Voyaging

40 Friendship Force members are on a voyage of
discovery with Enrichment Voyages.

In the Friendship Force we emphasize our mission of creating global understanding by calling our programs “cultural exchanges” rather than “trips.” While all of us enjoy being tourists from time to time, the focus of a Friendship Force experience is exploring new cultures and making friends, not just sightseeing.

I’m now on my first Enrichment Voyage on the Semester at Sea ship, Explorer, along with 39 other Friendship Force members. Like the Friendship Force, the Semester at Sea sponsors are very intentional about the purpose of this program: we are constantly reminded we are on a “voyage,” not a “cruise.” After five days into the “voyage” I now understand the distinction, and love it! Each day at sea there are multiple “enrichment seminars” led by experts in their fields. Yesterday, for example, you could choose The Power of Choice: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives; Introductory Astronomy: The Night Skies of Central America; The Biological Diversity of Mexico and Central America; or several others. I found it difficult choosing which to attend, and I enjoyed those I did.

Particularly interesting is the keynote speaker, Sir Christopher Ball, a very distinguished retired Oxford professor. His challenge yesterday was for each of us to identify something new to pursue in life. His told us it is okay to be “good enough” in most things, but we should all have at least one area where we are striving for excellence. He took up running at age 70 and now, six years later, he holds the record for running 10 marathons in 10 days! That level of achievement may seem beyond reach, but he is a great inspiration for each of us to aspire to excellence.  

George Brown and Edward Helm of FF Florida Suncoast, who
gave a performance as American humorist Mark Twain.

There are also sessions led by our fellow passengers. I’m very proud of the programs offered by Friendship Force members. Our own Edward Helm of St. Petersburg, Florida, provided a superb performance as Mark Twain to an overflow room. During the same hour his wife, Adrien, was leading a session on journal writing. And in the days ahead Graham and Jennie Wigley from Wellington, New Zealand, will lead a session on their recent experience with a service project in Nepal.

Each day we are learning that this is, indeed, an enrichment voyage, not a routine cruise. But that is not what impresses me the most.  In addition to the general friendly and relaxed atmosphere of a very comfortable cruise ship, the 450+ passengers are all traveling with the common purpose of learning about the region we are visiting—Central America. This makes it particularly enjoyable and easy to strike up a conversation with people we don’t know.  It also is a great environment for sharing Friendship Force experiences. Everybody I meet seems to have already heard about the Friendship Force from others in our group. We’re not even half way through the voyage and I’m running out of Friendship Force brochures!

In short, we are finding that changing strangers into friends is an important part of “voyaging.” That is something we in the Friendship Force know all about.