Meet a Few of Our Members
 

We have resided in Washington, DC since 1992 and have been members of the National Capitol Chapter of Friendship Force since 2018. Drury (Dru - 70) is an Architect/Urban Planner, and Sandy (68) is a Landscape Architect/Urban Planner.   

 

We enjoy hosting incoming Friendship Force Groups at our 1880s townhouse near the US Capitol that Dru renovated.  Capitol Hill’s turn-of-the century townhouses are immediately east of the US Capitol.  Dru is active with neighborhood organizations that address planning and design issues within the Capitol Hill Historic District

 

We generally travel 5-6 months each year as independent travelers.  We have traveled throughout the US, Europe, Central/South America, Asia, and Near/Middle East. Our travels include a year-long world trip (1980’s), living in Turkey for two years (1990’s).  More recent travels with Friendship Force to the Isle of Wight (2023) and Sri Lanka (2024) were part of much longer independent travel. We enjoy historic cities, architecture, art, parks/natural areas, and experiencing food from around the world.

 

We love visiting the nearby museums, and often host dinner parties with our friends. Dru likes to spend time gardening, building furniture, and consults on renovation of historic homes (now that he no longer does much of the physical work). 

Mari served as National Capital Area (FFNCA) club president from 2019 to 2022. She is a member of our Governing Council as club liaison to Friendship Force International (FFI).  In 2024, she coordinated our journey to Sri Lanka with Chuck Goldfarb and our journey to Colorado and New Mexico. Her career as a gender specialist in international development has included work with USAID, the Asian Development Bank, various NGOs and, for the past 15 years, the World Bank. There she has focused on gender and social inclusion in transport and water projects. Her consulting has taken her to Eastern Europe, Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Mongolia, China, and Peru. Mari is an anthropologist whose PhD. Research analyzed the changing household economy in rural Greece. She speaks Greek and conversational French.

Mari lost her husband, David Fishman, in 2023 to pancreatic cancer. He was a labor layer with a passion for peace who initiated collaboration between Rotary International and the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. Mari continues to carry his peace torch as a Rotarian on the board of the Washington Global Rotary Club, a member of District 7620 Peace Committee, and an advocate for the Rotary-Carter Collaboration for Peace.

 

Mari enjoys travel, photography, hiking, writing, and immersion in diverse cultures. She also does gourmet cooking and collects indigenous crafts and art. Her Friendship Force journeys (mostly shared with her late husband) include: La Serena, Chile; Murray Bridge and Mount Gambier, Australia; Tauranga and Blenheim New Zealand, Myanmar; India, Fortaleza Brazil and the Amazon; Hamburg Germany; Kiel Germany; Seattle Washington; Grand Junction Colorado and Albuquerque New Mexico; Sri Lanka She attended  FFI  International Meetings in Boulder, Colorado and Dubrovnic Croatia.

I live at Collington, a retirement community in Mitchellville, MD called Collington.   I am a retired teacher and guidance counselor who worked with Deaf students and their families in the NYC public schools. When I retired, I moved to an intentional Ecovillage in Ithaca, NY where I lived for 11 years before moving to Maryland. I have been a Servas host for more than 40 years, and have been involved with Friendship Force for about 7 years.

 

Places I have visited include Britain, Japan, Brazil, Ireland, Guatemala, Peru, and France. In the 1960s I studied for a year in Scotland. I love meeting new people and exploring different cultures.

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I enjoy reading, doing artwork, sewing, doing wood projects in our wood shop, gardening, and volunteering on several committees and with a few outside organizations. I have a particular interest in Indigenous history, cultures, and current issues, mostly focused within North America. I am fluent in American Sign Language and capable in Spanish.  Traveling with Friendship Force gives the personal connection that allows you to make new friends from all over the world. This, in turn, makes the world a better place.

Bo and Chuck live in an 1880s rowhouse in the historically African American U Street neighborhood of DC, about two kilometers north of the White House. They are two blocks from the U Street Metro stop and there are many convenient bike lanes and bus routes nearby, but just as often they can walk to their chosen destinations. There are many restaurants, clubs and live theater and music venues in close proximity. In their 30 years at that location they have seen their neighborhood gentrify somewhat more than they would prefer.

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Bo is a nurse, now partially retired. He emigrated to the United States from South Korea when he was in his twenties, and returned to school to study science and nursing in his forties. He grew up in a small village, the son of rice farmers. He lived in Erie, PA and Baltimore before moving to DC. He enjoys gardening and has constructed a beautiful backyard fish pond. He and Chuck often do day hikes and bike rides and play paddle ball. 

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Chuck is a retired public policy economist, with a career split between the public and private sectors. He has always lived on the U.S. east coast. Since moving to Washington, DC in 1974 he has held volunteer leadership positions in a number of non-profit LGBT community organizations, including the support group for LGBT youth, a long-term NIH-funded AIDS epidemiological research study at Johns Hopkins University, several interracial organizations, and DC’s LGBT archive. He has been president of the FFNCA board, coordinated several in-bound and outbound journeys, participated in an exploratory FF journey to the Philippines and then led the first discovery journey there, and was a member of the Friendship Force International Board of Directors from 2019 through 2022.

Barbara and Tom have been members of FFNCA for over 20 years.  Although we have been less active the last few years, we still try to help out with events.  We have hosted many times and have made lasting friendships with members in other parts of the world.  Barbara served on the board for several years, part of the time as secretary.  She has also served as both a journey coordinator and a host coordinator.  

 

Barbara’s first trip with FFNCA was in 2005 to Thailand.  After retirement and marriage to Tom, the two of them travelled to many parts of the world, both with Friendship Force and independently.  

