Butterfly Tree Volunteers Rock The Experience!

We were delighted once again to be able to host representatives of the Butterfly Tree Charity on the latest edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience last Sunday night. The Butterfly Tree charity was founded by Jane Kaye-Bailey after a business incentive trip to Zambia with her late husband, Lawrence, in February 2006. During a visit to the Mukuni Village, Jane was determined to find a way to raise funds to help these vulnerable village children.The Experience is usually co-hosted by Milli Jam and George Kaufela but this week George was on his own as Milli Jam was attending his brother’s wedding in Lusaka. Our Guests Jess Varley (left above) and Emma Kennedy from England have been in Livingstone for a few weeks volunteering at the Butterfly Tree. Jess, a nursing graduate has been busy helping at the rural health centre in Mukuni Village whilst Emma, a final year International Development student at the University of Suffolk in Norwich has been more involved with the orphan sponsorship programme.

The girls told listeners that they were thoroughly enjoying their time in Zambia and on 11th November intended to undertake a sixty kilometre walk in the village of Chunga in Chief Mukuni to raise money for the Butterfly Tree. They had chosen this location and route to highlight awareness that some of the children and expectant mothers in that area were obliged to walk 30 kilometres from their homes to school and clinics respectively and then the same distance later in the day to return home. Butterfly Tree hoped to establish a boarding home to help alleviate this situation and funds were required for that.

The music on the show was great as usual. We opened with latest tracks from One Direction and The Wanted, before George dropped Zambian numbers from T-Sean and Exile. After another chat with the girls we moved on to music from South African star Danny K and then Drake. Our oldie of the week was Nelly’s ‘Ride With Me’ and the prize of a dinner for two with drinks at the lodge was snapped up by a certain Chris! My pick of the week was Avril Lavigne featuring Marilyn Manson – Bad Girl. Shades of Suzie Quatro there. We closed with Lady Gaga’s ‘Venus’ which contains the classic line ‘Uranus – Don’t you know my ass is famous’!

The girls told listeners they had been enjoying life in Livingstone and had done loads of the tourist activities including Devil’s Pool on Livingstone Island, the one day safari to Chobe, the microlight and white water rafting. They had not done the bungee jump (George has) but they were planning to do a tandem gorge swing very soon. The had enjoyed some of the Livingstone night life. George asked them about football, Emma supports Norwich where she is at university, Jess Chelsea where she works and George is a Liverpool fan. I, a Gooner, was happy to be able to report two nil, two nil and seven nil defeats for their teams the previous afternoon.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Jess hoped to be working for Medicines Sans Frontiers, and Emma to be a project manager with a small NGO – neither of the girls mentioned husbands or children……

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