Annecdotes

By Brian Harrington
Departing Queenstown for Christchurch, our bus stopped first at Kawarau Bridge, site of the world’s first bungee jump in 1988. Jumping had not yet commenced due to our early arrival time. The bridge (over the Kawarau River) was built in 1889 and closed to traffic in 1969. A portion of the jump fees were set aside to save the bridge from a state of disrepair. Situated 140 feet above the river, Kawarau Bridge remains the most popular bungee jump location in New Zealand.

At 10:40 am we stopped for coffee in the tiny community of Omarama (Maori for “place of light”). Due to its Southern Alps location and the presence of mountain air thermals, Omarama is known as a world-class gliding location. It gained fame among sailplane pilots after hosting the 1995 World Gliding Championships. Excellent gliding conditions in the area have attracted record seekers such as Steve Fossett and several world gliding records have been achieved there.

At 11:30 am we passed through Twizel, the closest town to Mt. Cook, tallest peak on the South Island. Twizel is also the home of the Central Hydroelectric Dam Control Center for both the North and South Islands of New Zealand. A few minutes later we stopped at the Lake Pukaki Visitor Centre to view the mountain and to celebrate Judith Nahill’s birthday with song and a fabulous chocolate “mud” cake.

At 12:45 pm we stopped at Tekapo Lake Village for lunch. Afterward we visited the nearby Church of the Good Shepherd, used for Sunday services by several Christian denominations. A spectacular view of Lake Tekapo and Mt. John is visible from the inside of the church through large windows. Due to its clear atmosphere and absence of light pollution, Mount John University Observatory is located nearby. This area is also home to a military camp that trains New Zealand soldiers in Antarctic survival skills and pre-deployment training of forces being sent to Afghanistan.

At 3:15 pm we stopped in South Canterbury for coffee and shopping at the Tin Shed. It was here that Brian and Joan discovered that they had left their Passports locked in their Queenstown hotel room safe. Southern World Tour Company somehow worked a miracle and the passports were retrieved and returned to the Christchurch Airport in time for our departure to Rotorua the following morning.

A Friendship Force guest from San Antonio was commenting on the high tech fire hydrants he observed in Lake Bluff and Lake Forest. He was very tech savvy, having helped solve several of our members’ computer problems. But we were very surprised to learn that he thought our fire hydrants had any special technology.  On asking for an explanation, he said, “They all have radio antennas.”

You can imagine his disappointment when he learned that the rods sticking up were not radio antennas but were useful to work crews in finding the hydrants in snow drifts!

Jean Wilson and Maria Inez C. Dias
(São Carlos, Brazil)

Maria surprised me with her ability to speak excellent English—until I discovered that she had been an English professor in Rio de Janeiro and São
Carlos, Brazil.

We quickly found other traits in common, including the fact that we had both been language teachers (though different languages.) Her computer skills
were impressive, and she was at ease with the latest technology. She accessed and answered her email, and sent e-letters to friends in Brazil, describing her host (me) and her home for this week.

Maria surprised me in many ways. She had traveled extensively throughout the world and this was her third visit to the Chicago area. I wondered what we might do that would be a new experience for her. Well, she said she would like to see this town (Libertyville, IL). I took her on a local tour of the village—schools, churches, hospital, parks, the small boutiques which dot our main street, and even a local gym. During our drive we compared our town/city, our lives, work, family, interests—all the things that make The Friendship Force a wonderful part of our lives.

Maria and I exchanged cards and email at Christmas, and we will surely continue to keep in touch through our future years. Thank you to The Friendship Force for a delightful new friend.

When FFNI visited Rotorua, New Zealand, there was a shortage of home hosts. So our hosts Kathy and Ralph Dixon graciously agreed to host 4 ambassadors instead of the usual two. Their very comfortable ranch is located in a beautiful setting at the bend in a river. Their home has 3 small bedrooms and 1 and ½ baths and a large dining room and family room overlooking the river where kayakers and canoeists could be seen early in the morning trolling for trout. Kathy gave us a tour of her lovely garden and many beautiful potted orchids that she tends.  She cooked breakfast for her 4 guests each morning and helped to rounded up all the papers and maps that we needed for our tour of Rotorua. I thought it was amusing that she and Ralph had several friendly discussions as to exactly where the sugar bowl was to be placed in the kitchen cupboard.

