||| Agfest Agfest
     
 
This is an update on the rest of my exchange to Switzerland.
 
After the European conference I stayed with the Huber’s in Mattwil, 15km from the German border. Martin and Margrith have 3 children, Charlotte 18, Michael 16 and Johannes 13. 
 
The Huber’s milk 80 cows, in a free stall barn, but do spend the morning outside when the weather is nice, and are brought inside at lunch.  The cows eat silage mixed with maize. There is a lot of maize grown in Switzerland and it forms a large part of the dairy cows´ diet.
 
The cows are milked on the side and you face the back of the cow, so the front of the cups go on the back teats.  In Australia the front of the cups go on the front teats, so I spent a week milking and trying not to put the cups on the wrong way!
 
The second and third weeks I was helping in the house and garden, and also had a trip to the Rhein falls (Switzerland’s Niagara), Mount Santas, Stein on Rhein and also Zurich and Konstanz in Germany.   I attended the regional ploughing competition with Charlotte, where the Landjugend were helping.   I was speaking to a man who knew about the world ploughing completion held in Tasmania in 1982.  Three weeks with this family was too short, and I was sad to leave,  however I had two more     families to stay with.
 
Next was family Wettstein in canton Aargau.  Helena, Markus, Manuel 6 and Pascal 4.  Markus is a contractor, so he’s not on the farm during the day and Helena teaches 3 days a week.  They have 150 bulls on the farm, and also make their own wine.  I had 2 horses and a foal to look after.
 
The family had a girl who was helping in the house, so I was not given much to do.  I stayed outside and cleaned up, and weeded between playing with the boys and looking after the horses.
 
One funny memory is when both brothers decided they want to play with me at the same time. Pascal tries to pull you up the stairs and Manual down the stairs.  If you go up, Manuel starts crying and yell to his mum that you’re not playing with him.  So you go down, he stops crying, but then Pascal starts to yell to his mum that you’re not playing with him.  I just picked one, and hoped Helena found something for the other boy to do.
 
The last family I stayed with were the Tifenbachs.  Ueli, Beata, Lukas 7 and Paulina 6.  They say you leave the best till last, and I think for me this was the best family.  They live in Studen in the canton of Bern.  Beata is from Poland, so it was interesting to talk about how we find the Swiss way of life.
 
They have a small apple orchard and 17 cows.  The cows are in a tie stall barn and you take the cups to each cow, plug them into the line and you have to bend over to put them on.  I was sorting out apples in the morning and milking of a night.  I enjoyed the milking as it was a new way to milk for me.
 
I had a lot of fun with this family, and wish I could have stayed longer.  But now I have the    opportunity to see some more of Europe and visit fellow IFYE´s who were at the European conference.
 
I would like to say thank you to all the members at home who host exchangees (you know who you are) without you, exchanges would not be possible and it is a worthwhile thing to            experience.  I am sure the exchangees we host appreciate you showing them Tasmania.
 
I know everyone who has been on exchange says “if you have the opportunity to go on      exchange you should do it” and I know you have heard it all before, but I am sorry, I will join the club by saying the same thing.  If you get the opportunity to apply for an exchange you should, it is a lot of fun and you meet heaps of great people.  And it is the only way to find out what other exchangees are talking about.  Then you’ll come home and say the same thing.
 
Thank you to Rural Youth for providing me with this opportunity, and for sending me to     Switzerland in a year they hosted a European conference.  Also thank you to Australian Private Networks who sponsored my exchange.
 
Helen Gill.
2008 Exchangee to Switzerland.