Our recipients for 2015 have been members for 17 years. They have held many board positions including each serving as President. They have served as Exchange Directors for six international exchanges; Ambassadors for 18 exchanges both incoming and outgoing international and domestic. They have day hosted, dinner hosted including Welcome dinners for Romania, Brazil and many others. They have driven, assisted, and actively supported every major project and have opened their home beyond the stated Exchanges to welcome personal guests they previously hosted as ambassadors. All this reflects their conviction that the firm friendships they establish through this organization truly make a difference. Congratulations TOM AND SALLY COYLE.
After a delightful week with our Azeri hosts touring Baku, some of our group headed northwest into the countryside with a Friendship Force group from Virginia, USA.
Our first night in Sheki, we stayed in an ancient caravanserai used by merchants on the Silk Road. Our sleeping arrangements were dormitory style, with a small sitting room. Rooms were dimly lit with stone walls. This aged structure was simply modified to accommodate very basic needs of modern travelers.
We were traveling with 2 English teachers from Baku as our guides. They took us to a local school in Sheki to participate in closing day ceremonies. This was a big deal for everyone: fresh uniforms for kids and finery for the adults. Sashes denote the graduating class. There was much singing and dancing, in which we participated. Long speeches in Russian (?) and huge bouquets of flowers.
Visiting a small country village, we toured the markets with their colorful spices, household goods, rugs, etc.
Transferring to small buses, we negotiated winding mountain roads with hundreds of sheep and a sheer drop-off. Sometimes the sheep were the winners (even though our bus driver’s horn protested), and we waited. The shepherds rode horseback, sometimes followed by a foal. The dogs at the end of the herd seemed to say “not our job to chase these sheep”.
We visited a synagogue and met the local rabbi, who explained that 247 years ago, the head of the local Muslim community decreed it was their job to protect the Jewish population of the community. To this day, the two religious groups live and work together in peace.
Returning to Baku one last night, we were taken to dinner by our hosts, Isa and Sabina. We met Isa’s Russian father and discovered we had the same reading lists! Only through Friendship Force can you meet folks from halfway around the world, former adversaries (before glasnost), and discuss Bernard Cornwell’s Lieutenant Sharpe!!!!
Our Canada exchange was full of diverse scenery, fascinating history, lots of information, and of course, many new friends. Our group consisted of ten members of FFNI, two from FF Greater Orlando, and two from FF Cedar Rapids/Iowa City.
We began in Winnipeg, the capital of the province of Manitoba. After being welcomed at the airport and settling in to our hosts’ homes, we had a wonderful welcome banquet, complete with a very challenging trivia game.
The next day included a walking tour of the old business district of Winnipeg, including many interesting buildings and tales of the old days. We had lunch at a restaurant which featured Native Canadian foods, and then visited the wonderful Manitoba Museum.
Our next day included a guided tour of the Manitoba provincial Legislature building, followed by a walk along the river. We were able to see the building of the new Canadian Human Rights Museum. The museum is not yet open, but we were able to have an outdoor tour to see the architecture and hear about the plans for this unique institution, dedicated to the struggle for human rights in all nations throughout history.
Our weekend was free of scheduled activities. Many of the hosts took our ambassadors on excursions outside of the city, while others participated in the hosts’ family events. It was very nice to have the time to get to know each other better. We also enjoyed small dinner parties at the homes of other FF Winnipeg members.
On Monday we began with a sumptuous breakfast at a French Canadian restaurant, followed by a walk to Winnipeg’s French area, called St. Boniface. There was a docent-led tour of the St. Boniface Museum, and a stop at the original St. Boniface Cathedral alongside its very modern replacement.
Our final activity in Winnipeg was a visit to the Fort Whyte Nature Centre, a wonderful area of woods, grasslands, and other habitats, with many native animals to see.
The Farewell banquet was our last chance to meet the Winnipeg group – a great potluck dinner. The guest of honor was a veteran Mountie, who told great stories of his career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The exchange to Taichung, Taiwan started October 23, 2012 after a week-long tour around Taiwan. The visiting group consisted of many FF clubs, with the majority of us coming from FF of Northern Illinois (FFNI) of the United States. Many of us have even traveled together before. But some of us were also new to Friendship Force and were traveling for the first time in the FF way! We were a merry bunch taking the high-speed train to Taichung!
Our week exchange with the Sunshine Coast was educational, engaging, and enjoyable. The weather cooperated ironically with an Indian summer as we visited the Native American Museum to learn about our original inhabitants.
