In reply to Ellen.

Hey Ellen,
It's very funny to me that this is the first time I've ever "talked" to you, and it's on the blog. The deal with giving gifts, even school supplies, is that we generally don't. It creates bad begging habits in the kids, generally. HOWEVER, since you're actually coming here in person to visit our family as one of Jim's family members, it's probably appropriate for you to bring some pencils and erasers and crayons. We have a little art supply box we keep under our bed for when the kids come to visit, and they love to hang out at our house and draw, so we know they'd use them. There are about 8 school-age kids and 3 high school kids in the two families (our local guides and caretakers) that you all will meet. Whatever you do, just try to keep things as close to identical/equal/even as possible. Ha, you can hand out your gifts and Jim and I can give a little plug for how important education is! I swear, we never stop giving little plugs, ever. Three school girls came over today to check out our green house and ended up watching me do dishes (they actually wanted to do them for me but I felt too weird about that) and I ended up talking to them about the importance of not polluting the river. It never ends.

I'm looking forward to meeting you, and so is our host family. They're cooking up plans for a celebration of your arrival. : )

See you soon,
Emily