"For only $10 a month you can save an African village...."

Dearest Darling Blog,

Firstly, a few announcements:
1) Joel is not in fact, dead. All those adoring fans that avidly read his DAILY blog entries must not worry....GIGDEV's internet is broken and Joel is actually doing some work now ;)

2) I was meant to be the one to post about the weekend but stupid Ghana decided to have a power cut JUST before i pressed PUBLISH POST....

3) Aaron just got a REALLY funny text from a 40 year old woman who works in a fax place telling him that he was the love of her life (he's sat here next to me).

Now on to the maishow:

How many Oxfam adverts do you see on TV? How often has the african child with a swollen belly and flies in his/her eyes flashed before your eyes? How many times have you thought 'Oh, that's sad' before the advert flicks to some annoying car insurance ad or personal injury lawyers and that african child and their entire life dissolves from your memory?

I have to say, i'm guilty as the rest of you! Having now visited that generic african village i can tell you that i intend to pay a lot more attention in the future. I genuinely cannot comprehend the depths of poverty that i'm seeing, it's painful at times.

Over theweekend all these men were asking what England's like, they were amazed that parents are forced to send their children to school and that they can go to prison for not doing so. Half ofese men can't afford to finish their education. For half of them, their parents force them to drop out so they can help out on the farm. Without an education you don't have a life. It makes me so angry when i think of truants in the UK. How dare they take for granted the amazing opportunity they have ot better themselves when there are millions of african who crave just a basic education.

On monday in school, the brother of a girl in Jo's class had died the night before. They'd buried him at 6.30am and she was inb school happy as larry at 8am. We thought this was really bizarre and we went to visit the girls parents when school had finished to send our condolences. These people live in mudhuts, that just about have running water never mind electricity. Essentially no access to the hospital. A consultation in the state hospital costs around 5 quid (10 ghana cedis) but the average wage of a ghanaian is just 1 ghana cedi every day (that's 50p/day). How is anybody meant to afford it?! I feel so lucky to be living in a country with an NHS. You can slag it off as much as you want but whoever you are, whether you're a citizen or not, illegal immigrant or not you will be treated for free. I think about this little boy (he was 2 and a half, btw) and how he probably had a condition that was SO EASY TO CURE but because his famnily couldn't afford healthcare he died. ANOTHER depressing example: The lady that built the school we're working in is trying to build another school in a village. This village were meant ot put on a cultural celebration for us last sunday. We got a call mid-morning telling us that a woman had died during childbirth and that unfortunately we had to cancel the celebrations. This is tragic, how easily could this be cured.

I know i'm ranting but its shocking. You see your african child on TV and it really doesn't affect you that much sat on your leather couch,. watching the advert on your LCD TV, wearing your expensive clothes with a glass of clean tap water or supermarket bought juice but here, it's a way of life.

We were walking with loads of children on the saturday, i had one on my shoulders and 1 on either hand. so did the rest of us. I thought it was great! cute kids and good scenery. I was told when we got back to camp that these kids can't afford to go to school. and that's a cost of less than1 quid (note: there is no 'pound' symbol on this keyboard) a month. I felt like running up to their parents and handing out the money, but of course what does that achieve? THESE few kids get to go to school because the foreigner handed them money. What about the other millions? What's the solution? Should i have given these kids money to go to school? Whats 30 quid to me?

I hope that's given you some food for thought.

P.S. Parents, relative, friends: I'm not a hippy! [Although i am wearing african tribal outfit in this internet cafe, as is Aron. The locals (who happen to be wearing jeans and t-shirts are giving us weird looks)].....