Things that we lost or that broke during our nine months of living abroad:
Mike’s TSA lock, our silicone rings, one pair of underwear (replaced), one earring (replaced with a new set), a washcloth, a lens cap for binoculars (we replaced it), the case for my clip-on sunglasses, a hair brush broke (we replaced it), a card from a deck of cards (blew away while we were playing. So then we had to toss the rest of the deck since it was one card short). Kate lost her water bottle that she was given at Finch Hattons. A monkey stole a package of cookies, and a pair of fingernail scissors were confiscated at airport security in South Africa. We bought a new pair and the same thing happened again when we flew back out of Johannesburg four months later.
A zipper pull on my handbag broke, the same zipper pull on Kate’s handbag (although hers lasted eight months longer than mine), Kate’s sunglasses broke (but they were repaired with epoxy), a zipper on Kate’s carry-on is a little wonky.
Things that we added (bear in mind it was our goal to buy zero souvenirs or new items):
On our very first flight Swiss Air gave out really nice merino wool t-shirts (they were too good to give up so we kept them and used them for the entire trip), swag from running a race in Casablanca (this included a t-shirt for both of us. Plus I kept my medal and my race bib. Hey, this is the only foreign race that we’ve ever done). I kept a nice insulated water bottle that I was given during a safari in Botswana. We were given nice drawcord bags/mini backpacks during our Nile cruise and we kept those (they turned out to be super useful for whenever we wanted to carry a few things with us but didn’t want to bring our full daypacks).
We were given ballcaps on safari and on the Nile cruise but elected not to accept them as we already had ballcaps with us that we preferred.
I was given a very nice journal at the Cairo Ritz-Carlton and decided that I would keep it and use it for my Arabic studies.
I bought a pair of tights for cold weather (I had brought a pair of long johns for climbing. But after we were done with Mt Kenya I didn’t think I would need them anymore. So I gave them to our porters).
We each bought a poncho for heavy rains. We bought three liter water bladders for climbing (we initially thought that we would just use water bottles but changed our minds).
I replaced my running shoes. Kate replaced some insoles. I decided to collect a coin from each country that we went to (although I didn’t start this until a half dozen countries into the trip).