Update June 2006

Early June 2006

As I am typing this, the first of the work party (Geoff, Leanne & Gretah Gray & Kevin & Julie Lee) are arriving in Lilongwe, Malawi, soon to be followed by Mick Newton & David Woolhouse. I spoke with Robyn last night & you have no idea how excited she is to have all these people coming to visit & help! She sounded like a kid on Christmas Eve, waiting for the big day to arrive! Kristi Van Es, who has been with Robyn for most of the last 3 months, has finally said goodbye to Robyn & her Malawian friends (welcome home Kristi!). Kristi will be putting something together for the next newsletter which will be fantastic. Naturally, Robs was feeling very sad to have to say goodbye to Kristi after having her there for so long. And she said she was glad the work party were on their way – it was going to help with the inevitable feelings of loneliness & homesickness. When I received the content for this newsletter (& I’ll have you know there were 16 typed pages of it!) Robyn told me she was a bit worried about you all having to read it – there haven’t been any flash floods or car accidents since the last newsletter - & she’s worried that after all the action reported in the previous newsletter you might get bored with more ‘normal’ reading! I assured her that wouldn’t be the case.

Thanks again to each & every person who has helped raise funds to go towards the buildings the work party will be doing. There have been many hiccups along the way, with Robyn discovering the Malawi Government has brought in new rules about buildings, & that she now needs to apply for a building permit! She was advised (approx one month ago) that it would take up to 3 months (& in African time that could mean 6+ months) to receive the approval for the buildings, & as a result, she & Sydney have had multiple trips to Nkhata Bay & Muzuzu in an attempt to meet all requirements & hopefully receive the approval. I haven’t heard the final result of all of this, but the work party are there &, they are there to work!

From the newsletter…….Kristi & Skye have had a great day, come to think, of it so did I! They took the Geelong Football Club (Cats) jumpers that had been donated up to the local secondary school – those jumpers had been sharing the same spot in the cupboard as the Collingwood jumpers – I was sad to see them go! But the school was absolutely thrilled with their gift. On the Saturday, they played against another school at Kande, nil all draw but the kids were so proud of their uniform. Nice one Geelong! Thanks for giving these kids such a treat.