The Discovery Museum video highlighted the birth of our Northern Lake County and displayed live exhibits and artifacts showing the outgrowth connecting Chicago. After we viewed the dazzling cars at the Volo Auto Museum where our 16 ambassadors dreamed about owning and driving one of those antique American beauties, we toured the Volo Bog with a naturalist who explained the thousands of years of glacial melting and its effects on the surrounding area.
The Chicago History Museum gave our guests a virtual ride on the “L”, traced the cause and route of the Chicago Fire and all of the Chicago events following the rebuilding of it. We enjoyed lunch at a wonderful Asian restaurant; drove up Sheridan Road and viewed Evanston’s Northwestern University, Baha’i Temple and Glencoe’s Botanic Garden.
We wound up the week competing in teams playing Bocce Ball after enjoying a sumptuous Sunday Brunch and then all 35 of us experienced the musical “Dream Girls”.
During this exchange we traded experiences and cultures with our Sunshine Coast guests and got to know each other’s lives one on one across the dinner tables. We realized that no matter where we live and who we meet, we share the same joys and sorrows in our everyday lives and that Friendship Force gives us the opportunity to experience that friendship with many different worlds and know that through it all we are all the same.
Ambassadors with hosts at bus station
Northern Illinois meets Sunshine Coast
Volo Bog and Auto Museum
Native American Museum and Chicago History Museum
Entertainment at the Farewell Dinner: “Christmas in Australia”
Host Comments:
John Balazs:
Sunshine Coast travelers visited the Botanic Garden by John Balazs
Our two visitors from the Sunshine Coast of Australia, Tony and Patricia, enjoyed viewing the flowers and trees of our area, especially the roses and the fruit trees. Both are rarely seen in Australia. It seemed like all of the Aussies enjoyed the Garden and had a great time there.
They were impressed by our rivers and ponds throughout Illinois and smiled at the Botanic Garden waterways. Tony and Patricia said that their country has mainly black swans, when they saw the white swans of the Garden.
I also was told that although our trees lose their leaves, their huge Gum Trees lose many limbs (branches) during their lifetime.
Joan Harrington:
The Native American museum in Evanston was one of the highlights of this exchange for both our ambassadors and the hosts. The museum is well lighted, well organized and artifacts are beautifully displayed. Our docent was superb. He became interested in Native American art when his junior high school teacher gave them a project to create a Native American mask and to present its history. He said that he was hooked on Native American and Indian art from that time on. In addition to an explanation of the artifacts and art work our docent gave us the background of the migration of Indians all over the world.
This was a first class tour and I highly recommend it.
Mary Lou Balazs:
Tony Barry was very interested in seeing the coal mine in Chicago that he had heard so much about from friends. So on our free day, we took Tony & Patricia to the Museum of Science & Industry to spend the day. Tony very much enjoyed the simulated coal mine experience and asked a lot of questions from our guide.
He was equally impressed with the great World War II exhibit, showcasing the captured German U2 Submarine. They could not believe that the entire sub was enclosed in the museum and they were able to board it for a tour. The wonderful explanatory pictures and stories of the war leading up to the captured sub were especially important to both Tony and Patricia. Both were born in England during the war and had heard many stories from family. After extensive bombing, Tony’s mother, a nurse, was trapped in a hospital for 3 days before being rescued. And Patricia was born in a bomb shelter. Both had family members serving in the war and they appreciated reading all the old news articles from the London papers.
Another surprise at the museum was the life-size replica of the Mars rover, Curiosity. A museum guide was there to point out the various aspects of the space vehicle and showed actual pictures currently being sent back to Earth from its camera. Of course, the farm, trains and body exhibits were a big hit too. It was a full day, but one which they truly enjoyed.
On our second free day, we took Tony, Patricia and our 3 year old grandson to the Apple Holler Orchard in Wisconsin. They enjoyed seeing the children feed the goats, play on the hay stacks, pick out pumpkins and walk through the corn maze. In addition, they got to experience the changing color of our trees.
On November 15, nine Ambassadors from FF Northern Illinois along with five from Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Iowa returned from a 2-week exchange with FF clubs in Santiago and La Serena, Chile. Ten Ambassadors also participated in an optional 7-night pre-exchange tour of Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls, Argentina.
November is springtime in Chile and arrival day in Santiago was beautifully sunny and warm. E.D. Maria Beatriz Bravo Ureta hosted a welcome party at the home of her mother “Kika” Bravo. Well into her eighties, Kika is a 30+ year charter member of the Friendship Force of Santiago. Arriving guests were greeted with empanadas, chilled pisco sours and creamy glasses of whipped cherimoya, made from the white flesh of a delicious Chilean fruit. A lavish outdoor lunch combined with live entertainment followed. The thoroughly charmed guests were reluctant to depart.
