Newsletter may 2010

By Josie Redmonds

I hope everybody has had as positive start to the year as we have here at Butterfly!  Aj, Khumbu and Ezmeekie returned just after Christmas which was excellent, so as well as completing our last few missions there was new impetus for new projects, especially the youth club!  And, although the lodge itself is always pretty quite at this time of year, there have been a lot of volunteers staying and getting involved, and seemedly much more interest in our ideas, from both within Malawi and Internationally.  All this made for an exciting and positive start to the year, with many new ideas taking shape and pushing forward. 

As soon as Aj arrived back she was full of beans and got straight into planning the new youth club room.  We have received terrific support from several Rotary Clubs * and people  close to AJ’s home near Bristol, and this has meant that we have been able to build a specific room to compliment the popular twice weekly youth club, which has become central to Butterfly in the last two years.  This new room will be permanently open and will employ a full-time staff member, so that it can be utilised for homework clubs, girls clubs, special needs clubs,  as well as the more usual activities and games sessions!  

Just in time for the build in February we had a few volunteers who helped AJ out getting bricks and sand and general manual work.  Hard physical work and 

essential to keep things moving in

the early stages.  One of the volunteers, Wynant, stayed on quite a bit longer and was a great help.  The builders, Saidi and his team also worked flat out, as did a number of volunteers who helped out painting, making cushions, varnishing and numerous other jobs.  It all meant that by the time I left in early April, most of the hard work was done, and that all that was left was for AJ to beautify the walls with her paintings and fill it full of things.  There has been a ten pin bowling alley incorporated into the building, and there is space for a pool table and DVD    player.  I can’t wait to get back and see it full of children enjoying their new space.  

The nursery school has also had its fair share of volunteers.  Daniel, a Canadian who was passing through stayed for a couple of weeks and taught up there, doing excellent lesson plans and educational games.  The kids were devastated when he had to go, but depending upon his job commitments back in Canada he was hoping to return in April.  Soon after he left more volunteers arrived, Sarah arrived from Australia for a months volunteering, and two other volunteers, M&M, a French and Israeli couple stayed for a while after just passing through.  They all went up to the nursery for about a month, making new games and teaching techniques nearly every evening at Butterfly.   Sarah had contacted us via our web-site and incorporated her volunteering at Butterfly with part of a longer trip.  It’s been great having people involved and around and hopefully more people will spread the word.  This all means  that with Daniel returning, there will have volunteers up at the nursery for most of the first 6 months of the year, which is great.  

As for the garden at the nursery, it has gone wild, with the beans climbing the bamboo canes all the way up to the roof!  As well as these beans, which will be used for eating as well as loads of compost to add to the soil, we have planted papaya trees, yam, sunflowers, pumpkins, passion fruit and lemongrass.  Hopefully these will survive into the  summer and we can add to them with other edibles and flowers. 

M&M were really busy in their time with us.  As well as helping at the nursery they were doing computer lessons in the information room every afternoon.  Francis, the centre manager, contacted local youth clubs and invited people for lessons in Word, Excel or email.  People came and had the lessons on the two computers that are set aside for community use and many of them progressed through a number of stages.  More local groups will be contacted and informed of the programme so that there are always people available to teach.  As more people are taught we should be able to approach people from villages further away who so far have not heard of the opportunities.

For a while though, in the information room, we had been having a bit of a nightmare!  First it was bad networking between the computers, which made everything very slow, then it was bad connection from the server which, after much debate, we remedied by investing in a new router.  After all this, and the connection was good again,  a few of our computers broke down!  Two that came back from being mended in Lilongwe still didn’t work and had had some of their memory removed, great, and a couple of others in the centre both packed in.  Anyway help was at hand, because another lovely couple, Marie and Simon, from Belgium helped us out reformatting and reloading software and everything I don’t really understand.   The set us up on the Lynex system as apparently this does not get as many viruses.  They spent a couple of weeks doing this and teaching Francis how to look after the computers and the culmination is that we have four computers up and ready for use, and because we have changed the system, hopefully we wont get hit by virus’s anymore.

Two new volunteers Tim and Jess had just rocked up when I was leaving and were planning to continue with the computer lessons.  They seemed really enthusiastic and sure there was plenty of other stuff they got involved in as well.

