Medical Elective in the Pacific Islands

Time is flying by now, and I'm desparately trying to get my head around heading to Tonga in a few days and what I need to have done before then! Today we made one last trip into Suva town to pick up some sunblock and few bits of food to last us till we leave (we may also have treated ourselves to some cake while we were there). I also needed to exchange some FJD to Tongan Pa'anga (still not sure how you pronounce that) so I headed to the currency booth in the centre of the mall.  It was an unusual experience to say the least- not only did I have to provide my passport and proof of my flight out of Fiji, I also had to show them proof of my address here, and my occupation (luckily I'd brought my student ID!). It was way more intense a grilling than I'd experienced trying to change money anywhere else, and when I asked the woman at the counter, she said it was to try and counteract money laundering. I'm not sure if that's a big problem in Fiji, but it was a lot o...

There's only one week left here at the CWMH, so I thought I'd take the chance to reflect on the medical side of my elective, and how this last week has gone. Certainly, moving over to the neonatal side of things, I feel like I've been able to get a lot more stuck in and involved than I did on my ward weeks. I've been sharing a ward round with one of the interns (sure, most of the babies are healthy and just need to stay for the mandatory 12/24hrs that are required here, but I still get to examine and write up and feel generally useful), going with her to labour and c-section calls in case any resus is needed (luckily none has been so far!) and even managing a few succesful bloods on the neonates. That's not to say things have always been straightforward since swaping sides though- take this morning! Straight after handover I headed to the ward like always, and waited two hours, but no intern showed up. The nurses had no clue where they were, the registrar had n...

We left the last day of the weekend free to check out the nearby 'Garden of the Sleeping Giant', and to have a wander around Nadi, as we hadn't yet see any of the centre of town. Unfortunately, we all now agree that this was a poor decision. Garden of the Sleeping Giant To be fair, the gardens weren't a mistake- they were lovely. There's a fairly short trail you can walk around, a walkway full of orchids, and a decently sized hill you can climb, which gives you a brilliant view of the area. It was a hot day, so by the time we reached the top, we were surprisingly tired and sweaty! At the top! Luckily as part of your admission you get a nice cool glass of fruit juice at the end, and we spent some time relaxing there, trying to arrange a new taxi back after our previous driver abandoned us and refused to come back (the staff said we'd probably agreed on too cheap a rate for the journey out-oops?!). Views from the top When we finally got ...

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.  ...