Eau

Hello all! Still alive here in Tonga. We had a few scares of people going to the hospital to be rehydrated and to get antibiotics. I was sick for a bit but thankfully I am much better, which was needed because shelly was left back on Tongatapu while I went to Eau with those who were not sick. It is hard being a clinical instructor! The hospital in Eau is very small! 

The very small hospital in Eau

There are pigs everywhere in Tonga. These are just some wandering the grounds of the hospital.

I love Eau it is very beautiful here. The plane that we took here was the smallest one I have ever been on and we landed on grass! 

We were picked up from the "airport" (basically a small room with a porch) in a blue pick up a truck. It has had a smashed window shield from a coconut hitting it.

The plane we came over on. It is the world's shortest transit- 5 minutes.

Exploring the beach at the Hideaway

The hideaway where we stayed.

Chilling on one of the docks.

Heading to clinical in the blue truck.

We are right on the beach here. We had a health fair slash fireside tonight, which was fun and a bit on the spur of the moment. It was fun because I had a translator, which it has been a long time since I have had that for a speaking assignment. We are going on a hike tomorrow into the national forest here. We saw an 800 year old banyan today it was huge!!! 

                               Me climbing up the banyan tree. I did not get as high as the Tongan guide for sure.


We also went to this cliff, which I forget what it is called in Tongan but in English it means "throw the fruit here". It is called that because of a family that use to live there that had seven children. One day the children were playing outside and the earth crumbled underneath them casting them into the sea and creating a dramatic cliff edge. The parents were very sad that they could not find them so they jumped in the water to see if they could rescue them. When other family members came to visit they threw fruit from the trees that grow there into the ocean. Sure enough two big turtles and seven little turtles came to eat the fruit there. Cute, but strange story.

Deina and Laurie playing games on the way to the cliff.

The picture really does not do it justice at all. It was much larger in person than I was expecting it to be. This natural arch also has a tale behind it. About this god who was very lazy and did not want to work in the garden. His mother told him he had to and so stubbornly he began to till the ground with his hoe. He was so frustrated that he began to cause earthquakes, his mother grabbed the hoe from him and threw it where it landed into this rock. When he went to get it out of the rock he caused this archway to form. 

Some of us also were able to go on a hike to the high point of the island. It was a treacherous hike. The grass was really long and lethal to our bare legs. We were pretty scratched up by the end of it and really muddy too. There were some very large spiders we had to avoid as well. Funny thing though none of the spiders are dangerous they all can bring good luck fortunately. I am not sure if I wanted that kind of luck though. We also saw this bird that only lives on this island and nowhere else in the world. It was a type of parrot and was not always the most easy to spot.

The spiders we had to avoid. You cannot see him the best in this picture, but he was gigantic!

The view

Our instructor's husband came along to protect us.

 Just a bit of the bumpy ride to our hiking spot. The road was so muddy there were giant pools of water we had drive through. Just a bit of our Eau experience. It was good to get away from Liahona where the sickness was dwelling and gave us some time to recoperate.