I am now finally back in Perth - I apologize now for the lack of communication while I was in South Africa. My internet access was extremely limited, and our schedule was insane. I think I need a holiday now to recover from it!!

For all the people who were worried about the xenophobic attacks and begging me to return back to Australia, I am fine. The attacks were mainly on black foreigners in the townships. It was very scary, because we didn't know how far it would go, and there are now tens of thousands of people living in refugee camps. We are involved with the food and clothing collections to help them out. It is scary that so many people have unnescessarily lost their lives, houses and possessions. As a white foreigner (who had a South African accent and could jazz so nobody believed I was a foreigner anyway!), I had to be careful because we didn't know if the violence would shift to us as well, but other than that I was fine.

I spent a lot of time visiting our projects while I was in SA - every time I go back there are new progams and new faces to catch up with!

The sports academy is going well, and is now in around 50 schools. Elroy's kids at Zerilda Park Primary have now managed to put over 20 kids into provincial and national volleyball teams following the work he has done with them, which is awesome!

There are also now four community centres in the Retreat and Steenberg communities, each one run by a Future Factory coach, so the kids can go after school and have something to do. There is dancing, pool tables, table tennis, games, sports, heaps of different things. Of course, when I showed up the focus soon shifted to digital photography - I now have about 500 photos of the ceiling, floor and people's fingers!! The kids at least had a ball and I think I found some future models in amongst them - some of the poses would rival Megan Gale!

We have a new feeding program now, called Egoli, run by a lady called Doreen. She volunteers her time to cook soup, rice, or whatever they have for the people in the township community. She herself is living in very basic conditions (see the photos). She lives in a one room shack that she shares with her 7 grandchildren. On the days I was there it was pouring with rain, which meant that it also poured with rain right into the house as well - right over the electrical wiring which is a huge concern. One of our projects now is to get her a new little house built so they can live safely. She does so much work in the community, she deserves to at least sleep without getting drowned.

The Ottery program is running well, Aunty Cynthia and the crew of volunteers are now feeding over 5000 kids a week. Everyone there is very thankful for the money that has been raised from the Dance 4 Africa programs here in Australia. The mission now is to get them a kitchen so that they can open a restaurant so tourists can see the "real South Africa", try breyani and koeksisters and help to make the feeding program self-sustainable. With the rising food costs in the country, more and more people are in need of food, and the need is greater than the money we have coming in.

We are also starting a feeding program for the Lotus River Community Health Centre. They will be giving food to all the people waiting for treatment in the clinic. I spent a morning there with Annie, and I think that all the people who complain about our Australian hospitals and health system should just go pay a visit to this place, and I promise you you'll never complain again.

The Future Factory is also running two roadshows, the Ke Moja "No Thank You I'm Fine Without Drugs" show for over 120,000 children and the "Think B4 U Drink" Roadshow for over 140,000 kids. The dance troup are awesome, not to mention the local talent which of course crops up when you play music to a room full of 1000 South African teenagers!

Then there's the additional programs, such as the teambuilders we did for the Manenberg Matric students (where Annie decided that since she'd lost her voice I should do the motivational talks!), community events and anything else we're needed for.

I thank the people who donated money to go towards The Little Rock, the girl Annie and I are working with who was raped. We have been providing food for the family, bought some blankets so they don't freeze, and gave her an awesome ninth birthday party at the school. Unfortunately I can't put the birthday pics up here, because she still cannot be identified in any way. As the kids at the party are all in school uniform, it is too risky to put the pics up on the internet. The Little Rock asked me as I was saying goodbye to her to please let everyone in Australia know about her and her story and about what can happen if you drink too much, so I am passing on that request. If anyone else would like to help her out, we are still after help to provide ongoing food and a decent house for them to live in. If you haven't seen the pics or read her story, please take the time to look at my previous journal entries. This amazing little girl is someone everyone can learn from.

I also of course spent a lot of time in the jazz classes learning the new moves - and getting thrown back into instructing within 10 minutes of walking into the class and dipped by South African men! Some things never change!

Annie's profile within South Africa has increased dramatically while I've been away, so she had a string of bookings for motivational talks, appearances, photo shoots, etc etc.

Her Shoprite Checkers SABC2 Woman of the Year Roadshow took us up to coast, as far as East London, where we could spend a few days with Michelle and Dean and the girls (and for all the Europeans who are about to yell at me for not visiting them while I was there, I am talking about East London in South Africa that has nothing to do with London England!).

The road trip was hilarious, Annie and I and 16 hours on the road. I have never seen fog like what we saw in the first few hours, it was incredible! On the hills it looked like the cars on the other side of the road were coming from the sky! Annie used the time to try and get me to speak a few more words of Afrikaans, which despite me accumulating a very strong South African accent once more still doesn't sound right as long as my Australian accent also co-exists! We managed to save the lives of people in a car somewhere near Peddie who were driving all over the road coz the guy was drunk. Every time he would cross the line to the other side we would flash the lights to get him back to the right side.

Driving along the road, we were a bit concerned because there was no toilet stops, no street lights, no ... well nothing really! When we got to East London we commented on it, which of course then led Dean to inform us that we'd taken the wrong highway to get there. We'd put ourselves on the dangerous stretch of road. oops!

It was so great to catch up with Mich, Dean and the girls. For all the previous volunteers wanting updates, Melissa and Brits are now settled into their new schools, Melissa plays trumpet in the band, and Brittany hasn't changed a bit! Dean is now assistant manager at the East London Golf Course, and Mich is still running the Radiology Department at St Dominics Hospital.

It was very hard to leave them as always, but we had to head back to Cape Town, via a stop in Knysna for Annie to coach the St Cyprians netball girls in their tournament. We stayed with her sister Sandi and the kids. I actually want to move in with them permanently after Gerlaine served me the best french toast I've ever eaten in bed in the morning!

My last couple of days in Cape Town were a rush - we got back from Knysna at 6.30 pm on the Sunday night, then got ready and headed straight to my farewell party at Swingers. (Thanks to all the South Africans who came out for that night, it was so good to see everyone before I left)! Anyway, we danced until around 4am, headed home and I had to pack, as I had to be at the airport at 7.30am!

As always, it was hard to leave Cape Town, and once I was on the plane just wanted to get back to Australia and my own bed. However, we don't always get what we want! After my 14 hour flight to Malaysia, I arrived at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to find out that my flight to Perth had been cancelled. Without explanation.

So that then meant an unexpected night in Kuala Lumpur at the airlines expense, which translated into an hour waiting at the transfer counter for information, two hours waiting for them to find our baggage (which had already been checked into Perth), an hour waiting for plane tickets to be re-issued, an hour waiting for hotel vouchers and another half hour waiting to be transported to the hotel! After it was all over, I slept the entire day, before waking up in the morning to discover that the airline hadn't informed the hotel that everyone was travelling on the same flight, which meant they didn't have enough shuttle busses to get everyone to the airport!

Oh well, at least it was something to remember! I am now settling slowly back into Aussie life, but had another amazing couple of months, and thanks to everyone who was involved! I am also now suffering the setbacks of living in South Africa again: ie: I am still saying "Yar", "ne", "lekker", and calling them "robots" instead of traffic lights, which doesn't have quite the same effect as when I say it in South Africa!