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My host brother Sylvain and I up the top of the Eifel Tower

If you've read the posts about my travels around Europe, you will know that this trip would not have been possible without the friends I made through AFS Exchange Programmes. I went on exchange to Costa Rica in 2005, and have been a volunteer ever since, and my parents have hosted twice. I first met my French host brother when I stayed with his family in Paris, an awesome experience.

Louis from France needs a family

Besides giving me the confidence to do a trip like this, AFS introduced me to all of these wonderful people who took me into their homes, shared their way of life with me and took me out and about for some wonderful experiences, like learning to ski in Austria, seeing a show at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, and taking a huge gondala up to the top of the Swiss Alps. I've stayed with 14 former AFS exchange students, caught up with even more, and there is a long list of people I still want to visit before I leave the continent!

There are more of these great students coming to New Zealand for just two months, from mid July to mid September. They will live with host families and attend the local high school. They don't need their own room, families don't need to have children the same age, or even children at all, and they don't need two parents, or same-sex parents, or middle aged parents. They don't need to be shown all around the country, just a home that cares about them and is enthusiastic about sharing our New Zealand culture and way of life with them and learning a little about theirs.

Paloma from Spain needs a family

If you, your family or someone you know is interested in getting involved in the lifechanging experience that is AFS, then let me know, or contact the national hosting guy, Michael on michael.vandyk@afs.org. You can see the profiles of the students needing host families on the website here, just note that for the two month programme we only host students from France, Spain and Italy and profiles will disappear each day as families pick students. There are some students also arriving in July from Italy for the year programme, and there will be a lot more students arriving from a bigger variety of countries in the New Year, for six month or year exchanges. If you're still not convinced or what to know how else you can get involved, there is also more about AFS on my blog page here.


Also, for those of you that are in Christchurch, I've had a few comments about it not being nice for a student to be hosted while there are aftershocks - None of the AFS students that were hosted in Christchurch during the September or February earthquake took up an offer to move out of the area, they have all been viewing it as a new experience and a good chance to bond with their host families, so we have no concerns about placing further students in the Christchurch area and will make sure they have extra support just incase.