Vava'u

We spent a blissful week in Vava'u and it is by far my favorite in Tonga. It is so beautiful here and since the island is so small you are able to get to know everyone it seems like! We had another health fair here in Vava'u this time the background was even louder than in Tongatapu. Last week it was the Mother's day celebration and then in Vava'u it was the Father's day. Where they had a preacher practically yelling into the microphone. They also had children dancing and singing about the history of Tonga, which was fun to watch. Only because I was doing blood sugars and not trying to listen to blood pressures over the noise like I did last time. I paid my dues!

Rainbow giving us luck to a new start free of giardia! 

The Father's day presentation.




We had a really great turn out and discovered some new diabetic patients to be followed up on in the clinic the next week.








We have been in the hospital the past couple of days and I love the nurses here they are so nice and friendly and willing to teach us. Vava'u is so pretty especially with the sunset at night. 

We love it too because there are new zealanders that have great restaurants for us to eat at. 

everyone at the restaurant intently listening to Shelly give us love advice ;)

Andrea and I keeping it classy!


We were invited to a Tongan feast the past two days which was interesting and the food was actually good there I think because we were on the important people table so they had good food like the huge roast pig! It was with a church so there was a ton of praying and singing.

This video is of the singing at the feast. It really just took your breath away listening to their bellowing voices sing so boisterously and radiate against the walls. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip. 



Some of us we not so thrilled about the food. 

She was grateful for the ice cream. It was pretty much milk though because it was so hot in there!




Shelly and Camille really got into the celebrating! Sparkling style.

Oh since we were invited by the nurses at the hospital this was our ride to pick us up and bring us to the feast. Never had ridden in an ambulance until that moment. 


 They are very religious here and pray to gether before they start their shift. they also asked us to sing a song. We sang a child's prayer medley and it was actually very beautiful different from them bnut still pretty. We also taught for a bit in young womens on the spur. Our motto has been hurry up and wait and also where is the stool sample form everyone being sick but we are all feeling better and alive now!!!! We celebrated our first night with everyone feeling better with some delicious pizza. We also have been eating lots of cinnamon rolls, which are the best I have ever had! Don't worry we walk up a very steep hill everyday to the hospital to burn it all off. 

My all time favorite bathroom sign.

More funny signs at the airport.

Tongan version of air conditioning- open sliding door.

In the flower taxi.

One of the beaches we went to

The sign for our hotel we were staying at.

Me with one fat piggy, unfortunately I think he was there to help out with the next day's feasting celebrations.

Deina's got skills!

Today we might get to help prepare a body for buriual. I love how generous and friednly everyone is here. I want to be more selfless like them they are so willing to give anything.The Tongan are big people in stature and in their giving hearts.

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.

Malo e lelei Tonga

Video of the market place in Tongatapu where we had our health fair.

This was our greeting party in Fiji when we got off the plane. Perfect way to wake up in Fiji I think.

This is where we stayed at the Liahona High School

Shelly our instructor and I enjoying some traditional Tongan food at the Medical Review.

Just hang out with a cat and some Raisin Bran in the American import store

One of the nurses and us at the market

The biggest and most delicious bananas ever!

This is the Fundascope I was talking about where you place it on the mother's belly where you think the back of the baby might be to listen to its heart. I really could hear some of them really well with it, once I got the hang of it.

My nurse Mia from the antenatal clinic.

Sarah, Laurie, Amy at the blowholes.

Ciara and a nursing student figuring out the blood glucose levels. They have a  different scale in Tonga than they do in the states. Just divide by 18 :)

A video of the market where we had our health fair.

Shelly trying to wake up the flying foxes (or bats). Will post a video next time of it.

Hello everyone from Tonga! I love it here in this tropical paradise, it feels like home!!! Except for the food is well interesting, but the fruit is amazing. I only have a few minutes but just wanted to let you know a little bit of what is going on. I have been in the hospital for two days one on the surgical unit where I did some crazy dressign cahnges on diabetic patients. They were all infected missing toes and lots of amputees. They are so appreciative though of all the help you give. The reason why so many of their wounds get so bad is because they use traditional tongan medicine  of herbs and leaves on their sores and do not come in until they get so severe. I was also in the antenatal unit where I got to do fundal heights (measuring their bellies to see how far along they are), feeling the position of the baby and hearing the heart beat through a metal cone type thing that you put your ear on it was hard but I got the hang of it. The nurses are great here very friendly. Everyone says hello palangi( Which means white person or angel) to us and everyone knows everyone and where they are staying. It is funny they put gold on their teeth for beauty reasons.  They also drive on the left side of the road here too. The radio stations are hilarious, and play lots of american music, but they tend to forget the names of the songs requested or that they are playing (Yeah the spanish song by Ricky something).