A strong long-lasting partnership between the Marienschule Fulda, Germany, and Loreto College of Rose Hill, Mauritius, has seen another highlight at this year's 14-days-exchange. Both pupils and teachers enjoyed each other's company and friendship. Shared school days, historical and natural sights as well as pilgrimage places of the beautiful island in the Indian Ocean were part of this exciting visit. The group from Mauritius will visit Germany later this year in July/August 2018.
Loreto School Queenswood’s Senior Choir, South Africa, embarked on a trip of a lifetime. The objective of the trip was to expose our learners to another culture, a new country and another Mary Ward community. To realise this, parents from Maria Ward Gymnasium School in Günzburg, Germany, hosted our learners. Our hosts, Marlies and Erich Fock (teachers, pictured on the very left and right in the picture above) organised a busy, jam-packed, fun filled itinerary, which included visits to Wallerstein, Augsburg, Lindau, Munich, singing in various churches (Wieskirche Cathedral) and going on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria.

What really stood out for me was how learners from Loreto School Queenswood started to reflect and compare South Africa to Germany (...) precious moments include the standing ovations from audiences, the many articles that appeared in the local newspapers, posters displayed all over Günzburg and an elderly woman that stopped our learners to give them chocolates.
Marcello Pallozzi, principal; text taken from www.ibvmunngo.org (adapted)
Marcus from Germany visits his contact family of Sabina, pupil at the Mary Ward School Lhubu, Nepal. They had been writing emails and letters before meeting. - And I'm sure they will both never forget this day.
Brazilian teacher Miriam de Castro Dutra Carvalho (participant of the Friends Conference 2015 in Loyola, Spain) enjoys the snow in the Alps together with German teacher Petra Hafensteiner from Mary Ward School Traunstein-Sparz.

I am from Brazil and I live in Sao Paulo. I am married with two daughters. One of them is a pupil at the Mary Ward School in Sao Paulo, Escola Santa Maria. My husband and I are an active in the Friends of Mary Ward and furthermore I am a catechist for confirmation groups.
I am a teacher of German and wanted to improve my language skills. This is why I contacted our Brazilian Provinical, and so I was able to come to Germany, to the Erzbischöfliche Maria Ward Realschule St. Zeno in Bad Reichenhall, in the south of Germany.
I arrived on 4th January 2017 and have experienced a lot during my stay.
At school I give talks in different classes about Brazil and I am happy to answer all sorts of questions, as the boys and girls show a lot of interest in Brazilian culture. I attend lessons regularly, not only German classes. This is all very interesting and very useful for my experience both in my job, but also in life.
I was also able to get to know the Erzbischöfliche Maria Ward Mädchenrealschule Traunstein-Sparz and I have given some talks on Brazil there, too. This was also very interesting, and new good contacts arose from this.
I would like to thank the CJ sisters as well as the Mary Ward Schools, and will pass on my experience back at home to others.
Hi! My name is Eva, I am 16 years old. I am a pupil at the Maria Ward Gymnasium in Günzburg in Germany. I am spending this school year in Ireland in order to get to know the life and culture of Ireland, to learn English and to go to school, of course. I arrived here after the Christmas holidays, and now I am a pupil of the Loreto Abbey School in Dalkey near Dublin, which is also a Mary Ward School.
This school looks like a castle. The front part is used by the sisters. Apart from myself, there are other "international students", for instance some Spanish girls who are Loreto pupils in Spain. The atmosphere here at the school is extremely good, and I found really good new friends on my second day of my stay. What can I say? I am now nearly half way through my time in Ireland, and I am extremely impressed by everything. I am looking forward to the coming weeks and months, and will enjoy getting to know more people at the school. All the best, Eva.