Worldwide Culture Swap Delay

Well sadly two of our families, one from Russia and one from Califonia, US) have had to pull out of our exchange. It is very sad and a bit disappointing for the remaining kids who were all looking forward to sending and receiving their packages soon.

Things do crop up in life sometimes though that stop us from continuing on a journey and so there are no hard feelings. I can only wish them both well and good health for the future.

We three remaining families (we from NZ, and one from Texas, USA and the other UK), had a wee email exchange and decided to approach the Worldwide organisers who very kindly gave us another couple of families to take the place of those who we lost. Our new families are from South Africa and Wisconsin, America.

If you decide to join up in a group be aware that you do usually receive two families from the USA as they have a huge waiting list of families wishing to participate in this activity. They are requested to just contribute things pertaining to their States to avoid double up of the same info. Considering how large and different the States can be (oh how I loved my three months trekking around the US, oh so many moons ago) it isn't an issue at all.

So now we wait to see when it suits our new families to have their packages ready to go. It would be a bit rude to expect them to do be able to do it too quickly considering how long we have had. In the meantime it will give me the time I need to replace the chocolates that I purchased and then ate ... oops. Ah Pixie Caramel, how I love thee!

Can I recommend that if you choose to give this a go with your family (and I do recommend that you do) the sooner you get your package ready to go the easier it will be on you. If you leave it til the last minute something will crop up, it's Murphy's Law. And because there are children involved it is not nice to have them disappointed by waiting or cancelling. I might add that in our case our two families had very valid reasons (health issues) so this is not because of them but just some advice I thought I'd pass along.