Back from Kwazulu, South Africa.

I arrived back from South Africa last Wednesday February 28th. Since then I have been battling exhaustion. The temperature in Kwazulu rose to 41 degrees and peaked at 48 degrees with the extreme humidity.

My trip was very worthwhile and this year I was able to get far more involved with the projects i.e. Hope Project and The Thandukuphila Centre. I accompanied Hope project in their daily life and I do not know how day after day in the heat I experienced that they can give so much of themselves to the children and the sick and needy, often working into the evenings.

Hope project have wonderful volunteer African helpers, they themselves live in the poorest of conditions in broken down homes. Their dedication to helping the children is wonderful.

Nancy from the Thandukuphila Centre has not been very well due to the worry of our losing the Centre and having to find and fund a new building. This is in progress now and I am eagerly waiting to see how things are progressing. I was able to go out to the squatters village to visit one of our childheaded families living in bad conditions and with donated money was able to help this family. We purchased a new door for her one roomed round house and a kettle and iron and a two ring cooker and are in the process of having electricity connected. I am waiting to hear the cost of a new waterproof roof for the family.

I visited the family of another of our sponsored children, a young girl with AIDS who is now responding well to the anti-retroviral drug treatment. She is one of thirteen orphans looked after by her grandmother, the youngest being a 7 month old baby.This family receive fortnightly food parcels but the children also eat at the Thandukuphila Centre. They live and sleep in three small rooms, one room having a gaping hole in the wall which I am hoping to help get fixed shortly.

Whilst with Nancy I was able to visit our new Satellite feeding Centre which One Life mostly funded. The creche is now up and running and the children in the rural areas go before and after school for food. It was wonderful to see the results of One Life's efforts to help the AIDS Orphans.

Whilst I was out there I was able to give blankets, towels, food, balls etc to families in dire need and to help in whatever way I could and with the help of Sister Emmanuel was able to borrow, long term, a brand new childs wheelchair for a seven year old physically disabled little boy. This caused great excitement out in one of our more remote rural areas.

We had a break in at Hope Project and lost the computer, video camera , all my photos which were on the computer, the childrens rice, eggs , the fans etc. This came as a terrible shock, so I am lacking in photos this year but some new ones will be put on the website shortly.

Hope Project emailed me yesterday to tell me that they have received a donation of two tons of rice, this will more than replace the rice which was stolen. They have also had the offer of a replacement computor and a donation of money to replace that which was stolen so we are blessed indeed to receive all of this.

It is good to be back home but I am already looking forward to my next trip which hopefully will be in May next year, when it is much cooler.