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Here is a very small sample of photos from Umthombo and the mobile health clinic. I hope it helps to give a small idea of what it's like.

There's not much more for me to say except that I am home, it was very sad to leave but I am sure I will return in the not too distant future. I had the most amazing experience, it was so different to my day to day life that it almost doesn't seem real. Being back home and straight back into my studies, literally the day after I returned, is very surreal. Those 5 weeks were a tiny proportion of my life but they will stay with me forever and occupy a much larger proportion of my memory. Thank you to everyone who made my time in South Africa so special.

Having left Durban I have spent 2 very drunken nights and 2 beautiful days in St Lucia wetlands park, a world heritage site. I have met some brilliant people. In St Lucia there is a massive estuary where there are thousands of hippos and crocodiles. The hippos even come up into the town to eat at night. There are monkeys everywhere, in fact they are considered a pest here - I find it hard though when they are sitting do innocently infront of your hostel cabin! I was meant to go whale watching but this was cancelled due to really windy weather - nevermind, some other time. We did a lot of chilling out (in other words, recovering from hangovers) and trips to see the hippos and crocs. Yesterday morning some of us went to a beautiful beach called Cape Vidal, passing rhinos and zebras on our way. At Cape Vidal we went snorkelling and saw some amazing fish.

I have now said a very sad farewell to Durban. It was horrible, I hated leaving. It was so sad to say goodbye to all the kids and the staff. It's all very well saying I want to come back but many of the kids will not still be there. Also it's hard to leave the kids not nowing how they are going to be and cope with life and future events, it's especially hard to leave the pregnant girls. I have no idea how Nana's pregnancy, birth or baby will be, how Xolisile's scan and hospital appointment will go, whether Thanda will recover from her pneumonia, if Wendy (the girl who was raped) will stay with her grandmother, or even if Precious will succeed in recording her album. There are so many things I will probably never know. I have contact details for the staff but there is no other way to contact the kids directly. I shed a lot of tears.

This is a random title for a blog I know but it sums up my day really! This morning we did our rounds in the mobile clinic and got to a spot where there were a group of children living. About a week ago we saw a girl from this spot who had what we thought was severe scabies and, very likely, AIDS. She is now in the hospital, as far as we know. However all the other children in this spot have got scabies. It's a nightmare situation as we cannot take away all their blankets and clothing to wash otherwise they will have absolutely nothing, and there's no point treating some of them if we can't treat them all or wash their clothes and bedding. All we could do was give them lots of cleaning stuff and buckets to wash themselves and inform the public health department. I don't know how it works it South Africa so who knows what they will do - it's so frustrating!

The last two days we have spent a large amount of time at the refugee camp in Durban. Most of the people there are families from the Deomocratic Republic of Congo. They have been so pleased to see us each time. We have given out plastic bowls for washing, shampoo and washing powder. They all bring their children to see us, mostly young babies with a cough or children who have bloated tummies and itching skin. These problems all seem to be related to the fact that they don't have access to much food or clean water. It has been the first time during my stay in which I have seen many children with obvious signs of malnutrition and even starvation, the skinny legs and arms and bloated tummies and drawn faces. They are so loving though and love to be cuddled and carried around - I had one little 2 year old at my feet or on my lap all morning!

Thank you so juch to those of you that have posted reactions on my weblog, i'm so pleased you are reading it and enjoying it, it's really nice to hear what you guys all think.

The weather in Durban is still fab, although I don't understand I don't seem to be changing colour at all! I think it must be that the sun isn't that strong despite it being hot, also I spend a lot of my time in and out the mobile clinic so I don't really spend long periods of time in the sun.

There's a national strike in South Africa today so that means no work. Normally no work means time for a bit of exploring and fun, not in South Africa when everyone is striking - I mean everyone (including taxis and shop assistants) - and it's not recommended that you go anywhere in case there are demonstrations and protests! So, bearing that in mind I thought I could spend some of my time updating my blog.

I don't know where to start, there are so many things to tell you all about the children and there stories. Last week was great, we saw all sorts of different health problems that the kids face. Most are relatively minor things that you could sort out at home in the UK, ie. dressing wounds, giving paracetamol, but some of the children need antibiotics or referral to hospital or the STI clinic. There are two main big groups of kids that are rivals and really don't get on so I quite often see kids that have gotten into fights and attacked each other with bottles and knives. Most of these children are teenagers but some are as young as 8 or 10.

Two things that I thought you might be interested in:
Firstly, the film 'We are together' is being shown on Sat 2nd August at 19:30 on Channel 4. It is a brilliant award winning documentary about the children of Agape orphanage in South Africa. It is definitely worth seeing.
Also, the guy that set up the project I am working on, Umthombo street children, has written a book called 'Little outlaws, Dirty angels'. His name is Tom Hewitt and the book is available on Amazon.

Being the incompetent computer user that I am I have just worked out how to send out an email notification to you all but couldn't work out how to do it without writing another message on my wall! Sorry.
L xx

Hi everyone,
I am really sorry I have not started writing this blog earlier, I have had a few initial problems with internet etc but it should be ok from now on!
It is incredible out here, I can't begin to explain how friendly and welcoming everyone is. They have all made me feel so at home by inviting me out and treating me like they have known me for ages.
The weather is lovely - pretty much like a very good english summer - with clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20's. It does get dark and cooler at about 5.30 though. All the south africans complain that it's too cold and can't believe it that we are lucky in england if the weather even gets this good! It is the end of winter here.