One Big Friendly World

OBFW welcomes 12 more friends from Around the World

2006-02-20T20:10:00.000Z

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

It has been a record breaking day for OneBigFriendlyWorld with the following people joining us on our quest to get a friend from every country in the world.

First came:- Kathy from Jamaica, she tells us that she would love to join us, well Kathy, we love having you with us!!

Next: April from Fiji got in contact - Fancy OBFW getting as far as Fiji, we really are achieving something now!

Next: Marie-Louise from Sweden, our first Swede...thanks Marie-Louise

Next: Bheejay from the Philippines contacted us, having had a look at our website and seen our photos, he says we look like jolly fellows. Well I guess you are right Bheejay - We are rather jolly. Thanks!!

Next: Karma from Bhutan. Karma loves making friends from all around the world - Well Karma, you have come to exactly the right place!!

Next: Karin from Switzerland. Thanks Karin for joining us and greetings to everyone in Switzerland

Next: Charlotte from New Zealand - At last a Kiwi friend, Charlotte likes the sound of representing her country. And what a lovely country to represent!!

Next: Helmi from Oman, Helmi sent us a very colourful greeting from Oman. Its great to have you on board Helmi.

Next: Theogene from Rwanda! Theogene was even kind enough to send us a picture - just the kind of person we like here at OBFW. Cheers Theogene!!

Next: Mohammed contacted us from Bahrain, now Mohammed was very brief, but he has definitely joined us. Welcome Bahrain!!

Nearly there.......

Next: We heard from Gintas from Lithuania, who sent us a great email. Gintas says we have an awesome project!! Thanks Gintas, flattery is always well received!!

And last, but by no means least, we heard from Florencia in Argentina!!! Our first Argentine. Its brilliant to have you with us Florencia.

So as you can see, all in all it has been an absolutely great day for us - by my reckoning that is now 63 countries that have joined OBFW.

Please keep visiting the website and leaving messages on the messageboard - its always great hear from you all!

Thanks

Paul & Ben

Big Friendly World Badge

2006-02-18T09:03:00.000Z

Hello friends,

Have you seen the One Big Friendly World badge yet?

There is a new link on the website, 'OBFW Badge' where you can download the badge for free!!

It would be great if you could print out the badge and take a picture of yourself holding it in your country - we will have an online gallery of you all!

There will be a prize for the first picture back, and for the best picture!! So get printing and snapping, we are looking forward to the first picture very much!

I

One Big Friendly World!

The more unusual the better, and we would love pictures taken next to landmarks of your country!

We look forward to hearing from you . . . .

Ben & Paul

We have reached 50!

2006-02-16T20:22:00.000Z

Hello friends,

What a great day!

Peggy from Belguim has been in touch which means we have reached our first major milestone - 50 friends! What great news, and thanks to each and every one of you for your contribution to the project so far.

Nattira from Thailand also emailed us last evening - and after looking at the website she has decided that OBFW is certainly for her and she has also agreed to become a friend. So, that's 51 countries! We are already on our way to the next major mark - 100.

As you can see, Paul and I are over the moon!

We are still working hard looking for new friends . . . if anyone has any friends from countries not yet represented, please tell them how great One Big Friendly World is and get them to email us!

Hope to hear from you all soon . . .

Ben & Paul

A Valentines Day member . . . .

2006-02-14T20:39:00.000Z

Hello there everybody,

Well, we have been busy over the weekend trying to find new friends and publicising the good work of One Big Friendly World.

To celebrate the day of love, St Valentines day today we have been blessed with a new friend - Roushank from Iran.
Roushank feels lucky to be a part of OBFW, no no Roushank, we are all the lucky ones having you as a friend! Thanks for agreeing to be a friend, I am sure you will enjoy our community.

Larissa from Ukraine has sent a picture through:

Thanks Larissa, great to hear from you.

We have received a picture from Leonard in Zimbabwe, it is on the website along with all the others, but here is a sneak preview:

Thanks for sending this through Leonard, we always love to see a new picture. If anyone else has any new pics they would like to send us, please feel free to do so.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Random Pictures of the OBFW lads!

2006-02-10T21:10:00.000Z

Yet another 3 countries join! We are now 48!

2006-02-09T19:21:00.000Z

Hello everybody.

After the ferocious activity of Monday, new friends have continued to join us.

Gabriela from Romania contacted us saying she is very happy to represent her country. She is excited about meeting people from different countries so she has come to the right place!

Girmay from Ethiopia has been in touch, and finds the idea of the project very exciting. He likes the OBFW website and has spent some time exploring it!

