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Chris and Laura do Tonga
Hi everyone,
I know it's a bit repetitive but yes, we're still having a great time in Tonga!
We are back in work this week, in paediatrics. We have really enjoyed our first two days...even Chris who once said he 'would never do paeds again!' The children are very cute although a lot are pretty badly neglected, which is really sad. A lot of the parents try Tongan 'medicine' techniques which include not washing the children and then wonder why they get worse!
We have been given the responsibility of doing the new baby checks which is fun! Although one lovely baby boy decided to pee all over me today! Very amusing to all the nurses!
We have also spent some time in the out patients department which is meant to be the emergency department. It is more like a GP's surgery though, as here people have to pay to see a GP, but it is free to see a hospital doctor. This means the queues are pretty bad so people just turn up on the wards to try and get a consultation to beat the queue! We have seen lots of skin infections - lots of ringworm and scabies! Although this week has run out of scabies medication. Don't worry though, neither of us are itching......................yet!
There has been yet another public holiday this week so to avoid another day with everything shut down we caught the world's shortest commercial passenger flight (8 minutes) to Eua, a nearby island. We did a jeep tour, taking in all the main sights. The island was spectacularly beautiful with lots of great views and rain forests. The crazy local who was our guide had us climbing trees, hanging on vines and climbing into caves. It was a real experience and we finished the day with some v cool pictures, some cool shell necklaces which our guide made for us on the beach and some really filthy laudry!
Last night we went to a Tongan feast at the visitors centre. It was really nice to try all the different dishes - especially all the meat and seafood ones. We saw some Tongan dancing and took part in a kava ceremony. This is a big Tongan tradition, although I can't see why they love kava so much! It's rather silty and left our mouths very numb! Chris enjoyed it a lot more than I did - and is determined to bring some home for everyone to try! Trouble is it looks like a bag of drugs so might be a bit dodgy to bring through customs.
Now we just have 2 days left here. The time has gone so quickly. We will be sad to leave but excited to go on to Oz
Love Laura and Chrisxx
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