Getting to know you.

• Author: Murphy-Larronde, Suzanne
• Position: !Ojo! - Brief Article

TIME SHARES, all inclusives, and package tours have succeeded in taking much of the hassle out, of foreign travel, but, because they off. isolate vacationers within a resort's manicured confines, opportunities for personal interaction with local people hardly, if ever, occur. Sign up for the People-to-People Program in the Bahamas and that, need not be the case, no mater where you stay or what mode of travel you choose.

Thanks to tiffs innovative approach to cultural tourism, visitors to the seven-hundred-island nation off Florida's Atlantic coast can sample a bit, of tropical hospitality in addition to enjoying the delights of its sun, sand, and sea; shopping; fine dining; and other entertainment.

Since its beginnings in 1975, this Ministry of Tourism-sponsored program has matched thousands of North Americans, Europeans, and other nationalities with local volunteers interested in sharing their Bahamian culture and life-style with island visitors. In fact, so popular has People-to-People become, that it is now available on seven of the major islands, including New Providence, Grand Bahama, and Eleuthera.

But don't let the word "match" confuse you, emphasizes the organization's coordinator, Priscilla Williams. "We are not a dating agency," she notes. "Rather, the goal is fellowship and bringing people together in an informal way over a meal, sightseeing drive, or the like."

Whatever the activities, more than one lasting friendship has developed as a result of these encounters and over the years some local volunteers report having received dozens of invitations to visit their newly made friends in far-flung countries, according to Williams. Best of all, the cultural exchange has also succeeded in luring visiting participants and their families back to the islands again and again.

People-to-People is open to singles, couples, and families traveling for business or pleasure, who return a completed application form at least three weeks prior to their intended Bahamian sojourn.

Participants are paired according to age, profession, church, club affiliations such as Kiwanis and Rotary, or according to their hobbies and special interests. Are you partial to fishing, quilting, photography, or gourmet cooking? Do you want to learn more about Caribbean history, cosmetology, Bahamian art, or elementary school education? Somewhere among the program's bank of fifteen hundred volunteers, there is bound to be a person to fill the bill.

Volunteers, who first...