FFI Connects to a World of Slovenian Friends

Submitted by Craig Cornwell, President of the Friendship Force of Montgomery

It started with a traveler’s worst nightmare. I discovered on Tuesday that my passport had expired, and I was leaving for Slovenia on Thursday! The U.S. State Department website said a rush job for a renewal passport

My destination was Maribor. Maribor is a city nestled in the northernmost region of the old Yugoslavia, which for the past ten years has been the independent country of Slovenia. My goal was to establish a foundation, using a model I developed called the “In Plan,” for the first Friendship Force chapter in Slovenia. Alenka Hocevar, a long time friend, had set up meetings with dozens of prominent leaders in Maribor beginning on Friday! Friendship Force International President George Brown and Martin Sebesta, President of the Bratislava Slovakia Friendship Force would also be joining me to offer support. Folks were depending on me. . . and I was not going to be there. I was feeling nauseous.

Thankfully, I learned that it was possible to get an emergency passport in one day. The only catch was, I would have to apply in person at my regional passport office in New Orleans 350 miles away and I had 36 hours until my plane departed. So my wife and I made an immediate road trip to New Orleans. The trip turned into a blessing. We enjoyed a sunny morning wandering through the French Quarter listening to jazz and nibbling on beignets while the passport office promptly processed my paperwork and printed my passport. Everyone was oblivious to Hurricane Katrina way out in the Gulf, which days later would turn New Orleans into a swampy ghost town . . . closing the passport office indefinitely. But actually, this is not where the story begins.

The journey began 27 years earlier. In August 1978, I picked up Alenka Hocevar, a Yugoslav student who had come to work at the University of Alabama with the AIESEC student exchange program. She was home-hosted by family during her stay and was a charming ambassador
for her homeland. In years since, she has reciprocated by hosting my daughters on their trips to Europe, and last summer my wife and I stayed with her in Maribor.

Last summer, Alenka and I discussed the importance of home hosting throughout our lives, and I told her about an organization I have belonged to for many years, Friendship Force International. Alenka wanted to share
Friendship Force International with her country, and her country with FFI. We agreed to begin gathering names of people in both of our countries to explore the possibility of establishing a Friendship Force program in

Slovenia.

Preparations for the August trip were supported by my club, the Friendship Force of Montgomery, and FFI’s headquarters in Atlanta. We prepared business cards, promotional buttons, made name badges in Slovenian, copied DVDs, created Power Point presentations and gathered names of interested volunteers using the email address, ffislovenia@knology.net, which was set up as a central communication point for the project. As I am an employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, I brought Alabama pecan candy to give to government agriculture officials, and Montgomery’s Mayor Bobby Bright provided scores of Montgomery souvenir bracelets as gifts for new Slovenian friends.

The meetings arranged by Alenka (as Step two of the IN plan) were a great success. We met in offices, homes and restaurants. We were interviewed by the local media. Many Maribor leaders and citizens now know about FFI and are eager to establish a Maribor club. Maribor’s Mayor Boris Sovic was especially enthusiastic and introduced us to a number of additional local leaders, one of whom was Dragica Markovic. Dragica volunteered to establish a database of prospective local members. With the help of Peter Erznoznik, we also located newly built home-style accommodations in hillside wineries (or “Inns”) abutting the city, where ambassadors will stay during the initial exchanges next year.

Thanks to the hard work of Alenka Hocevar and others, we
have effectively laid the groundwork for the arrival of FFI in Slovenia in 2006. We established a specific plan for Step three, which will include special recognition of Slovenia during World Friendship Day, March 1, 2006 and an announcement on that date by Mayor Sovic of the first
‘Discover Slovenia’ Friendship Force exchanges beginning
in the summer of 2006.

(NOTE: If you want to be considered as one of the 100 members of the Slovenian “In-Crowd” in 2006, send your name
and phone to ffislovenia@knology.net, and and remember to
put the word “Slovenia” in the subject heading. The “In-Crowd”
is a group of 100 Friendship Force club members who will be
part of the initial discovery exchanges).

The "Inn" Plan for Developing a Slovenian Friendship Force

Editor's note: The “In-Plan” was proposed by Craig Cornwell for the development of a Slovenian Friendship Force. FFI will use the “In-Plan” as a model for other developing clubs. Phase 1 and 2 are now complete. Phase three and four will take place over the next several years.

1. INvolve
Called on the extensive experience and international connections within our global network and solicited ideas/contacts from club members who have a Slovenian connection: friends, relatives, business associates who are Slovenian natives. From this group an internet-based steering committee was created. The committee shared addresses and emails to create a database of Slovenian contacts.

2. INtroduce
Organized introductory meetings with targeted Slovenian civic, university and government leaders. The goal of those meetings was to expand the ownership of the project to Slovenian nationals. A Slovenian leaders’ group was identified and the “Discover Slovenia” pilot trips of step three are currently being organized.

