So after spending most of friday recovering from Champagne beach, we headed into town in the evening to check out the Independence Day celebrations. Vanuatu gained independence in 1980 and they have massively celebrations every year.

There was a big stage set up in the park in the centre of town, with various musicians and dancing, all surrounded by stalls selling food and drink. The nurse who organises our elective was playing in his band, which was good to see. There was also a bit of a comedy act, with 2 locals dressed in drag, but we didn't understand any of it as it was all in Bislama! We definitely stood out as true tourists when all the locals were laughing!!

Saturday was a total chill day, with not a lot to report at all. I decided it was about time I rested my foot to encourage my coral gash to heal, before it got infected. Some of the gang went to see the marching in the town, but reported back that it had nothing on our military parades. The night time was full of drunken locals and we were all warned to steer clear of the town!

Sunday we headed to the Blue Holes - a 20min drive north of Luganville into the rainforest, there is a giant lagoon of turquoise blue water. The weather was really hot (for once) and we all dived straight in for a splash around. The lads all got out the other side and clambered up a tree and onto a rope swing and jumped in from about 10-15m. Not wanting to be left out, I also hauled myself up this tree and swung off the tree, splash, into the lagoon. I swam back over to the other side, to be greeted with "ouch" and "oh my god". Turns out, I'd had 75 mosquito bites within about 5mins when getting out to do the rope swing and I had quite a nasty reaction to the bites. It was so, so sore and itchy! Luckily, travelling around with medics means someone has always got somethig to help and an antihistamine tablet later and they'd all gone down quite considerably. They're all just a bit itchy now, but the fact that this area is a malaria ridden area, is a bit disconcerting!!

Sunday night was the last night for a couple of the girls, so it turned into a party night and so hospital first thing Monday morning was a total write off. I made it up about 9am, but we made a group decision not to go in until lunchtime. When we did go in, there was absoliutely nothing to do. The TB ward was empty for the first time in at least 5 years, the medical ward had 5 patients, no babies were being born and so we basically looked at xray of a guy in A&E and went home. We also let ourselves into the 'Babydoc Mansion,' an outbuilding that was once home to all the med students but is currently being refurbished. On the walls are loads of university badges and everyone signs there name on the wall next to their uni badge. It seems Vanuatu is quite popular with Newcastle students!

Today I went into the hospital for a ward round at 0745. The ward round was conducted by the rudest doctor I've ever seen. She was so blunt and rough with the patients! I think she originally trained in China - obviously communication skills isn't a big part of their curriculum. The wards smell a bit strange, the beds are all really old and broken, nobody washes their hands and it's all generally very very run down. Most of the patients had GI problems, but there was one guy with bone marrow failure, one with COPD and one with heart failure. They also seem to give out random antibiotics willy nilly, even to patients who don't need them!

I also went and did some baby checks which was quite nice to see. Quite a few had small heart murmurs and cleft palates, which may or may not never get fixed :-(

We headed back over to Aore Island for lunch today and I treated myself to a club sandwich which cost £10!! Shocking! Better than the usual jam sandwich I have every other lunch though!! The weather is very hit and miss at the moment, so I'm looking forward to hitting Aus next week. I moved my flights to almost a week earlier, so I can be returned to a land of internet that doesn't take forever to load and supermarkets that sell basic things like milk/salad/cooked meats etc!!

Love me xxx