Kids Display Their Most Prized Possessions

Italian photographer Gabriele Galimberti recently went on a couch-surfing adventure. Over the course of 18 months he visited 58 different countries with the intent of "shadowing" his host family's daily life. During that time he found another purpose: understanding what connects kids around the world. “At their age, they are pretty all much the same,” he says on his website, noting that they all love "dolls and dinosaurs and trucks and cuddly monkeys." However, he did notice that how they play is different.

"The richest children were more possessive," he says, while the children he met in poorer countries "only had two or three toys." Ultimately, he said the toys displayed the hopes of the children's parents, such as the Latvian mother who drove a taxi and showered her son with miniature cars; or the Italian farmer whose daughter loved toy rakes. "Doing this, I learnt more about the parents than I did about the kids,” says Galimberti. Click through the gallery to see a selection of our favorite images. All the following quotes are from Galimberti.

"Cun Zi Yi just turned 3, and received a lot of gifts for her birthday. She plays with everything and can’t choose her favorite toy. Her parents say that she’s really good at painting, and will be an artist when she grows up." –Gabriele Galimberti

"Arafa and Aisha are twins. They sleep in the same bed, have the same clothes, go to school together and share the same toys. They live in a two-room house in which both of the rooms are bedrooms, and the kitchen and restroom are outside. The big photo above the closet is a portrait of the formal president of Zanzibar."

"Noel is 100 percent Texan! He has very clear ideas already, he wants to be a pilot! Noel plays only with airplanes of all sizes and sometimes with the PlayStation, but only with a flight simulator. His favorite game is to put the little men of LEGO on his big Boeing that his father gave him, and then let them fly to the bottom of the garden where there is a small pond. He envisions bringing LEGOs on vacation at the lake, then after making him take a bath, puts them in the aircraft and brings them back home."

"Lucas lives with his parents and his sister in a big house in the east part of Sydney, Australia. The first toy that his father gave to him two years ago is a little train. Since that moment Lucas loves little trains and he has a lot of them. His favorite one is the one made of wood. He always plays with that, and he says that his dream is to work in the subway of Sydney."

"Norden lives in Massa, a small village 40 km south of Agadir. In the room where he plays and sleeps there is nothing, except for a carpet. Every day he wakes up early together with his family and he goes with them down to the valley where they have some pieces of land to farm. He spends most of his time playing with a small dog outside, even because the ones in the photo are all the toys he owns."

"Radhika was born in Mumbai six years ago, but she lived the first three years in New York together with her family. Now she lives in Mumbai, but her first language is still English. She knows just few words in hindi, and just because her babysitter speaks just Hindi. Radhika loves table games, and her favorite is “Monopoly” because she can buy houses and hotels. From her room’s windows, at the 18th floor of a new building, she can see almost the whole city."

"Tangwizi was born in a Maasai village in the south of Kenya in a small hut made of dung and straw. His bed is made of a few rags on the ground. He always plays outside with all the other children of the village but every night he sleeps together with his unique toy: a little [plush] monkey."

"Alessia was born and raised in the country, [her] family owns one of the largest farms in the city. She loves to play with animals and helping her grandfather with the work of the farm. With her small tools she brings food to the many Chianina cows."

"Enea was born in Tuscany to an Italian father and an American mother, but now lives in Colorado. His uncle is a musician, and Enea loves to imitate him. He often plays with his small musical instruments, trying to play the theme songs from Batman and SpiderMan. Sometimes he plays with his older sister Anita, and they pretend to have a band."

"Keynor was born in Cahuita, in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and he has never left that place neither for a day. He lives 300 meters from the beach and sometimes his mother lets him go to swim together with his older brother Deynor. Keynor’s father has a strong passion for toy cars, he maybe has more than 200 small cars. Every once [in awhile] his father gives him an old car, and now Keynor has started his small collection!"

"Pavel doesn’t have any doubts: He wants to be a police man. He loves guns and plays with them all the time. His younger brother is always under “Pavel's arrest.” Pavel handcuffs him, questions him and accuses him of stealing cars. Sometimes he lets his brother be the police man, but only when other friends come over and become the “bad people” Pavel wants to arrest!"

"Maudy was born in a hut in a small village close to Kalulushi, in Zambia. She grew up playing in the street with the other children in the village, who all attend the same school, where students ages 3 to 10 years old are in the same class. The village has no shops, restaurants or hotels, and just a few children are lucky enough to have toys. Maudy and her friends found a box full of sunglasses on the street, which quickly became their favorite toys."

"Puput was born at home in Ubud, Bali. She never met her father, who died when her mother was five months pregnant. Her mother works as a cook in a little restaurant just 200 yards from their house. Puput doesn’t have many toys, but plays with these plastic balls like bowling pins, placing them on the ground in a triangle and rolling the rubber ball at them."

"Taha was born in Palestine but now he lives in Beirut where he’s a refugee together with his family. They live in a sort of shantytown together with a few thousand of other people. Everybody there is from Palestine. To get water and electricity they need to illegally connect their house to the public service. Taha has just one toy, the car, and he didn’t have any doubt when i asked him to show me his favorite toy."

"Tyra lives in a beautiful wooden house in the south part of the city together with her parents and her older sister. She always plays with the sister which is just a year older. Their favorite toys are the red cookers and the dollhouse. Sometimes, when she plays with her sister, she loves to pretend she’s her mother, and she cooks for her."