The following is an item I found in my stash of old letters. It was written several years ago from my three youngest siblings to our mother (who photocopied it and sent it to me), asking for permission to buy a fancy toy from a neighbor who was moving back to the States. I have done as little editing as possible.
Dear Mom,
These are the reasons we would like to buy the Lego ship:
1. It has a lot of gear – like a compass, a wheel that moves the rudder, sailors in uniform – etc.
2. The money we would like to spend on it is ours, so we feel we should be able to because it is our money after all.
3. J. is going to college and is trying to sell the ship. if we buy it, it might give him some money sort of like Pete was selling stuff for money.
4. If we do get it we will not argue over it, or at least we will try not to argue over it.
5. The ship would provide lots of fun for us, especially with how big and realistic, and good it is.
6. Because it is a complete set, it would be nice to have because it is whole and the parts are not missing. This would make it more fun because we don’t have to replace parts.
7. It would also be a nice replacement for our homemade, [illegible], multicolored, ships that do not have real equipment and are litterally [sic] shagalabagala [Swahili term for messy, chaotic, etc.]. We say this because our “ships” are not complete our men are mismatched, our things are different colors, and we don’t have all the supplies
8. The ship could also be fun to share with other kids who visit and love Legos like the Ks.
9. Lastly if we decided not to keep the ship any more when we grow older, we could sell it or give it away to somebody who could enjoy it.
Love,
Emily J. Morrison
Noah Morrison
Daniel
P.S. We are sure this is how we want to spend our money. We would really enjoy the ship even if it is 1000 shillings.
They got it.
Made for Eternity 
please see comment for July 7.
Man, that ship was amazing! We had tons of good times with it, before we finally wrecked in a storm of such magnitude that repair would be nearly impossible. The pieces of it are still scattered throughout our legos in Kenya.