It was only when I saw her reading a message on her computer with letters an inch high that I realized she was legally blind. This lovely kind woman refused to be handicapped by her diminished vision. In addition to home hosting she is also the president of the Friendship Force of Rotorua Club and took an active part in all the activities of the exchange. I am grateful for her friendship and for her beautiful example of living her life fully.

Photo left to right: Joan Harrington, Pres FFNI; Monica Larson, FFNI; Andrew Buffery, FFRotorua; Kathy Dixon, Pres. FF Rotorua; Gigi Long, FFSeattle-Tacoma and Ralph Dixon, FF Rotorua.

We were all in costume, supplied by our hosts, to celebrate The Melbourne Cup Race. It is like the Kentucky Derby here in America. We went to a party at a local hotel where we had appetizers, dinner, the race on TV and  entertainment. What fun!

Submitted by Joan Harrington

I just received my first Christmas card from abroad.  It was from treasured friends, Allan and Jeanie Cupitt, from the Blue Mountains, Australia.

I first met them when their club, Friendship Force Blue Mountains, came to visit us at Friendship Force Northern Illinois in 2008.  It was love at first sight–they liked us and we liked them–instantaneously!

After their stay as our hosts, their club invited ours to live with them for a week in the beautiful Blue Mountains of Australia in 2010.

Allan and Jeanie were fabulous hosts–he, a suave, cultured and refined Crocodile Dundee; and the term “Sheila” just doesn’t do Jeanie justice–she’s far too accomplished. She is an excellent administrator with consummate people skills–why haven’t the Aussies elected her prime minister?

I digress.  One very special moment occurred during our stay with them when they planned a picnic supper for all of us in a national park.  It was raining, so we hunkered down into a man-made cave-like structure for shelter.

After dinner, without the catalyst of a campfire, someone started singing.  It was spontaneous and quite contagious.  My favorite memory was of the groups singing the round, “Kookaburra Sits on the Old Gum Tree.”  It was magical with the acoustics of the cave and the resonance of the rain–we sang it in round several times.

And to top it all off, one of the Aussie club members, Faye Post, punctuated it with her impression of the piercing, cacophonous Kookaburra call, which again echoed around the cave.

The Girl/Boy Scouts couldn’t beat this!

….Oh, the fond reminiscences of good friends and fellowship that flash through your mind when you receive a Christmas card from Australia!

Submitted by Jeanne Minorini, Friendship Force Northern Illinois

Allan and Jeanie Cupitt from Friendship Force Blue Mountains (on ends), with Karen Li and Jeanne Minorini (the author) of Friendship Force Northern Illinois, in the center.

John and Faye Post of Friendship Force Blue Mountains. She does a mean imitation of a kookaburra call.

Laughing Kookaburra in Tasmania, Australia. Photo from Wikipedia.

What an adventure we had on a trip with Friendship Force Northern Illinois in 2009–to New Zealand and Australia! After many hours of flying, we landed on the north island of New Zealand, boarded a smaller plane to the beautiful south island, and started our first leg of this adventure. We took a week to view mountains, glaciers, rain forests, sheep and deer farms, waterfalls and lakes. More

In 1992 my wife Marilyn and I were visiting friends in Ottawa, Canada where we attended a crafts show.  At this show Marilyn bought an interesting brooch made from a postage stamp mounted on a polished piece of thin copper plate and then protected by a coating of polyurethane.

When we got back home to Lake Forest, Illinois, Marilyn challenged me to make an even better brooch.  My first ones were made from a stamp commemorating the Chinese new year which I made ten of to give to our guests at a New Year’s party we held. I continued to make them to give to relatives, friends and acquaintances.

In 2001 our club, FF of Northern Illinois hosted guests from The Friendship Force of Moscow.  It was my pleasure to give each of the ladies from Moscow at least one of my brooches as a remembrance.