Earlier today, Shyam from Nepal emailed saying that he would love to be part of One Big Friendly World. Shyam works in a University and sent us this picture:

Welcome Gabriela, Girmay and Shyam! It's great to have you along as a friend.

We are very pleased to see that some of you are forming great friendships across the world. We know that Ramona, Corrie, Lara, Betty, Simon, Hector and others have been talking to eachother over the internet several times, it really is great to see so many new friendships develop.

So, we are now at 48 countries - just a couple more to our first major milestone. As always, if anyone has any friends that they would like to introduce to One Big Friendly World, please feel free to forward details of the website, and our email details ; onebigfriendlyworld@yahoo.co.uk

Hope to hear from you all soon . . . .

Ben & Paul

What a Night!

2006-02-06T22:25:00.000Z

Firstly, a HUGE thank-you to Simon, Betty, Lara and Hector for taking part in our first worldwide web chat. It was fantastic to chat with you all. We hope to do it again soon - look out for dates and times.

Secondly, you will all be glad to hear that we have had an influx of new friends. First to join us today was Larissa from Ukraine, then came Thu Thu from Myanmar (You can see her photo on the photo's page of our website) Next we heard from our close neighbours, Northern Ireland. Gillian - you are very welcome. ........and it didn't stop there!!!! It wasn't long before we heard from Amy in Singapore - she is very interested in our project. Stick with us Amy, it will get a lot more exciting!!! Next came 3 Africans!! First came Charlene from South Africa, then Samuel from Cameroon, and last but by no means least Jean Louis from the Ivory Coast!!!!

......And we haven't finished yet!!! Whilst chatting with our friends, 3 further friends joined! Francis became our very first friend from Papua New Guinea, then Momom joined from Algeria, and finally, just when we thought it was over for another day, Nataly agreed to represent Ukraine as well.

So its a MASSIVE THANK YOU to each and every one of you for taking the time out of your lives to email us and become our new friends!!!

OBFW Welcomes a Great Dane!!!

2006-02-02T22:09:00.000Z

It is our pleasure to announce the arrival of our first Danish friend - Jacob.

Jacob hails from Odense, and is very interested in our project. We are pleased to have him as our friend from our 36th country..........who would have thought that we would grow so big, so quickly.

Please keep visiting the website for more and more interesting stuff in the future. And don't forget at 8pm GMT this coming Monday Paul & Ben will be on MSN Messenger so that we can all have a chat. Lara from Australia and Betty from Mexico have so far confirmed......we'd love to chat to you too.

onebigfriendlyworld@yahoo.co.uk

Togo and Uganda - Welcome!

2006-01-31T21:15:00.000Z

Hello all,

More exciting news to share with you all.

Komi has been in touch from Togo and has agreed to represent the country - welcome to One Big Friendly World.

Today we have heard from Bernard from Uganda, expressing how exciting the project is - and of course, he is right!

Welcome Komi and Bernard, it's great to have you along.

Seth from Ghana has sent us a photo - what a smart chap he is! Thanks Seth. Look at the website to see the pic.

Don't forget, Paul and I will be conducting a live webchat this coming Monday at 20:00 GMT. It would be great to see you there for a chat - if you need any help in how to set up an MSN account, drop us a line and we will give you some instructions.

Look out on the website later this week for our first feature - 'Friend of the Month' which for February is Eugenia from Russia.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Ben & Paul

2 More Countries Join Up!! ...Now its 38 friends in 33 countries!

2006-01-26T20:24:00.000Z

Hello everyone!!!

How are you all? Thank you so much for visiting our websites, and posting messages, its fantastic to hear from all of you.....we have never had so many friends!!!!

So what's new today? Well I am pleased to announce the arrival of Shurik from St. Petersburg (Our 3rd Russian). He thinks that OBFW is a good idea, and wants to find new friends. Welcome Shurik, its great to have you with us!

Next came a new African friend, its Seth from Ghana. Hello Seth, welcome to OBFW! Seth really likes making new friends.....so he has come to the right place!

Last of all came our second friend from South America, its Igor from Brazil. Fantastic to hear from you Igor, you are more than welcome to our ever growing project.

So, only 210 or so countries left to go!!

Cheers, Schol, Kippis,

Paul & Ben

Another Day . . Another Friend

2006-01-24T19:38:00.000Z

Hello Friends,

Another day and another friend has joined One Big Friendly World.

Nila from Indonesia got in touch this morning to say how interesting One Big Friendly World sounds and confirming representation of Indonesia.

