Our German Exchange student Helene Damaschke introduced herself to the club last Monday with an excellent command of English and a video presentation of her school and family. She comes from a town of 73,000 inhabitants called Brandenburg an der Havel located west of Berlin. The town has many old gothic buildings
including a 15th century old town hall and within easy reach are 3000 lakes and 6700 kilometres of waterways.
Her school, Brandenburg Evangelical Cathedral High School has a musical and linguistic profile which reflects Helene’s interests in trumpet, dance and Chinese language studies.
Her parents Sandra (an HR Manager) and Christian (an editor) have in addition a 12 year old son and the family skis regularly in the Czech Republic and vacations with family on car-free Hiddensee Island. Hiddensee is about the area of Kawau Island situated in the Baltic Sea.
Helene presented to Pres Govind a banner from her sponsoring Brandenburg Rotary Club. Welcome Helene! Any club members planning expeditions or events where they may accommodate Helene and enable her to experience more of New Zealand should not hesitate to contact her.
President Govind was also given a banner from the Rotary Club of Bolonga by Raoul Damiano and Leonardo Legnani, 2 visiting Italian Students and classmates who are spending a few weeks at Pakuranga College.