South Africa, Sweden and Sore Shoulders!

Hello!

Firstly, apologies for not having written for so long! I have just been informed that people are actually reading my blog, and therefore I need to be more diligent about writing!

So, first of all, a round up of the challenges I've done since I last blogged.

At the start of May I travelled to South Africa with Lauren Denham from my MA course. We spent two weeks visiting AIDS and HIV charities in Johannesburg and Soweto in order to make radio documentaries. I focussed my 15 minute documentary on the work of small homegrown charities in the fight against AIDS.

Some of the charities we visited were truly amazing - a man running a charity from his tiny house in Soweto, with just £20 in his bank account. A couple in their 60s who had adopted over 80 AIDS orphans over the past 10 years, and currently live with 33. And an adorable guy who was left to look after his brother's orphaned children at the age of just 19, and who started a soup kitchen just so that the kids would have other children to play with.

Absolutely amazing stuff! I promise to get a bit more technical and find a way to post the radio documentary so you guys can listen to it. I will also try to learn how to link up these blogs to my videos on YouTube, but for now, the easiest thing to do is to go to Charly has just uploaded three new challenges - http://uk.youtube.com/challengecharly.

From South Africa it was on to Sweden, where I was meant to be celebrating my little sister's 21st ... little did she know I was going to make her do a challenge while we were out there :)

In the end, the only challenge the rather laid back town of Stockholm offered was a tongue in cheek 'Tourist Triathlon'. Keep an eye on YouTube, it should be uploaded soon.

And finally ... I've just returned from my latest challenge. Learning to wakeboard! Let's just say, I am definitely not a natural, and I feel this will be something of an ongoing challenge! My arms and shoulders are killing already, and I only did about 4 laps of the lake on a kneeboard!!

Off to learn how to sail tomorrow.
Keep the challenge ideas coming in, and remember to volunteer if the sound of any of the up-and-coming challenges appeals to you!

Charly xxx