This summer seems to have gone in the blink of an eye. As one of the crew leaders here in Ghana, my group and I have been building toilets in the sun for the past 6 weeks. I hear my friends at home talking about the weather and I know that I'm in the right place! Of course, we get the occasional tropical downpour, but it provides a welcome change to washing out of a bucket….

The village I'm working in is called Tenkyemso (pronounced Ten-chem-soh). It's about 4 hours from the capital, Accra in the so called 'Forest belt' of Ghana, and it certainly feels it. With no electricity, and a borehole as the source of water, the conditions can feel like a difficult adjustment, but you soon get used to the routine and forget the time when you could flick a switch and get light!

The village lifestyle is very much governed by the daylight hours, so everyone is up about 5am and goes to bed….. well everyone goes to bed once our group has finished playing games with all the children, so maybe a bit later at 9pm. We're not afraid to burn the midnight oil now and then….

A local man, Stephen, has converted a room in his house into the aptly named "Stephen's Bar", so some nights we while away the hours laughing with the locals' stories. The group have painted a sign for the bar, along with the village and school. Aside from that, our main duty of work is building VIP (ventilated improved pit) latrines.

They sound quite fancy, but really they're a 25ft circular hole, which we make a 6 inch ring of concrete around the top of, as a base, and then construct a dome shaped slab with a keyhole shape cut out to squat and aim through. There's also a ventilation pipe from the pit out through the roof so that when the flies fly in, all they then see is the bright light coming through the pipe. They fly up there, but there's gauze on the top, so they're stuck. Pretty clever.

They're really important for basic sanitation, as it is a basic requirement now in Ghana that all homes need a latrine, but many families are unable to meet their obligation without the help that we provide. Everyone either currently goes in the bushes or in open trench latrines - not very hygienic.

We made 35 slabs, one for every home in the village, and they take about a week to dry. When they are, we lever up the slabs and roll them over the holes, before sealing them. Then comes the really satisfying bit, bricklaying.

Most of the homes in the village are constructed traditionally with mud and sticks, but seeing as their new sanitary additions are mostly funded by the Madfoundation, we are using mud blocks, the so called 'Landcrete'.

So far we have covered all of the holes, and constructed 17 roofed structures, with only another 18 to build by the end of October. I'm going back to the village this weekend to ensure the project meets the deadline with the new group, and I can't wait!

Everyone is always surprised with how friendly and safe Ghana is, and that's just when they're in Accra! Three worlds exist in Ghana, the capital, the towns, and the villages. Having spent the last few weeks in Accra, the prospect of going to the village fills me with excitement, as everyone is so friendly, the kids are eager to learn and life is simple.

I'd rather be building toilets than sat behind a desk! Although it's not just building toilets. We've also had several football matches against the neighbouring village, held a sports day, spent a night in the jungle, been hunting, been farming and had a few weekends away in the mountains or at the coast.

So if anyone feels like making a difference living and working in a community in Africa, this is certainly the way to do it.

Will