I am now settled back in South Africa, and again, it's been an interesting few days. I arrived back on Friday, after my third consecutive day of traveling, including a ten hour layover in Kuala Lumpur and a fourteen hour flight to Cape Town. I'm probably the world's worst flyer, I hate it with a passion, so didn't get a lot of sleep. By the time I arrived in Cape Town I was absolutely exhausted!

Annie, Aunty Gunny and Uncle Phillip came to collect me from the airport, and we made a quick stop in to see Winston and Kaylin before coming back to the house. I lasted about two minutes in the house - long enough to put my bags down - before I was taken on a visiting spree to visit everyone else. My much wanted shower clearly wasn't happening quite yet!

By the time the afternoon came, I was well and truly exhausted, and was not impressed at 8pm when I was told to get dressed as we had a function to go to. So instead of sleeping, I ended up dancing til 1.30 in the morning instead.

The rest of the weekend was spent pretty much catching up with people. Annie's cousin Vicky is getting married, and I have once again been commandeered as the wedding photographer. Saturday afternoon was the kitchen tea, which in true South African style got a little wild, with the bride-to-be being taken out into the middle of the street wearing a very creative outfit . . . ! It was great to catch up with all the family again.

Monday was a very tough day, and one that I ask everyone to tell as many people as they can about. We spent the morning at the court house at the case of an eight year old girl that has been dubbed within the media as " The Little Rock". This is part of the story from Monday's Cape Argus.

"In a dramatic twist, Abraham James, the man accused of a brutal attack on a seven year old Blue Downs girl in 2006 entered into a pleas bargain with the Cape High Court today.

James pleaded guilty to charges of rape, indecent assault and attempted murder of the girl dubbed the Little Rock because she survived the attack - and will serve 28 years in prison . . .

The Little Rock was just seven years old on the day 18 months ago when she was asked by James, a family friend, to accompany him to a local spaza shop for cigarettes.

But behind a church building in Electric City, she was brutally raped, bludgeoned, burned and left for dead.

But she survived the attack and managed to crawl away from the scene to get help"

This little girl was at the court dressed in a veil, as there had been threats of people killing her so she couldn't tell her story, so her identity needed to be protected from the media. Annie and I were there as supporters of the family and the community - Annie has been friends with the family for a couple of years.

After the case, the media were like vultures. I ended up in the car with the Little Rock (I am calling her this in my entries as well as her name has still not been released to the media) to keep her away from them.

So I was sitting and talking to this little girl, and as soon as I started, the veil came off and I was greeted with the most beautiful smile from her. Then she said to me "Aunty Tanya, must I still tell everyone what happened to me?" (Thankfully, because of the fact that the man pleaded guilty, she didn't have to give evidence).

She was very overwhelmed with everything, and the Department of Community Safety decided that it would be in the best interests of the child for her to stay with Annie and I for a bit to give the issue time to settle down in the community.

So we now have her staying with us for the entire week. It has been such an emotional experience. She was burned, stabbed and left for dead, so her body is covered in scars, including her face. She has a heart condition that has developed after the attack happened. She is naturally very jumpy, has trouble sleeping, and was vomiting all afternoon on the trial day because of the toll the day had taken on her. She will also never have children because of the damage that was done during the attack.

Despite everything, she was still happy, and every time the news reports came on the radio or TV with details of the verdict, she would look at us with a big grin and say "Little Rock, that's me!" (We have been on the TV and in the newspapers because of how huge the trial has become. The most amazing thing was when we took her with us to our afternoon program and this little girl stood up and shared her story with the bunch of teenage girls we were working with, asking them all to be careful, because there are bad people out there. That is the message she wants to spread throughout the world, so we are asking people to help us do that.

Everything that has happened (the whole process has taken two years) has taken it's toll on the family. There are six kids, and the whole family lives in one room. Because the father wanted to be at the court cases with his daughter, he lost his job because he couldn't go to work. He is now working again, but can't make ends meet for the family. Medical costs for The Little Rock are high - her body is still covered in scars all over her chest, back and face, requiring plastic surgery and further medical treatment. She also needs a lot of medication, counseling, etc etc.

We are trying to get together some money to give her a birthday party - she turns 9 on June 4. We would also like to buy some food and clothes for her and her family, and help to cover some of the medical expenses. If anyone is willing to help us out, with a donation of any amount, please email me so I can give you the details. We would really like to make this day special for this little girl, and make sure the family has enough food for the year. I ask everyone to please forward this website address to everyone in their address books so they can also be aware of this story and of the things that are happening here in South Africa.

Although we've had a very dramatic week, there has been some good too - On wednesday night I was at the jazz class, we were having a water break, and Michelle rocked up to surprise me - all the way from East London! And everyone had managed to keep it a secret, which in itself is a miracle! So it's been really great to see her again, I was soooo excited. I am trying to get hooked up to the internet at home, but for now my internet access is still limited. I am reading everyone's emails thought, and will reply as soon as I can