3. INvite
Show the flag of Friendship Force International by sending in the “In-Crowd”— a cadre of 100 dedicated FriendshipForce members—on five separate twenty-person “Discovery”/ pilot visits. These will not be typical
exchanges, but rather missions to develop a Slovenian Friendship Force.
Housing will be in local family-owned INNS rather than full home stays. The In-Crowd will be expected to help promote the prospective local club to
everyone possible.

4. INcorporate
By the end of 2006 both the steering committee for a Slovenian Friendship Force and the Slovenian leaders’ group will be phased out as a charter is granted to a new Friendship Force of Slovenia based in Maribor. Soon after World Friendship Day 2007, the first “traditional” Slovenian home stay exchanges will occur. By 2008 Slovenian club(s) based in Maribor and Ljubljana will be in place and functioning. ■

Colombia...Un Pais De Corazon Grande (A Country with a Big Heart)

Editor’s Note: Both The Friendship Force of Bogota and Cali,
Colombia are extraordinary clubs in a country with a history
of political unrest, but as an ambassador you will never see
anything but smiling faces and magnificent countryside. The
following excerpts from recent ambassadors portray a very
different picture than those you might have seen in the media.

Enjoy Colombia!

Un mensaje de Colombia:

Hemos tenido la oportunidad de hospedar a un gran número
de clubes que por primera vez visitan Colombia. La verdad es que
en la inmensa mayoría de los casos, regresan a sus países
absolutamente maravillados. Primero, porque Colombia se vende
sola—lo difícil es convencer a los embajadores de que se monten
en el avión. Y segundo, porque la imagen que tienen del país
quienes no lo conocen es en muchos casos tan distorsionada y
primitiva, que el impacto positivo del contacto con la realidad es
aún mayor. Como tantas veces, la otra cara de una debilidad constituye
una fortaleza.

Por este motivo, nuestro club tiene el deber de realizar un esfuerzo
proactivo de comunicación, resaltando nuestros valores y talentos, sin por ello omitir los problemas y desafíos del país. Es cierto que no podemos controlar la opinión internacional, y mal haríamos en negar el lado oscuro de nuestra realidad. Pero si podemos realizar una mejor tarea para guiar a los clubes de La Fuerza de la Amistad hacia un entendimiento más rico y más sofisticado de la compleja realidad colombiana.

Cuando nosotros visitamos un club llevamos con nosotros la cara amable de Colombia, esa que les habla de un pueblo alegre, que a pesar de sus dificultades sigue adelante, la de esos colombianos que nos levantamos cada mañana con una sonrisa en la cara y con tesón en el corazón para construir un país major.

Sin lugar a dudas son muchas las cosas positivas que tiene
este país y la gente que día a día lo construye.
— Cuqui y Cesar Ardila, The Friendship Force of Bogota, Colombia
— Submitted by Joe Phelan, FF Sacramento

Take an exchange to Bogota! Go on, you don’t know what you are missing when you are influenced by the misleading bad press this city often receives. Of course, Colombia has some problem—but they do not extend to the Friendship Force members and their homes and activities. Although many of the reports of trouble are headlined “Bogotá,” the areas involved in any unrest are far, far from the capital. In today’s political environment
it seems that a trip to Colombia might well be just as safe as going to
London, for instance.

If you haven’t met any Colombians, you may not know that they are right up there with the warmest, most hospitable people in the world. They sing, dance and laugh at the drop of a hat—and sometimes all at the same time. Their music is incredible and the dance is exciting and inviting— you’ll discover rhythm you never knew you possessed. The food is wonderful, the land is beautiful and there is much to do and see.

During a visit to a restaurant in the countryside, we were given a wonderful round of applause when the patrons found that we had come to their country to find out for ourselves what Colombians are and what they stand for— amazingly touching. ■

“You have an opportunity to include these “faces” on your growing list of Friendship Force friends. After all, it’s to countries such as Colombia we are especially called so that we can reach across those barriers which divide us.”
— Bobbie & Robin Mulholland, FF Adelaide, Australia

“During the 14 days in Colombia, we had no problem with safety . . . Our friends know the danger. They protected us and we always felt very safe. We recommend an exchange with Friendship Force Colombia. It will be an unforgettable experience that will be very different from other exchanges.”
— Günter Lohse, FF Kiel, Germany

“The welcome party was at an outdoor restaurant owned by friends we had met on our first visit. Wherever we went both in Bogota and Cali we had such a warm welcome especially when we were seen for a second time. One of our members, who had traveled on most of the club exchanges since our club started, said that it was the most exiting and welcoming exchange she had experienced.
— Brian and Ann Peters, FF Derbyshire, UK