 

Before retirement, both Barbara and Tom worked in Information Technology, Barbara as a Project Manager for Amtrak and Tom as a computer specialist for the government.  

 

They both enjoy being outdoors and like walking and hiking.  Barbara volunteers for a non-profit educational wine group and organizes wine and cheese tastings.  She also likes to cook and try different restaurants.  Tom is an avid reader especially military history and science fiction.  Both enjoy live theater and music performances, everything from classical to bluegrass.

Our home is conveniently located near Forest Glen Metro and downtown Silver Spring, thus affording us easy access to nearby ethnic restaurants and movies, concerts and plays as well as downtown Washington DC museums and other attractions accessible by a 25 minute metro ride. Hiking and biking possibilities are many in the surrounding parks with miles of trails and cycling paths.

 

Growing, preserving, and cooking our own food is a central part of our life as are the seasons and the weather associated with them. We have many friends who are gardeners, herbalists, and native plant aficionados. Marian is a volunteer at the Charles Koiner Urban Farm in downtown Silver Spring, harvesting the crops for the Community Supported Agriculture subscribers and local neighbors. Following our two trips to visit friends in Vietnam, we have come to love cooking and partaking of this exquisite cuisine, as well as other ethnic cuisines.

 

We are enthusiastic about planning our own independent domestic and international travel as Marian was a travel consultant for many years before working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-a federal U.S. agency in a similar role. Since Russell earned a degree in medical anthropology, following his second trip to Nepal that had a photojournalistic focus, we both have made many trips on our own as well as some with Friendship Force and others with various European based walking companies. Some of our most memorable trips were to Vietnam for Tet new year and Cambodia, and an 84 mile walk along the 2,000 year old Hadrian’s wall in northern England as well as Ikaria, Greece-one of the Blue Zones. We are adventurous and curious travelers and love meeting new and interesting people.

 

We both enjoy all kinds of music and Russell, using his photography skills, has become one of the videographers for the Virginia Mountains of Music Festival . Marian has taught herself flat footing, a popular dance form in Appalachia, which she enjoys doing at this festival along with the other dance, yoga and Pilates classes she takes on a regular basis.

I have been a Friendship Force member since 1995 and have enjoyed many wonderful trips all over the world. I am 78 and live with my husband, Michael Vawter, in Silver Spring, MD. Michael has become disabled and is no longer able to travel with me, but we still welcome guests into our home, which is a mile from the District of Columbia line and the Takoma metrorail station.  

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I’m a clinical psychologist, and I still work part-time for a geriatric practice, consulting in nursing homes and other facilities where older people seek psychiatric services where they live. 

 

I love the outdoors and hike and swim on a regular basis. I volunteer as an usher at several local theaters and lead two weekly hiking groups. I also love to read and can usually be found with my nose in a book.. I really missed travel during the covid 19 quarantine and am happy to be able to travel again. 

I have been a Friendship Force member since 1995 and have enjoyed many wonderful trips all over the world. I am 78 and live with my husband, Michael Vawter, in Silver Spring, MD. Michael has become disabled and is no longer able to travel with me, but we still welcome guests into our home, which is a mile from the District of Columbia line and the Takoma metrorail station.  

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I’m a clinical psychologist, and I still work part-time for a geriatric practice, consulting in nursing homes and other facilities where older people seek psychiatric services where they live. 

 

I love the outdoors and hike and swim on a regular basis. I volunteer as an usher at several local theaters and lead two weekly hiking groups. I also love to read and can usually be found with my nose in a book.. I really missed travel during the covid 19 quarantine and am happy to be able to travel again. 

We joined Friendship Force NCA in 2018 on the recommendation of someone Margie met while traveling in the Galapagos. Despite interruptions due to the COVID pandemic, far we have hosted for four inbound journeys,  and have done three outbound journeys. All were very gratifying experiences. We live in McLean, VA. Thanks to the surrounding woods, you would never know the constant sound you hear is not a nearby babbling brook, but rather the rush of the DC Capital Beltway.

 

We are both retired Optometrists, though Margie still loves helping people see better so still does eye exams for several volunteer eye clinics., some local, some overseas. 

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 We and have two grown sons of whom we are very proud, but no grandchildren yet. (We keep hoping.) Margie has authored two books on spiritual development (under the name of Margaret Placentra Johnston.)  Swimming is a big part of Margie’s life – either just lap swimming in local indoor pools, or whenever possible, in a lake. 

I am originally a New Yorker and came to the D.C. area to attend law school for three years in 1975.  Somehow, I am still here after all these years. My adult daughter, our kitty Neko, and I currently live in Silver Spring, Maryland. I retired in 2022 from my long-time job as a federal administrative appellate judge at the Dept. of Health and Human Services. I am a Quaker with Jewish and Irish roots.

Anticipating that retirement will free me to travel and explore more (at least once COVID is under better control), I recently joined Friendship Force.

 

So, I have not traveled or hosted with FFNCA yet, but I have had lots of independent experiences with both, earlier in my life. I lived for a year in Japan in the late 1980s doing research for a memoir/history that I published last year (https://hiroshima-choosinglife.com/). I spent a summer each living in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Guanajuato, Mexico. I have enjoyed shorter visits to Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Panama, Canada, England, France, Estonia, Latvia, Portugal, Singapore, and Korea. I have also hosted foreign exchange students, refugees, and other international visitors.

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I love learning about different cultures, history, and languages. My hobby is pretty much reading followed by more reading. A book and a glass of good wine (or a good latte in the morning) are my vision of paradise. After being pretty isolated since the pandemic, I am craving chances to meet new people and discover new experiences with FFNCA!