There have been a number of developments with other areas of Butterfly as well as the actual projects.  It has been one of our long term goals to try and attract longer term, skilled volunteers to the area, and a recent meeting with the local MP, has made this more of a possibility.  Mp Kaunda is extremely interested in the idea and after a couple of meetings with him he got a partnership agreement agreed with the Local District Assembly, as well as guidelines from the Immigration Department to state what visas would be needed.  This idea is still in its preliminary stages but we hope to provide a link for eager volunteers from around the World, to real life placements in Nkhata bay and the surrounding area.  By liaising with the Local Government we can hopefully locate the skills that are lacking in certain areas, education, health, agriculture, and provide full information about a placement to the potential volunteers so that the experience is as mutually beneficial and enjoyable as possible.  

Such placements would be long term in nature, at least six months and would seek to provide relevant skills to the area.  Money fundraised could also be used to assist in certain specific areas like building a school block, or certain equipment.  This would also be linked through the District Assembly and would mean that while we would keep and eye on what was going on, we would not be directly responsible for the build, which would mean that much more could be achieved. The whole District Assembly gathered for a meal up at Butterfly on the 2^nd April, both to discuss the idea and familiarise themselves with Butterfly, and if we mark the way forward we hope it can turn into a fruitful partnership.

Another exciting development has been the establishment of Chikale `Butterfly’ football team.  Gill Leaper visited in March and brought with her a football strip from Thornbury Falcons.  This was donated to the potential team and they are now training three times a week, with the help of Willard, a Malawian guy from Chikale.

They are all very keen and they have already been involved in an away game at Kande beach where they played 2 matches in different age categories.  The boys from Kande also visited Nkhata Bay to play, and there have been a number of games against local teams.  It is proving to be really popular for the boys themselves but also for tourists passing through who love nothing better than to get involved for a training session or a game or two.  Sarah got involved a lot and made her way to all the matches and training sessions while she was here, even though she had done nothing to do with footie in the past. 

Butterfly as well has seen some changes.  The end of the year saw us losing much loved staff in the kitchen, with Theresa and Elizabeth going on to other things.  Chimwemwe also left so, in total, we had three new members of staff in the kitchen and some more training up to do.  We are well into it now and Naomi, Fanny and Robert are doing a great job to get settled in and treating us to some of their specialities.  Robert’s samoses have become an instant success!  Another long termer volunteer to leave was Greg, who has been volunteering with us since October, helping out mostly building, gardening and painting at the nursery.  It is always great when somebody loves your place as much as you do, and hangs around for a long time, so it was sad to see him go, but for some reason I don’t think it will be the last time we see him here at Butterfly.  

Around site we finished a beautiful new sign over the entrance to the lodge.  We are now unavoidable as you drive around the corner, and we have fixed it to a trellis archway so that hopefully we can cover it in green before long.  We have also had a great link established with a Melbourne non profit volunteering agency, and we are together developing the idea for a lo-cost water pump demonstrated here at Butterfly.  It is an idea I have had for a long time, to develop a pump around a fun appliance, ;like a bike. Or a kids see-saw, or roundabout and make the job much more fun and enjoyable.  This idea is just in the starting phase, and an English Guy who lives here, Bill Ottoway, has been incredibly helpful with ideas on design and everything.  Some volunteers from the organisation, Y-Gap, are coming out in June/ July and if successful, they aim to send some people every six months and this could turn into a long-term project as we aim to help farmers around the area irrigate their land so that they can grow an extra harvest every year.  With all this pure clean water about it is a shame not to utilise it.  Of course as well as helping the garden here at Butterfly we can develop more ideas that would benefit from water such as a turf roof or power generator!  Exciting

So it really has been a great start to the year and with more people contacting us through the web-site, looking to volunteer then it looks to continue through the year.  As an appeal this time I really would like to know if anybody knows of companies or individuals that are getting rid of old lap-tops and would like to donate them to the information room.  Now lap-tops are Duty free it is easier for us to get them over here and it would really be a shame if the information room lost any more computer capacity.  Please contact us via the web-site if you know of anybody that can help.   Thanks again for everyone’s involvement and interest and hope everybody has a positive rest of the year.  

*Rotary Clubs and individuals that have contributed to the building of the Youth Club:

Mary Pike at      Wareham Rotary                                John Vilton     Sturminster Newton    

Maggie Hardy     Swanage                                            Derek Andrews  Blandford Rotary       

Graham Colls    Blandford Stour                               Stephen Protheroe    Wimborne        

Doug Temple   Bournemouth Rotary                       Geoff Lawrence   Ferndown             

Lin Venters       Gillingham                                               Berenice Deakin    Shaftesbury         

“Hidden in our hearts is a longing to live deeply and with purpose and joy, to know and to be known, to be concerned with another; and to make a difference.  In this dance of giving and receiving, we create our community, our World and ourselves” 

www.butterfly-space.com