Thats 35 friends from 31 countries, and growing every day. Don't forget, if you have any friends in other countries that would like to join One Big Friendly World, tell them to get in touch.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Ben & Paul

Nigeria and Malaysia join OBFW!

2006-01-23T20:10:00.000Z

OBFW marches on with two new friends joining today!

Chisom from Nigeria has contacted us saying that he is happy to join and represent his country. It is great to hear from him.

Also, Isabella from Malaysia has been in touch. She likes making new friends and speaking with people all over the world.

Thanks for all your feedback on the website, don't forget that you can use the forum to speak with other friends all over the world - www.onebigfriendlyworld.com

Thanks also to Annie from Canada, who has sent us a photo:

Anna has agreed to be our first 'Friend of The Month' look out on the website for a feature of her very soon.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Ben & Paul

One Big Friendly World Website is now online!

2006-01-21T21:34:00.000Z

Great News!

The One Big Friendly World website is now online!

The address is www.onebigfriendlyworld.com

The site includes a full list of all our friends, photographs and a forum where we are all able to talk with eachother.

Please take a few minutes to visit the site,bookmark it and visit it regularly as we are updating it all the time with new pages, features and photographs.

Any feedback on the site would be great - we look forward to hearing from you.

Ben & Paul

http://www.onebigfriendlyworld.com/

P.S.This diary site will still be updated regularly - http://www.onebigfriendlyworld.blogspot.com/

OBFW Welcomes Annie from Canada!!

2006-01-19T21:56:00.000Z

Yes, Canada have now joined us as well. Annie, has sent us a lovely email and we are very happy to have a new Canadian friend. Thanks Annie!!!

If we carry on at this speed we will have all the nations in the world with us before the year is finished. Perhaps then we can expand it to other planets!!!

If any of our friends know anyone from any other country, please, please, please put them in contact with us, we would love to hear from them!

Only a few days left now until we launch the website, we will be sending you all a mail soon to confirm when it is available. We really hope that you all like it.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions what we could put on the website, we would be more than happy to hear from you. Just drop us a line to onebigfriendlyworld@yahoo.co.uk

Our first idea is to introduce a "Friend of the Month" in which we would feature one of our new friends . If you would like to be our first "Friend of the Month" please send us an email with a picture. We will then send you some questions to fill in......and within a week, you will be featured on our new website.

Hope to hear from you all soon!!

Paul & Ben

Sri Lanka and Peru Join - we now have a friend in every continent!

2006-01-17T20:58:00.000Z

Hello there Friends,

A very exciting day for OBFW. We now have a friend in every continent of the world.

Shantha from Sri Lanka joined yesterday - Shantha appears to be a fairly quiet person, and that is fine with us.

This morning Hector contacted us from Peru congratulating us on the project and asking to be involved. We are always pleased to see such manners and we are delighted to welcome Hector as a friend.

OBFW is now 32 people from 28 countries. We are amazed a how receptive people are to our idea, and it is fantastic to know that there are so many friendly, welcoming people in the world.

Flanders, Azerbaijan, Russia and Australia are in!!

2006-01-15T20:08:00.000Z

Hello everybody!

A busy day for OBFW, with a new friend yesterday and three new friends today - a record equalling achievement, and it is only 20:15 in the UK, still time for someone else to get in touch!

Yesterday, Steve from Flanders, which he quite rightly points out is an independant region with its own language, parliament and anthem. If it's good enough for the Flemmish and their Belgian cousins, it's okay with us!! Welcome Steve.

First up today we have Azer in Azerbaijan - Azer says that he is very happy to join OBFW, which is exactly the attitude we are looking for. Welcome Azer, glad to have you with us.

Secondly, we received an email from Julia in Russia. Julia (or Juci to her friends - and that's us) is an English, Spanish and German speaking drama student who is studying to become a translator. Juci sent us a lovely picture of herself which will appear on the website, which will launch later this week.

Juci from Russia!

Last but not least, Lara from Australia has been in touch. She is a friend of Simon Varwell from Scotland and is more than welcome to represent the Ozzies. Lara sent us a link to her website - she is a very good photographer. Thanks Lara - great to have you with us.

So, OBFW is 28 people from 26 countries already - that is over 10% of the recognised countries in the world.

Onwards and upwards . . . . .

Our Mexican Friend and Finland joins OBFW

2006-01-14T18:15:00.000Z

Betty from Mexico joined One Big Friendly World on December 26th 2005. Having exchanged a number of emails, Betty has come up with a number of suggestions as to how OBFW can move forward, and has also shared her personal website with us.

