Welcome to the first newsletter of Butterfly Space. If you are already receiving this newsletter then there is a good chance that you will already know something about us, and what our intentions are for Butterfly. But for anybody that doesn’t, then here is a quick update. Both Alice and myself had spent time volunteering in Malawi, in community development and teaching respectively, and when we bought Butterfly in May 2007 we held a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve with the place. We want to develop ourselves as a community lodge, where there can be more meaningful exchanges between tourists and Malawians.

Community activities will be encouraged at Butterfly, with a youth club, games room and music room being developed on site. Particular attention will be paid to educational opportunities, with an information centre being established and workshops being held. We will hold regular film nights, drumming nights and local talent performances and offer a general space for any group that wishes to use it.

With regard to the environment we will look to use both local resources and appropriate technology solutions to develop the lodge in a responsible manner. The garden on site will be developed to provide us with food, demonstrate different agriculture techniques, and stabilise the area in general. These ideas will be encouraged into the wider community.

Complement all these ideas we hope to attract a different kind of visitor to Nkhata Bay, somebody who wants to stay for a longer period and hopefully volunteer within the community. Working together with local Government and organisations we can hopefully place people with skills into projects that could really utilise them, providing a mutually beneficial experience. Volunteers and other links that we can make internationally will help us continue and expand upon the community work we are doing in the area.

So, with all these ideas in mind we had to return to the UK over the summer to earn some money and get prepared. Links were pursued and developed, both with new groups like The Rotary and also longer-term links that have been built up over a few years. Alice helped organise a web-site, thanks to Darcylicious Designs, www.butterfly-space.com and we are also hoping there is other promotional and practical equipment on the way.

We both returned to Butterfly in September where we really found ourselves in at the deep end. As well as all the usual jobs associated with learning about a new business and community venture we also found ourselves having to deal with some unforeseen circumstances. Early in September we were visited by a representative from the Tourism Department who outlined a number of areas where the structures needed to be improved if we were to be permitted to renew our licence. This came as a complete surprise to us, as we had bought Butterfly with a valid licence, but meant that we would have to prioritise certain things, such as the renovation of the kitchen and the fixing of all roofs before the start of the rainy season. When the rains threatened a month early, at the end of October, we thought there would be no chance, but the majority held off until December and we just managed.

We also got some things up and running with regard to community activities at Butterfly. Sunday evening has become our regular film night, which is open to everybody, and on a Tuesday morning our trainee manager, Beaton Chigongwe, holds Chi Tonga lessons. Again these lessons are open to anybody but it tends to be the people who are staying in Nkhata Bay longer term that have attended so far. Alice has also started a youth club, which meets at Butterfly every Tuesday afternoon. This has proved really popular, both with the kids and tourists who have helped out on a number of occasions. Other events include a local band, the Souls of the Ghetto, who performed just before Christmas and a local talent show, which was held on New Year’s eve, and proved extremely popular.

Alice also screened a music video she had made for Gift, an artist from Nkhata Bay, which has been in demand to be shown at every film night since then! As well as the things initiated at Butterfly we have already had a few people staying here longer term whom have volunteered in the area.

Gill Hargreaves helped out at the local nursery school in Chikale bringing with her some well needed materials and new ideas of teaching methods. As well as doing daily lessons, alongside the normal teacher, she took extra time and effort to paint the building, ending up with a colourful classroom with some educational information on the wall.

She also brought with her an amazing football kit and netball kit for a school at Mazembe, about fifty km’s down the lakeshore road. This was a place she visited and helped out at last year and has remained in touch with.

Another exciting development is the plan to build a new building for the nursery at Chikale. At present more than 30 children are taught in a rented room, that has very little room for manoeuvre. Money fundraised by Jill at her school in Dubai and money donated by the Thornbury Rotary club will be pooled to build a two-room school with storage facilities. Alice is overseeing this project, and the land has already been acquired and the foundations have been dug.

Another volunteer, Christina Laybourn has also been here for about four months and has helped out with both the widow's group at Chikale and `Tiyanjane’, a women’s group that are drying solar fruit. She has met with both groups regularly throughout her stay here and has initiated a number of new developments with each group.

The widow’s group makes cushions using cotton from a local tree, Usufu. With a small loan from Butterfly they were able to make more stock with which they attended a small craft fair in Mzuzu. Christina has also worked with the women to develop some new ideas for them to make. They are now making purses, bags and juggling balls that they can sell at the shop at Butterfly.

Christina also worked with the women to develop a menu for a traditional Malawian lunch, which was held at Butterfly. The women worked all morning, cooking an amazing variety of food and it went down very well with the customers. They hope to start holding this dinner regularly, maybe once a month.

With Tiyanjane, Christina used a small donation from a previous volunteer to help the women mend their solar dryer. Once mended they began drying fruit, Papaya, Banana and Mango and put them for sale at the surrounding lodges. However as the rains approached the drying became more difficult and as with last year it became impossible to dry the fruits fully once the rainy season was in full swing. Another area that needs to be worked at is the confidence of the ladies, who often don’t like visiting the lodges to arrange the sale of their goods.

Craig Hardie is another person who visited last year and who returned in December, after fundraising some money and doing some research into the type of project he felt he could help out with. As well as bringing mosquito nets to the hospital and some football kits to local teams, he has also developed a more elaborate plan to develop a community Internet centre here at Butterfly.

It would be run on a non-profit basis and would hopefully accommodate up to 8 computers. Tourists who pay for the service on 6 of the computers would hopefully provide enough subsidy for the other computers to be available for the community for educational purposes.

During his time in Nkhata Bay he has met numerous times with a local Non-Governmental Organisation, Peace Ministries Development Initiative (PMDI), and the Community Development Office. PMDI have developed their own plans for a large environmental education centre that will demonstrate and educate about appropriate technologies and sustainable farming techniques. Indeed there was a lot of common ground with what we want to do here at Butterfly and we have agreed in principal to work together.

In this way it is hoped that we can make a strong network within Nkhata Bay that can all bring their relative skills and links to the partnership. This Global /Local link could become a major resource to the area, and is something we will work on in the coming months and hopefully years. The staff at Butterfly space have also had a lot of adapting to do as some of them have been under different management for up to 8 years.

We are very happy with the team that has been established and we hope that 2008 will be a successful one for us all. Hopefully the future will provide more jobs, pay rises and more opportunities for the staff to get involved in. We have already employed 4 new members of staff, two of which are women that have really complimented the working environment. Our ‘player of the week’ bonus scheme has proved to be a success as staff members share their ideas and discuss general issues at our weekly meetings.

As I write Josie is getting Malawian soil deep into her fingernails as she ploughs into her next project of making the gardens at butterfly beautiful, productive and an educational tool as well. I must go and collect some more sand for the nursery school site so lets pray 2008 brings more to the town of Nkhata-Bay and until our next news letter Happy New Year.