Friendship Force

16/1/2010

Ron Johnston (1950-51), a Dunedin member of Friendship Force, is a firm advocate of the little known club which opens the way for members to experience real family life rather than just visiting the tourist spots.

Ron says it was the company and really seeing a country and how the people lived, that attracted him to the club. It also cut costs for the single traveller.

Friendship Force - Ron Johnston and Rona Potiki

The trips also often allowed members to see different aspects of a culture, he said. On one trip to Japan, he spent a week in a retired millionaire’s home and another in the home of rice farmers.

The Dunedin club, whose 29 members were mostly in their 50s, was only three years old. It hosted one or two clubs a year, including those from Canada, Australia, Hawaii and England.

Rona Potiki, the secretary of the Greater Dunedin club and widow of Leslie Potiki (1943-46) who died in 1984, said members took pride in showing off Otago to visitors. This year, the Dunedin club hoped to send a group to Canada and Richmond, in the United States, she said.

Friendship Force originated in America in the late 1970s and has branches throughout the world, including 25 in New Zealand. It enables club members to travel in groups to other countries, stay in the homes of local club members and be shown the sights by them.

Mrs Potiki, the, said the visits gave members insight into everyday life in the country they were visiting.

‘‘You learn about their city, meet their cousins, brothers and sisters or neighbours, see things no other tourists see. You become a family member.’’
As a member of the force, she had travelled with clubs from other countries to India, Indonesia, Slovakia, Germany and Australia. The force provided her with companionship and meant she did not have to travel by herself, she said.
‘‘India was a mind-blowing experience, as my host family had no English except for a 12-year-old nephew, who became our translator.’’