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A group of friends is currently in Africa on a road trip from South Africa to Kenya.

Rose, Charlie, Rupert, James and Pops, all Students Stop AIDS Advocates, are visiting our country programmes in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania.

Here is a taste of what they are up to right now....

"What a great start we had! .... We were off ..... to the Restless Development office in downtown East London. We were given the grand tour, introduced to everyone, and then straight into business time. We were given the run down of how everything works in South Africa by the lovely Aseko and made our game plan for the next few days.

With the assistance of our wonderful tour guide Chippa, we headed off to Libode, just past Mthatha, which was about a 3 hour drive on some seriously windy roads. Charlie stepped up to the plate and instantly became a confident African driver. We spent the afternoon in Libode in the Restless Development Youth Development Center. We were lucky enough to sit in on a Life Skills classroom session, where they were tackling issues like motivations and negotiation, interspersed with ice breakers and wonderful singing.

We had a bit of a chance to talk to the class as

a whole, and then did some one-on-one interviews with both students and the volunteer peer educators. We had the chance to stay in a small community just outside of Libode with the field officer for the region, the lovely Bongeka, who took us in for the night.

We definitely tested out our little rental car to the limits by driving it out to her home on roads really only meant for a 4x4. But it survived, a little dirtier, but in one piece.

The next morning we dropped Bongeka off at the Libode center, did a few more quick interviews, and then headed off the Tsolo to visit the second Restless Development Youth Development Center, still branded as SPW.

We arrived just in time for their sport break, so we wandered up to the football pitch to have some chats with the students and volunteers, and get involved with their games. Standing up there with the backdrop of the snow covered mountains was an absolutely unreal experience. What a breathtaking part of the world. We had to rush off fairly quickly since we were trying to get back to the East London office in time for a few more interviews, but we managed to have a few wonderful interviews with some pretty fantastic people."

To read on, check out the blog with more pictures and updates.

http://www.stopaids2010.webs.com