- April 18, 2026
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For Tony Bouzaid, what he calls “after dinner stories” are an experience repeatedly enjoyed.
He's part of Friendship Force International, an organization that centers on home stays around the world.
Bouzaid says he's met a man from Hawaii who played golf with Tiger Woods when Woods was 12 years old, a Russian man who created covers for Stephen King's novels, and a Sarasota man who was in charge of the naval computer during the Apollo 13 disaster.
The New Zealand resident says he and his wife, Lynnda Bouzaid, enjoy the window into others' lives, while some people he has stayed in contact with include those from the organization's Sarasota club.
Like other clubs in the organization, the Sarasota branch of Friendship Force welcomes guests from clubs around the world, while also giving members the chance to stay in the homes of members abroad.
While it may not be everyone's way of traveling, it's a way to which some members keep returning.
Founded by Presbyterian minister Wayne Smith in 1977, Friendship Force has the goal of facilitating intercultural relations.
At that time, during a gathering of state governors, President Jimmy Carter told the governors to each establish a state director for the organization.
"By getting to know people and other cultures, it promotes, at the individual level, a lot more understanding of other cultures," said Sarasota's membership chair Abe Lederman.
Today, the organization includes clubs in over 359 communities on six continents. That includes six in Florida, among them the Sarasota chapter, which has existed for about 36 years.
Members, known as "friendship ambassadors," will travel abroad, while hosts arrange opportunities that include sightseeing and learning about culture — although one of the important parts of the experience is making friends.
President Terri Holsinger says it’s an organization for those who are “a little bit adventurous."
“I do think that all of us do have the travel bug, just the idea that you're a little bit inquisitive,” she said. “This isn't for everyone, because a lot of people don't want to be in some stranger's house. But the minute they walk through our front door, they're not a stranger anymore; they’re a friend, and that’s the way it was every place we've stayed, whether it was in the backwoods of Indonesia, or Kenya or Russia, you were in their home and you were their friend.”
With the organization, Holsinger has had the chance to visit countries that include China, Russia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Nepal, and since joining in 2012, she's kept in touch with many people from her trips.
Currently, Sarasota’s club has about 45 members, Holsinger says, although before COVID-19, there were approximately 110.
She says many members are growing older and moving away from international travel, although many still enjoy trips within the country, or serving as hosts.
“Covid really took the starch out of travel, and it's been a slow recovery for lots of clubs,” she said.
However, travelers will find an experience that isn't typical. In Sarasota, she says, food is provided for free to visitors, although members pay ticket prices for attractions and airfare.
But members say that part of the experience is also meeting people's families and hearing interesting stories.
For Lederman, one of the highlights of the experience was a trip to an area called Los Tuxtlas in southern Mexico, which also included a post-trip to the Palenque Mayan ruins.
“What I found, the folks in (Los Tuxtlas) were very, very friendly,” he said. “They hosted a lot of, obviously, events. It's a small club, all the members attended. There was a lot of partying. It just was a very positive kind of experience for me. And again, it helped that I speak Spanish, and they love the fact that I speak Spanish to them.”
Traveling to Florida in 2017, from Wellington, New Zealand, wasn't an experience Tony and Lynnda Bouzaid had expected, but it was one for which they were eager.
After staying in New York and South Carolina through the club, they enjoyed a stay in Sarasota. (They also added their own trips to Washington, D.C. and Miami.)
“It’s a big thing,” Bouzaid said. “It’s a big thing to come to New Zealand, but for us going to Florida, we never thought that would be on our list.”
They have been members for 24 years. Lynnda Bouzaid currently serves as treasurer, and previously served as president for six years, while Tony Bouzaid served as auditor for more than a decade.
During that time, they have hosted about 25 different people, sometimes couples.
“You build up lifelong friendships with people if you have common interests or common personalities,” Tony Bouzaid said.
He says when they came to Sarasota, Holsinger was careful to pair them with people with whom they had something in common, so they stayed with Frank Hearon and his wife, Michele Pariseau, who share their respective mutual interests in golf and quilting.
“We hadn't been there very long and Frank said, ‘Right, Tony, Wednesday, we're playing golf,’ which was something for me,” he recounted. “I've been lucky enough to now say, I've played in United States, a game of golf. A lot more water on the golf course than we had, though, in New Zealand. So that made it quite cool. And I was very lucky. I never once went in the water.”
Another standout, he says, was the visit to Siesta Key Beach.
“We were actually quite thrilled to go there,” he said. “A beautiful pristine beach. Oh, we loved walking along that. It’s a perfect beach, lovely white sands.”
During a visit to Sarasota National Cemetery, they saw flowers placed on the graves, which he said he found “very moving.” He said he was impressed with the commitment people in the area displayed to honoring veterans, although residents might take it for granted.
His father, Ward Bouzaid, served with an American station in the Solomon Islands during World War II, as a gunner in the third division of the eighth infantry, and was lucky to have survived many battles.
“It was something that Michele and Frank were very motivated toward, doing that, so we were quite impressed,” he said.
After Sarasota, they decided to take their own road trip to Miami and the Everglades, where they also had the chance to see a large number of alligators.
“They were a great club,” he said. “They really were. They went out of their way. They put on all sorts of functions and activities for us, both as a group and individually. The people we stayed with, we've kept friendships with them, with Christmas newsletters, and so we had quite common interests.”
Bouzaid says one thing he likes about Friendship Force is that it gives travelers a chance to experience things they never could as regular visitors.
“You go to somewhere else, and you see something totally different, and the locals can get you into special places that someone might know, someone who knows someone, who goes, ‘Yes, I can get the group to go there,” he said.
He says after years of experience, they've now learned what visitors enjoy when coming to New Zealand.
One of their offerings is a trip to a school of predominantly Maori and local children.
“They get to go and see children perform festival type activities, and go and meet them in the classroom, and a lot of women in Friendship Force are retired teachers, so they find that really, really good,” he said.
Some other stops will include the coast and beaches, the city of Wellingotn; Wētā Workshop, which designed props for the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" films, and "Avatar;" and the forest (which they refer to as the “bush"), where they will teach guests about medicinal plants.
There will also be activities like flax weaving; Bouzaid notes that guests get the chance to take something back as well.
“I think we're all people, and so it's non political, non religious, and you just open up your house to them, allow them to have the opportunity to come and share in your activities,” he said.
