When we met our host family in Chiang Mai, Thailand, our host told us that many of the Friendship Force of Chiang Mai members were professionals, e.g., doctors, professors.

But he was just a painter. Well, it turned out that he was a famous painter. His current project was a portrait of the king and queen of Thailand.

The painting was about half-life size, and the royal couple were side by side in full ceremonial dress, seated on ornamental thrones.  It was almost complete.  Each day he would spend several hours giving it some final touches.  The painting had been commissioned by the King!

Our next home stay was in a small remote town in the northwest Thailand.  There our host was a high school art teacher.  When he found out who our host had been in Chiang Mai, he called him and talked for some time.

The teacher was elated, and it certainly made his day to have contacted the famous artist through an unsuspecting, but friendly, American couple!

Submitted by Jon R. Anderson, Friendship Force Northern Illinois

Here is a fantastic picture, and story about how two women from different countries became friends and met by chance in a third country. A story of the true meaning of Friendship Force!

May 19, 2009 – Mitsuko Kawabata (FF of Ehime, Japan) and Sharon Spear (FF of Eastern Washington and North Idaho) meet by chance in Cappadocia, Turkey while both were waiting to take a hot air balloon ride.  Sharon had joined with FF of Northern Illinois and was enroute to Izmir, Turkey for an exchange with FF of Karsiyaka Bay. 

Mitsuko was Sharon’s houseguest for 8 days during the Ehime club exchange to Liberty Lake, Washington in 2008.

Sharon’s club is planning a 2011 outbound exchange to Ehime where she will have an opportunity to meet with Mitsuko again!!!

Our exchange to Cedar Rapids/Iowa City was a domestic exchange – within the United States. But for Taiwan-born Sheila Liao, it was a chance to experience a different aspect of America.  Here is her story.

It is my first exchange; I am very excited and looking forward for the experience.

Mr. Bob Weissman is very kind to offer the ride for us to drive to Cedar Rapids.

We left 9:30 in the morning and got there right before 2:30pm. The Cedar Rapids club members were there to welcome us. I felt so honored to be treated as VIP.

Coe College has great assets of many local artists’ art collections. Finally, I am at the home town of Grant Wood.

I was holding my breath when I got into my host family’s house. It is a nice, private, wooded area with many custom built houses. Mr. Michael and Dianne Karal have a beautiful big house which has artistic detailed decoration.  They provided me a room with a 4-pole queen size bed.  I had always wished to sleep on a 4-pole bed.

While staying with the Karal family, Dianne shared her recipes, taught me to play “progression” card game, showed us many of their trips photos and scrap books. They had done all photos, placed with great theme and art design. I encouraged Dianne to publish her travel scrap books to promote the Friendship Force organization.

To visit the local art gallery, Anamosa Penitentiary Museum, President Hoover Library, Amanas German town, and trolley tour of their downtown; this trip taught me their hard work attitude and big warm hearts of Midwestern Americans. It also taught me some of American histories.

The trip set a high standard for my future exchanges and it will be the role model to follow to be a great home host.

Three years ago (May, 2010), our FFNI chapter hosted Friendship Force Ambassadors from Kalispell, Montana. I had the good fortune to host Patty Sevier, a delightful lady who enjoyed a week here in the ‘burbs’. We had a great time, tooling around the area, seeing the Botanic Garden and Chicago sights in Millennium Park such as Cloud Gate (“the Bean”), the unique fountains, the music pavilion, and on and on.  Later in the week my vivacious day host, Kat York, escorted us on a visit to the fabulous Milwaukee Art Museum.  I urge all hosts to include this on their agenda for guests — it’s not to be missed!  To put it in a nutshell this was a fun week.

So now we skip three years ahead to July, 2013 and FFNI is scheduled to go to (ta-da fanfare, please) Kalispell, Montana!  And who is hosting me??  Patty Sevier, of course. What luck!  In spite of the busy schedule, we tucked in time here and there to “just chat” and I’ll leave it up to you readers to guess that we did that in spades!  Pictures! I returned with hundreds of photos of gorgeous mountain scenery and the most endearing people ever.  Another FF member, Tammy, had volunteered to do the driving. We toured Glacier National Park, the National Bison Range, lakes and towns–and relatives, too.

“The Baby Shower” for Patty’s niece was a blast and the little baby-shoe favor is my remembrance. Many thanks to Patty, Tammy, and all the FF members in Kalispell for an unforgettable week.

Jean Wilson