Lisi, Léa and Pierre are three exchange students staying with host families in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) and shooting a zebra on a game farm was a definite highlight for one of the students.

Lisi Winsauer (16) of Gmunden, a small town in the northern part of Austria, enjoyed her first hunting experience when she visited a game farm with Marianca Mattheus and her family. They will still take Lisi to the Kruger National Park, where they will watch and not hunt animals. Sliding down a zipline from the trees and landing on the sand was also great fun for Lisi. With German as her mother tongue, Lisi has the advantage of picking up a word here and there in an Afrikaans conversation during her first day in Louis Trichardt High School with Marianca (16).

Pierre Fossaert (15) and Léa Bernard (17) are both from France, with Pierre hailing from the city Lille and Léa from Noyon, a town about 100km north of Paris. Pierre wants to become an architect and studies at Lycée St Paul College. In Johannesburg, he went sightseeing on the Red City Bus Tour and he enjoyed a few days at Golden Gate in the Free State. “It was a bit cold, but not much,” said Pierre. His host, Daniél Coetzee (17), used to the more temperate weather in Limpopo, felt that it was extremely cold. Pierre mentioned more than once how friendly the people are. He had not even encountered one mosquito so far! Pierre found his experience at the local high school interesting with their ‘short’ periods and the students changing classes. “We have periods of 55 minutes, we stay in the same class and the teachers change. The students here are really friendly,” Pierre said.

“So far, my highlight was when we walked in the mountain,” said Léa, referring to the Drakensberg mountain range, where she went with Elouise Spies (17) and her family. Léa is looking forward to showing Elouise Paris, the Eiffel Tower and taking her to the mountains for skiing and to the sea. Elouise will visit her new friend in December for six weeks, as will Marianca and Daniél. At the local school, Léa noticed that when all the students in their uniforms assembled in the hall, they opened with prayer. “It was a new experience for me, but a good one,” said Léa.

Pierre and Léa will be joining a safari organized by the Rotarians, after which all three will be taken by their host families to a lion farm and a crocodile farm. Lisi will be returning to Austria on 11 August and Pierre and Léa will fly to France on 19 August.