We've now been working at the Welcome Community Home for a week although it feels much longer because it's such an intense place.

It's a community of men with HIV and AIDS in a town called Batu Arang, about an hour and a half outside KL. They have a number of houses around the town with different groups living in them. We've been working in House 1 which is for the men who are very ill and have just been discharged from hospital, and House 7 where they have recovered enough to go out to work every day but still stay at WCH for the support it provides.

Our days have been very hectic. We spend all day at House 1 teaching English and doing other activities. In the mornings we've been working with a group of about 15 refugees from Myanmar who also have HIV. Most of them have little or no English or Malay and so we try to teach them enough English that they can get by in Malaysia or if they go on to settle in a different country. Most of them are a lot weller than some of the other House 1 residents but they're all still very frail and a lot of them haven't yet started their HIV medication because it hasn't been authorised and so are very vulnerable to other illnesses.

Then in the afternoons we teach English and do art and craft activities or games with the other members of House 1. A lot of these men are very ill, quite a few are in wheelchairs or have mental illnesses as well as all the problems associated with HIV/AIDS so it's quite difficult to come up with classes.

Then in the evenings we go over to House 7 to work with the group who are putting on a performance. It's called Fallen Leaves and is a collection of very personal stories about HIV and drug use that the group have put together themselves. The performance will be in mid-November so we're there to help them learn lines, practice English pronounciation, improve their voices and work on their movement before they go into proper rehearsals at Cloudbreak.

This all sounds very intense and I was worried before I started that it would be a horribly depressing place full of desperately sick people but in fact it couldn't be more different. Almost without exception, the men at WCH are incredibly positive and lively and are wonderful to talk to and work with. A lot of them are very devout Christians which seems to help them to cope with their illness and they're all incredibly grateful to be living here as a lot of them no longer have any contact with their families. Even some of the very ill ones who can't walk or talk are still incredibly cheeky and funny and I've really enjoyed spending time with them.

The staff also do an absolutely amazing job. One guy called Victor helps to run House 1 but actually first arrived as a patient. He spent years on drugs and was eventually hospitalised where he tested positive for HIV and came to WCH when he was discharged. He was originally only meant to stay for a week as they were worried that his attitude wouldn't fit with the way the community is run but he ended up staying on until he had recovered his strength. Then a routine blood test showed that there was no trace of HIV in his system. This was over a year ago and has been confirmed in 3 other tests so he has the all clear but has decided to stay on and work with the residents of House 1. He sees it as a miracle and so has completely devoted himself to helping the others and is the most incredibly kind man I've ever met so it's quite a pleasure to work alongside these people.

We're staying on until the weekend and preparing a big celebration for Hari Raya (end of Ramadan) and then we come back to KL again for a week of rehearsals with the Fallen Leaves company. After that there doesn't seem to be a clear plan but in a way I hope we can come back to WCH and carry on working here for a while. It's very hard work - we start at 10 and don't finish til about half 10 or 11 at night with a couple of hours off for meals - but is well worth it. During the day, the men in House 1 just sit around waiting for their next meal or the next dose of medication so it's really good to think that we're doing something else with them and they all really seem to enjoy having some different company and having someone to talk to.