Well! Here I am in hot and sweaty Honiara! I arrived on Tuesday of this week and thought i'd give it a while before updating the site so that I could get use to the culture shock and the living conditions so that it wasn't just a rambling entry from me feeling sorry for myself and homesick! So got here on Tuesday to no pick up from the airport - nightmare, so had to get hold of the hospital and they sent the cleaner to come and get me...! So she took me to Kiwi House, not my first choice of accommodation, but the one I had chosen had fallen through so this is the hospital accommodation which is on site. When I got inside I couldn't believe it - it's the most disgustingly dirty place ever (mum, you would have a heart attack!). Am in a room with just a bed and no wardrobe, just a shelf and a tiny bedside cabinet. The shower is basically a cold tap and the toilet is very smelly. Kitchen is home to an army of ants and the occasional cockroach! So all in all this didn't help my initial apprehension any! The hospital itself was my next 'shock'. The doctors here describe it as '3rd world', and it really is quite far removed from the UK hospitals and not very clean at all, although they do the best with the resources they have. I spent most of the first two days walking round and trying not to cry! It's SO overwhelming. Not sure I had totally prepared myself for the poverty here, although not sure you ever can be fully prepared. All the local people are SO friendly and love to talk to you in the street or at the hospital when you are working. All of them stare at you which can be a little disconcerting, but say hello and the kids run around you pulling at your clothes and and playing! It's an eye-opener! Honiara town where i'm staying is a little grotty, but the rest of the island is beautiful - especially when the sun shines (not that it's done much of that yet). Have been put with the Obs ad Gynae team as I hoped and they are all friendly and happy to have me there. They're very keen for you to go out and explore the island though, so you don't have to be in all the time. I get the impression though, to have the absolute experience, you need to go in and get as involved as possible. They've already had me assisting in various gynaecology operations and watching deliveries. They'd also like me to do my own starting from next week! Eek. Anaemia and Malaria are the biggest complication to pregnancy and diabetes is pretty problematic also. I hope to find out much more over the coming weeks as to how they manage these conditions during pregnancy and what monitoring is available, if any. As for gynacology, STIs are a huge problem here, therefore so is PID. So lots of ectopic pregnancies happen, and as they don't have drugs like methotrexate to deal with ectopics, often they just have the whole fallopian tube removed as these ectopics become very necrotic. I had to assist with one on Friday, where a 19yr old girl had two ectopics in both tubes and had to be sterilised - very sad. Another shock was their rate of cervical cancer here - about 15-20 cases get diagnosed every month as there is no screening programme as there is in the UK. Most patients present at Stage 2 and there's nothing that can be done for them except palliative care, as they have no access to chemo or radiotherapy. There only hope would be if they had money and could fly to Oz for treatment. Theatres aren't too bad in terms of cleanliness and they certainly do the best with what they have here. They do a great deal of tubal ligations for women who no longer want to have children (no readily available contraception here). These are done under local anaesthetic, which is pretty difficult to watch as the women look as if they're in so much pain. Just a little bit of ketamine for sedation and no epidurals. What's really amazing is the lack of complaining these women do - whether it's in theatre or during operations - no screaming at all! Language is a bit of a problem but not too bad as most locals ca get by with very basic English - and i'm trying to learn some Pidgin! Trying to avoid the mossie bites at the moment, I had been doing really well up until last night and i'm sure one of them must have got inside my net and had a field day as I woke up with about 5 bites! They're SO itchy! Malaria is a bit of a problem though - just last week one registrar had a bit of a fever on the wards so sat down for a while. Next thing he knew he was hooked up to a drip on a trolley in A&E! It's pretty easily treated here though and the drs can recognise it quickly. I'm living in Kiwi House with 4 other students - all men! Am becoming good at conversations such as 'who's your ideal woman?' and debates over films and '24'. Luckily the latter is right up my street! There are 6 girls from Leeds Uni here also, but they are staying at Honiara Hotel up the road - think they took one look at Kiwi House and made a rather quick dash away! But they're all lovely, and we socialise with them most evenings, so I have some female contacts! I thought about moving up there, but the hotel is much more expensive (about 20GBP a night) compared with Kiwi House which is just 60p a night! Will try to get involved in the whole 'experience' and stay where I am for the duration, as the girls leave this week anyway, so i'd be up there alone. More shopping money for NYC then anyway....! Honiara itself is very sociable. There are a lot of ex-pats here who socialise at various hotel bars and at the local yacht club down the road. Everyone talks to you from all walks of life, so an evening out can be quite entertaining. All the students go out most nights also even if it's just for a few beers. Have only cooked once in Kiwi House so far - I was very brave - but eating out isn't too expensive either. The local tipple is Sol Brew - a Solomon Island beer which is actually quite nice! Had a very drunken night out karaoke-style at the King Solomon Hotel on Friday when a couple of students who were here a couple of weeks ago came back from their trip to Gizo. It's been a good weekend and has helped to take my mind off the homesick thing! We've been out on a trip to see the rest of the Island and some of the battle fields from the WWII Guadacanal War (see photos attached). Weather has been very..umm...tropical so far. Lots of rain and miserable weather, but this weeked has been gorgeous! Have just popped over to the Internet Cafe to email, but now will sign off to go and do some serious sunbathing! Will check in again soon.... Miss you all lots my wantocks (Pidgin for friends/family!) Love Lise x P.S. Thanks for all your messages on the message board and emails. It's really lovely to hear from people and what everyone's been up to...please keep them coming so I can keep in touch with England a little better! xxx P.P.S. Apologies for the spelling mistakes here, have had to write this quite quickly!