The Isipho Centre

Each Tuesday and Thursday, volunteers go to the local orphanage to play with the kids. The children are between 4 and 12 and their parents have died of AIDS. Some of the children have it too. I didn't realise before I came here, but South Africa has the highest number of AIDS victims in the world - around 4.5 million (about 10 percent of the population).

The orphanage also caters to other vulnerable children in Paterson, the local town where I am staying. These children usually have parents who are alcoholic or drug addicts and don't look after them properly. So the only meal they often get each day is the lunch they have at the orphanage. Despite this, the kids seem like any others to me - full of energy, pretty cheerful and not at all camera-shy!

We spent 20 mins with them cutting out shapes for them to stick on paper. Apparently that's as long as they can concentrate for. I know how they feel.

In the afternoon, I spent a couple of hours working on the vegetable garden. The goal is to make the orphanage as self-sufficient as possible and provide the children with all the nutrients they need. My assistance entailed pick-axing my way through a section of ground to prepare it for planting. Back-breaking work!

On top of which, I had managed to twinge something in my back when I picked my rucksack off the carousel at the airport on Monday, so it was a kill or cure strategy. And then afterwards, a couple of the kids insisted I give them a piggy-back..