toilet doesnt fill with water, strange setup (with pic)?

My toilet won't fill with water, i had a look, but im completely lost, help! plz? lol

A very small amount of water is constantly dripping down so after about 4 or 5 hours theres eventually enough water to flush

The thing is, its not a normal ball thats in it, its some strange setup that i dont recognise, and unfortunately my camera is broke as well (yeah im having bad month) so i made a drawing to show what its like, so excuse the dodgy picture but it can be found here;
http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image1lw8.jpg

I stripped it down but like i said at the top, im completely lost, having never repaired a normal toilet, i dont have a clue where to start with this one!