Ambassadors were treated to city tours of Santiago, Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Also included were visits to the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Ralli Art Museum, the Museum of Pablo Neruda (the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet) and numerous other places of interest. We climbed Cerro Santa Lucia and Cerro San Cristobal both built on hilltops with spectacular views of Santiago. The ceremonial changing of the guard at La Moneda Palace was particularly memorable since it was enhanced for review by a visiting military delegation from Ecuador. Shop ‘til you drop was the order of the day several times as was our introduction to several of the fine restaurants Santiago is known for.
In lieu of a gift to their club, FFNI offered to donate gift funds to a charity chosen by our hosts. The Santiago club selected Hogar Mi Familia, a local orphanage. This facility receives and temporarily cares for children from 0 to 3 years old placed there by the courts. Ambassadors were brought to the orphanage for presentation of this gift. Staffed mostly by volunteers, the obvious outpouring of love and affection for the children was emotionally overwhelming, turning the visit into a memorable highlight of the exchange.
After 7-nights in Santiago, Ambassadors boarded an airplane for the one hour flight to La Serena. Hosts greeted their Ambassadors at the airport and transported them to their temporary homes for lunch and unpacking. Later that evening, Ambassadors were treated to a welcome party at a local seaside restaurant complete with musical entertainment and dancing.
La Serena and the adjoining city of Coquimbo are Pacific Ocean beach communities with a combined population of 430,000 people. Visitors from Chile and western Argentina stream into the area during the December – March peak season. High rise condominium buildings under construction along the shoreline are reminiscent of the Miami Beach of 40 years ago.
In addition to city tours of La Serena and Coquimbo, the program included a bus trip to Vicuña City, Bauer Tower and nighttime observation of the heavens at Mamalluca Observatory. Another trip took Ambassadors by boat to the Damas Island reserve for viewing of protected sea lions, penguins and other species of sea birds. One of the home hosts, Nancy Iriate, is a renowned artist and art educator with particular expertise in pre-Columbian indigenous art and petroglyphs. Several lucky Ambassadors were treated to a private showing of her recent paintings, narrated by the artist herself.
As a gift to the host club and a memorial of the exchange, FFNI provided funds to purchase and plant a Friendship Tree in La Serena’s Japanese Park. A photo and article about the ceremonial planting appeared the following day in the daily newspaper of La Serena.
Returning from San Antonio on a very snowy and windy day, I am reminded of the bright Texas sun and the warm weather. It was perfect for all that we did. We started out with a Valentine dinner. We had games and enjoyed meeting our hosts. That was the day of our arrival.
We had a 5 ½ day incoming exchange with the San Antonio Friendship Force club. They were a delightful 11 participants who arrived either through O’Hare airport or by way of Amtrak through Union Station. We had blazing heat and torrential rains which they took in stride. They are certainly used to heat and hoped we could send some of our rain to Texas. We were sweltering (especially me) in the heat, but they all were great sports. Chicago was very cooperative in that after this heavy downpour and clouds hiding all the tall buildings, the skies magically opened up to a clear view from the 95th Restaurant at the top of the Hancock building. Diana Sanders, ED
San Antonio exchange – comments received and shared by FFNI Home hosts:
• Laura Wilson was amazed at the greenery in our area. She repeatedly commented on the many trees, shrubs, green lawns etc. She said that Texas was dry and brown, so she appreciated all the lovely GREEN. She loved the Botanic Garden and the beautiful parks in Libertyville– very happy with all our visits. Jean Wilson
• Steve Hallford asked me why many of our fire hydrants have an “antenna” sticking up from them. I chuckled and told him the appendage was not an antenna, it was an indicator of their location when buried under 3 feet of snow for the firemen and snow plowers! Jeanne Minorini
After an exciting week of sightseeing, dining and shopping, we bid a fond farewell to eight Ambassadors from Friendship Force of Rio de Janeiro on October 18th. They arrived from their first week in Dubuque, Iowa in a shiny white limousine. At their request, two days were spent in Chicago touring Millennium Park, The Art Institute, and Navy Pier, viewing the city from a double-decker trolley bus and lunching at the Signature Room Restaurant on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building. We also planned a day to stroll through the Chicago Botanic Garden and the architectural beauty of the Baha’i Temple. Several free days also gave their hosts ample time to show off their local communities and to strengthen their new friendships.
A group of 33, including 6 members of FF Chicago Club, met for a farewell dinner at Bertucci’s Restaurant in Highwood. After good food, drinks and farewell hugs, the Ambassadors ended their exchange with smiles on their faces. Thank you to all who participated in this exchange and helped to make it a successful event.