In 2003 our club visited The Friendship Force of Tokyo and The Friendship Force of Ehime of Japan. Again I brought about 30 of the pins as gifts or tokens of thanks.  Our hosts in Ehime, Hiroyuki and Ayako Otsubo found the pins so interesting that they insisted I show them how I made them so they could do the same. I did and soon they were on their way to being Master Pin Makers.  They gave me many attractive stamps for me to take home and when I got home I returned the favor by sending them many US postage stamps as well as colorful foreign ones.

In July and August they did home stays with The Friendship Force of St. Petersburg and Moscow.  Upon their return to Japan, I received the following information in an E-mail: “We have a big news to you.  One day we took a bus trip from Moscow to suburb.  A member of Moscow club lead us.  She was very kind, so we gave her a brooch with our thanks.  Hiroyuki made it by your teaching. She surprise very much and said she had same one.  Her name is Irina Daragan.  She went your state last year (or 2 years ago) and took a drive by your car.  It was wonderful meeting for us.  She said “this was the true Friendship.”  Do you think so?”

Irina Daragan was the Exchange Director on the Moscow visit to Northern Illinois and I had day hosted her and some of the others for three days.  Friendship Force really makes the Big World Smaller.

Submitted by Alan Melkerson

It was a dream come true! My first trip with Friendship Force.
Where did I (we) go? Japan, with some beautiful experiences. I was so pleasantly surprised at the welcome we received by our hosts in Tokyo, Matsuyama (near Hiroshima), and Osaka. We were immediately immersed in the families and cultures of the country.

We arrived when the cherry blossoms were in bloom, and it was a floral paradise. Our hosts were anxious to provide us with as many experiences as they could in the short time we were visiting. I believe they accomplished it. The 3 different localities afforded variation significant enough to almost feel like we were in different countries.

The 3 things that remain in my memory were the replica of the Statue of Liberty in the bay in Tokyo, the visit to the city and museum in Hiroshima, and the capital city of Osaka. But beyond the sights, I found that Friendship Force was the way to meet and make friends, not only in the places we travel, but among our fellow travelers. Viva the Friendship Force!!!

Submitted by Claire Orth, Friendship Force Northern Illinois

Over the years the Friendship Force has provided me with a wonderful WINDOW TO THE WORLD…

Sleeping in a tent at a refugee camp, under the brilliant starry Algerian desert sky, sipping tea and having camel for dinner – Where can you get that on a tour?

Wandering around an Iranian Garden, meeting some students and then inviting them for tea. And 7 years later, still in contact with the student and meeting them again in Iran–what an experience!

Going on a MYSTERY TRIP and being greeted at a Japan airport by hosts all masked, because it was a MYSTERY!!!!

Having a conversation with your host about how it was living in Germany after the war, and with former East German hosts telling about life under the Soviets.

Friendship Force has enriched my life. I have met wonderful, marvelous people that I would never have had the chance to meet otherwise. What a great organization.

Submitted by

Caryl Mikrut, Friendship Force Northern Illinois

Our Japanese home-host was a live-wire!  He directed, he commanded, he orchestrated – all with side-splitting humor.

With a quizzical look, he would grab his little pocket dictionary; zip rapidly through it and gleefully shout, A–HA!  when he found the right word.

One day we arrived home from a day-hosted tour—hot, tired and sweaty. He assessed us.  “Tom, Jean,” he commanded, “go shower!”  I glanced at my husband and confided, “Well, I guess we are pretty smelly.”  We dutifully showered and garnered about 15 minutes of rest.  He roused me.  “Come!”  O-o-o-kay, I thought (he was full of surprises.)

He led me to a beauty shop where I was coiffed.  Next, we were taken to a beautiful private home – with nobody visibly there!  We were escorted into separate rooms – and emerged dressed in the most gorgeous kimonos you can possibly imagine.  Slowly the hosts and many guests appeared, beautifully dressed in traditional garb and carrying bowls of savory food.  This lovely kimono party is among my cherished memories.

The next evening, at home, our host showed up with a huge bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.  He ordered, “Taste!”.  We obeyed; then, “Same?”  We got the point.  He wanted to know if Japan was getting the real KFC or a knock-off.  We assured him that it was authentic.

One of our gifts to the family was Jelly Bellies…and they were delighted.