Zimbabwean Living: have a new love for your home, become a professional squatter and appreciate time without the time.

The Zimbabwean way of living - now that is a shock to the system. We went to visit a homestead so that we were more aware of how they lived their day-to-day life. I'd say a standard house in England has at least two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, living room, and a door? Well, imagine a family of six living in a round hut no taller than yourself and no wider than two of you and no door.

Imagine knowing that the walls of your home are stuck together what can only be described as watered down cow poo. The room you cook in is the room you sleep in, on the bare floor. Some homesteads were lucky enough to have electricity but most don't. If they were lucky enough to have a phone they would have to charge it in the town.

I remember being a ten-year-old child, getting home after school and getting on my laptop to talk to my friends again on msn - that is normal in our culture, these days for us its abnormal if you don't have access to Facebook or twitter at the age of 14.

The children in this homestead were playing a game, which consisted of a hole in the floor and throwing stones into it with some elegance - this is their childhood. The words Grand Theft Auto or Halo wouldn't mean much in Zimbabwe. You wouldn't dream of seeing a child sitting on a laptop. I remember every child at the orphanage being absolutely fascinated by our phones. Obviously, you will know about the living conditions and the lack of technology from organisations like Comic Relief, but seeing it for yourself really is something else.

Outside, chickens were just roaming around as they pleased, there was a bull just chilling in one direction and a donkey the next. No fencing around either (I have a slight fear of bulls, so that wasn't great). However, they had built a tall roofless hut covered with barbed wire to keep the cattle in at night. They had previously had inicidents with wild animals getting to the cattle. One animal being killed could be fatal for a family, as the money they make is what they have to live on.

In this homestead they also had a hut where they made there own alcohol using just pipes, buckets and a flame, it was named 'Tototo', rumour has it that it was 99%, even inhaling the smell made me feel slightly tipsy. I took one sip and it burns the back of your throat. I'm glad we don't know how to make tototo in England - it could be lethal.

At the end of our visit the children at the homestead performed a dance for us - it was adorable to watch and they really were enjoying themselves, they even got some of us volunteers up and dancing. I feel that because the children in Zimbabwe have a lack of technology, they have not been effected by Western Globalisation and because of that they seem to have a lot more innocence than the western youth of today.

Something I will never ever forget is the toilets at the school, a hole in the floor is putting it nicely. The smell is horrendous. Being able to sit comfortably on a toilet is such a luxury after having to endure awkwardly squatting and aiming into a hole. I only dread to think if any of the children/volunteers or any one for that matter needed more than a wee. Needless to say, by the end of the month I was a pretty professional squatter.

Even in these living conditions, every one in Africa appeared to be so relaxed and so happy with their lives. One thing I think our culture lacks is patience and the ability to slow down and appreciate what we have. I'm going to end this entry on a quote one of the Zimbabwean community workers said to me, and that is: 'In Africa you have time, in the West you have THE time.'