Medical Elective in the Pacific Islands

After an incredibly tough three day week, we enjoyed two days this weekend at the Malamala beach club.  After loving Leleuvia so much, we really wanted to do another island stay this weekend, but no matter where we looked, the price of transfers to and from the island accomodation (even the most remote ones!) were just too expensive for us to justify. Luckily for us, I was my usual genius self and managed to solve the problem using a brochure I'd picked up at the airport a few weeks ago for Malamala beach club. When you love it enough to go twice in two days Malamala is based on a small island about half an hour from Denaurau (the heavily manicured tourist haven in Nadi), but unlike the other islands nearby, it doesn't allow any overnight guests. Your ferry transfers are included in your admission fee, and even better, if you return again within a week, it's only around £20 each, including the boat out! We'd booked a cheap hotel in Nadi to stay at overnight, fr...

Today marked the start of our generous four-day weekend trip to Nadi, so we got up bright an early to hop on a Pacific Transport coach at the bus station in Suva. We were relieved to find that the coach was nice and easy to find (there are signs throughout the bus station telling you the destinations of buses leaving from that stop) and there was a little booth where we bought our tickets. We'd allowed tonnes of time, and arrived just before 9am for the bus scheduled to leave at 9:30am. This turned out to be a very good choice, as it set off minutes after we got on! I don't know if I've mentioned the bus between Nadi and Suva before now, but it's by far the best way to get between the main places on the island. The full journey is about 4hrs, but the coach is air-conditioned, comforable and plays a rubbish film on a TV at the front (this time it was a melodramatic vampire flick). For about $15 it's great value and in theory shouldn't be too stressful. To bre...

We still haven't managed to do some of the more local tourist attractions here in Suva after being ill last week, so this afternoon, with the sun blazing in the sky, we decided to head over to Colo-i-Suva (pronounced 'tholo'!) forest park for a wander and a swim. "Ah yes," our taxi driver said when we named our destination, "That's a nice place, you'll have a fun afternoon." Music to my ears!   It was incredibly cheap to get into the park- less than £2 each, although I was slightly preplexed by the ticket office across the road from the entrance. It was much more of an 'office' than a 'ticket office', with a man chopping wood outside, and had only a very small sign to point the way. Either way, we managed to get sorted fairly swiftly and headed down the road towards the main trails in the park. It was a pretty decent walk along the road down to the carpark which marked the start of the trails (we saw some people go past stil...

One of the favourite ways to spend time here in Suva is going out to the movies, and tonight we finally got around to experiencing cinema, Fiji-style! We were very excited to finally get the chance to see the Incredibles 2, having just missed it coming out at home, although we were surprised to find out how expensive it was- nearly $20 per person! We were expecting prices to be lower than in England, much more like the $6 or so that the other films seemed to cost, but we noticed the little 'Premium' annotation next to the listing and figured we didn't have much choice in the matter. The cinema iteself was the same as any around the world, and we were pleased to see that food and drink was as cheap as we'd been expecting (~£2 for a generous drink and popcorn combo). Mazza was particularly excited to discover that she could order hot food, including pizzas and burgers, and even have it delivered to her seat- in the end she went for a plate of wedges.  ...

So, today is week 3, which means I started on the neonatal side of paediatrics for the first time. A load of new interns started today, most of whom seem vaguely terrified by the whole thing (unsurprising, really). Handover today got interesting when Dr Ily- the quite frankly terrifying head of paeds- realised that two of them (both boys) hadn't shown up on time. She didn't do anything dramatic like screaming or yelling- she just very coldly and quietly noted it down in her book in a way that makes me certain that they of all the new interns should be scared stiff for the next few months. Because no-one really knew what they were doing, not much went on today: me and two friendly new students joined the interns on a tour of the post-natal wards and since there was a lot of hanging around, I tried to sneak a few subtle photos of the hospital. It's pretty difficult to get any pictures inside, cause you not only have to avoid being caught (it's not technically allowed!...

After finally shaking off our collective illnesses, on Friday we all headed down to Pacific Harbour for the weekend.  The beach at Pacific Harbour My parents, being the cuties they are, had come to visit me all the way from England (though I imagine the two week holiday in Fiji they got out of it was just a coincidence!) and so they gave us a lift for the forty five minute or so journey along the coast. I stayed with them in an apartment, while the girls stayed in the Pearl hotel (literally) next door. Both places were really nice and fancy, although the area itself seems a little bit quiet and past its best. Despite being listed in all the guidebooks as a tourist hotspot, there wasn't really a lot going on in Pacific Harbour (although I was a big fan of the skinny bean cafe!) so on the Saturday we ended up doing a day trip down the nearby river inland. Getting to the tour was a bit of a disaster- first our transport didn't arrive at the hotel, then, an hour l...

After spotting the students from FNU being given a tour of the department on Monday, we were prepared for them to start properly on Tuesday. What I hadn't quite expected, however, was how many of them there would be! When I arrived on the ward there was four assigned to each thirty patients, and they seem to essentially take over a lot of the work of an intern. The students come in early in the morning (according to one intern it was 4am in her day, but these students had only come in around 7am which is much more manageable!) and carry out a ward round between them, writing up notes and a plan. Instead of doing a full round for themselves, the intern and reg then just read through the notes the students have made, and check anything that's needed (e.g. a quick listen to the chest or looking at a rash). Whilst this seems like a great way of learning for the students, it did mean that there wasn't vast amounts going on for me to see or do.  Ellie experienced a similar pat...