to slap our hands.

Downright dangerous for everyone around. And it wasn't just teenagers, who might be expected to assess the situation before running out, it was little kids, 4-5 years old, totally oblivious.

I'd be kind of pissed if strangers were encouraging my kids to do that.

Why not stick to real, person to person encounters- that way they can learn something useful about the world you represent, while you learn something useful from them?

(Off my soapbox now.)

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.................shu

I don't know who's responsible for the "gift" thing but it's as old as the hills. I've read it in Lonely Planet years ago back when everyone actually had one of those, but never understood the idea. Carrying a whole pile of crap that's either unhealthy, or adds to the waste cycle just to make a kid happy for 5 mins until you leave and leave the other kids unhappy and cause all sorts of side effects. I always felt it was more for the traveler's benefit to make themselves happy they did something positive with their wealth which in reality if very superficial and totally pointless. But maybe I've become more cynical than I already was.

Anyway, for the sake of everyone involved. It's selfish and disruptive so please don't do it.

The well-intentioned giving of junk (pens, candy, plastic toys) to begging kids in the developing world is universally condemned by, among others, their parents and communities. If you doubt this, just ask any village elders along the way. They'll tell you. Aside from anything else, if you stick around watching surreptitiously you'll often see kids fighting over the crap you hand out. Sometimes it gets pretty brutal.

I somewhat like the idea of the inflatable globes, provided there's human contact, conversation (with or without spoken language), and celebration of local values involved. In my mind, I'm trying to offer something of real value--this includes encouraging a sense among locals kids that their own culture and surroundings have value and importance. You're not going to do that by throwing handfuls of candy out the window of your Landrover, as I've seen in various parts of the world.

Long ago in Zaire I met some Israelis who juggled in a very basic way, entertaining and teaching villagers. I started doing that myself, and found it great fun. Most begging kids can be diverted easily in this way. Sometimes I'd pass through the same village a day or two later, and an old toothless crone would beckon me over and demonstrate their juggling prowess with a couple of random stones, surrounded by other adults, all grinning and gleeful. I like that.

The only other things I hand out to people I don't know are cards, which I have printed cheaply before a trip. One of my standards has a glossy color photo of me and KLR, my name, and an email address. Again, I try to communicate my respect for where I am and the people I meet, offering the cards as a durable reminder. I've very seldom actually heard from anyone on my email, and I admit I don't really know whether I'm succeeding in what I'm trying to convey. However, I'm quite confident I'm doing a better job than could be done with any form of injection-molded plastic or sugary sweets.

Gifts for people with whom I've established an actual relationship of any sort are a different story, and a different discussion.

Mark

*rant alert*
Would you hand out sweets and toys to random local children in your own country? I totally do not support this kind of activity as it reinforces a really bad stereotype of foreigners. Having lived in bush country Africa, this kind of thing tends to happen on a daily basis and quite frankly it becomes annoying. The high level of expectation that foreigners will give you something is the driving force behind why you get flocked by small children in back-country villages. Unfortunately, I've figured out that kids are amped because they reckon they will get something, not because they are so happy to see me.

Spend your money in local businesses and keep the gifts for special occasions. That alone will buy you more than enough karma, more than a life time of purchasing fair trade coffee.

*rant over*

Milk The Tourists ...Our Own Fault
 

I couldn't agree more with most of the posters here. I never randomly hand out anything to strangers along the way. This is a tough one to rant on since the ones who've created the child begging issues were well meaning ...albeit seriously misguided. It does nonetheless make my blood boil when I'm constantly hearing "bonbon", "cadeau", "stylo", "Un Dirham", "Un Peso", "Regalo", "gimme", "monies", "dulces", "one dollah", "chicle" ...along with the universal rubbing of fingers for more money, or the palm up outstretched hand. ...money for nothing and your chiclets for free :nono:

I have given items to people I've met along the way but only if a personal connection was made. For example I may give my travel mascot to the kids of the family I stayed with at the end of the trip. At the end of another trip I gave my small Spanish dictionary to the chambermaid, who was trying to pick up some English, at the guesthouse in Cuba as part of a tip. When I realized that I was carrying way to much stuff on my Dominican Republic trip, I gave the excess to the Belgian hostess who was going to give it to locals in need. Sometimes I let kids sit on my cold bike and let their faces light up in delight. Never! Ever! do I give something to someone who demands it in the first place, and never ever do I give things out as a matter of routine. Personal connection or services rendered sometimes works.

I carry a laminated world map to show people where I'm from if they're curious. I also carry a small stack of Canadian flag stickers for those who've shown a genuine interest in my trip and myself. Again, not just randomly handed out.

These are much more meaningful gestures than randomly giving kids, and adults, a bunch of beggar making, sugar addiction creating stuff for no good reason. While I don't think those who indiscriminately hand out stuff are bad people, I do agree with those who say it's more about making themselves feel good ...whether they're aware of it or not.

As a final thought and rhetorical question. How would you feel if a perfect stranger came around and started handing out candy to your neighbourhood kids?

...Michelle