Betty has kindly agreed to allow us to display the link to her website, so if you wish to visit her, please click on the following link. http://homepage.mac.com/betty_maldonado/

In additional news, I am very pleased to announce that Shenzou has joined us and will be representing Finland. We now have 24 friends, you can count yourselves all very special people.

The rest of the world awaits........

We hope to hear from you all agian very soon!

More friends to report!

2006-01-13T20:37:00.000Z

Hello to each and every one of you,

Another day and more friends to add to the list;

Christina from Spain has joined us. She is very excited about the project and we are pleased to have her as a friend.

Jan from Slovakia has sent us a photograph of him with his motorbike, which is more than enough to make sure he is a friend.

We have another American friend, in the shape of Denise. She is happy to have heard about our search for new friends - she is an artist and from the photo's she sent to us looks very talented indeed.

Finally, Edwin from Tanzania has agreed to be our friend. He was even kind enought to invite us over to Tanzania to meet him - thanks Edwin, one day we will take you up on that.

We are so grateful to you all - and we say a big thanks to you all!

Keep an eye out for more news soon - we are currently welcoming new friends every day so come back soon.

Don't forget to email us - it's always great to hear from you.

Ben & Paul

Yet More Countries Join Up!!

2006-01-11T22:41:00.000Z

Okay so its late hear in the UK, so I will keep it brief.

Great News!!!

Firstly, a big thank you must go the Katharina from Estonia, who has agreed to join OBFW, making Estonia the first of the Baltic states to become our friends!!!......only Latvia and Lithuania to go.......

Thank also to Dawuda from Liberia who has also become our friend along with Ahmad from Palestine. Who would have thought the OneBigFriendlyWorld would have reached so far so soon!! Thank you Dawuda, and Thank you Ahmad, it was fantastic to hear from you.

Last but by no means least is a second friend from Mexico, a travel agent by the name of Ivan. Its great to have you onboard.

As mentioned previously, the website is now almost ready and I am happy to announce that it will include a messageboard, so hopefully you can all start talking to one another!!

Please keep in contact with us, we love to receive your mails.

Thank you all for being our friends

Paul & Ben

The Story so far.......

2006-01-09T21:56:00.000Z

One Big Friendly World

One month into our project and things have been going better than we could ever have expected them to.

On the 8th of December 2005, Ben and Paul set out on a mission to find one friend in every country in the world.

We were encouraged by an early response from our close neighbours Scotland, whom not only agreed to join us, but also sent a great picture of themself looking particularly Scottish. Nice one, thanks for getting us started Simon. (perhaps if Simon agrees we can show you his picture on a later blog)

Soon another of our close neighbours also joined, it was Marika from Ireland, who, unlike most Irish people we have met, has stayed quite quiet since. We are happy that you joined us all the same.

The 19th of December demonstrated just how global our project was becoming, when not only Ramona from Germany joined, but also Chrissy from the good old United States of America! Both of whom have sent us their photographs. What nice people they are too.

Christmas is often a time when people begin to relax and take it easy. Not us here at One Big Friendly World, as you can see from the pictures we have been searching the internet high and low for new friends.

Wojtek in Poland was the first to enter the Christmas spirit, agreeing to join our project on the 19th December. Wojtek has gone on to become a good friend of ours, and has recently sent us a picture of himself and a horse!!! Thanks Wojtek...great picture.

It was not long until Corrie joined in from Holland, thanks Corrie!! and shortly afterwards we received a lovely email from Betty in Mexico. Betty not only agreed to join with us, but has also sent us information on where she lives and details of her own website. Thanks Betty, you are a great friend of OBFW!!

The remainder of Christmas brought two more friends to OBFW, firstly there was Patrick, our Norweigan Swede from Lapland!!! who included a link to his website. Lapland looks fantastic, if a little cold! Brrrr. Then came Sheen from India...(Wow OBFW was really getting big now!!) Sheen is a web designer, perhaps he can offer us some help some time??

With the new year came the prospect of even more new friends, and so it turned out as an influx of new friends have recently joined us. These include, Saju who works in a meat factory in Kuwait, Xiande from China, who likes to go by the name of Mr. Thank You, yýldýz from Turkey, and Pham Phong from Vietnam who has told us about their cats!!

And todays big news is that two further countries have joined with us!! We are proud to announce the arrival of Leonard from Zimbabwe and Bassam from Syria. Who would have thought that there were so many nice friendly people in the world?

Keep an eye on this web address for further updates, and please let us know if you would like your picture included, we would be proud to show you to all our friends from around the globe.

Hope to hear from you all again soon,

Paul & Ben