End of Vanuatu

Wednesday was an early start with a quick trip into hospital - maternity ward round, baby checks and a general wander around the wards. I was quite surprised how advanced contraception options are in Vanuatu, however if a woman wants to be sterilised, then she must also have her husbands permission. Male children are also still greatly favoured in Vanuatu and as a result most women have 4+ children. They also have a great problem with teenage pregnancies apparently!

After my quick stint in hospital, I went off to a ranch about 20mins out of town to go horse riding. The resort 'Lope Lope' was absolutely beautiful - a massive decked bar and restaurant area, overlooking white sandy beaches that stretched for miles. The horseriding was really good fun and I think it was a refreshing change for the owner in the fact that all 4 of us could actually ride. I was on a horse called biscuit, who had the same colour hair as me!! We went off into a village and up past a coconut palm tree farm and up a hill for some stunning views of the coast. We then trekked down to another lagoon and trotted back through the trees onto the beach. We then went into the sea, up to my knees when sat on the horse and then went cantering along the beach. It was such good fun!! I also stayed on the horse which is a massive bonus!We went and chilled out for the rest of Wednesday and watched/slept through a film.

Thursday was supposed to be a beach bbq day, but everything running on 'island time' nothing never really materialsed, so we just went and sunbathed at a resort in town and did the usual chat/drink milkshakes/snooze. I'm definitely into this siesta lifestyle :D One of the other girls and I decided to go all out on dinner on Thursday night and have beans AND scrambled egg on toast for dinner! We really know how to live it up!! Again, we also had a night of playing card games and doing random dares and the usual carnage that ensues when you put a group of medics together on an island with not a lot else to do!

Friday I mooched about a bit in the morning and went up to the hospital and had a look around the surgical ward. There was a 14yo boy who had his leg in traction, so it was held up at 45 degrees and attached to some cage and string, all connected to a pully at the end of the bed. All very intracate. There was also a guy who'd had his foot amputated beacause of his diabetes and instead of making it all look nice and neat, they just left the bone sticking out the end and didnt even tie the skin around it. Then they wondered why it wasn't healing...

In the afternoon the whole group went back to Lope Lope resort where we'd been horseriding and we went for a walk along the beach and enjoyed the sunshine, that had come out in force for once. We then all sat around having dinner and drinks later on. I somehow ended up babysitting 2 little girls for 30mins and played 'I spy' and hide & seek. The lads entered a pool tournament which they won by some minor miracle (prob because all the other ex-pats were sozzled) and won about £40 which was put towards a bit of booze for our last night in Vanuatu on Saturday.

Saturday was my last day in Vanuatu and the peak of my GI upset. My stomach was flipping all day!! I went for a potter about in the morning and took a few final photos and finally bought some veg (whilst trying to dodge torrential rain and a bit of a gale) for a good meal to set me up for Aus. I'm not really sure why I didnt buy much veg before now, other than because we had no fridge and every bit of food left out got attacked by ants if you weren't careful, so I was pretty reluctant to have any food lying around that was fresh. In the evening I headed back to Lope Lope (where all the staff were very hungover and other ex-pats were still getting horrifically drunk) to watch the rugby - NZ v Australia. This will be the first and last time I ever support the Kiwis in a rugby match, but it was a really good match. I also managed to get myself a free glass of champagne and some shots off one of the Kiwi guys at the bar, which set me up for a good last night. The medic lads I was with were pretty annoyed I got drinks!!

We headed back for a final blow out and boy it was one hell of a party. It's really odd how a group of 20 people can be put together and get on so well. I guess it's probably because we're all medics so all have something in common there and a similar ethos in life. I'm also starting to think that similar people go to the same parts fo the world. I've definitely met some life-long friends in Vanuatu.

The final morning we went to Mama Lioni's house again (the hospital cook) for lunch. Absolutely delicious once again. She then came back to our house and cried when we said our final goodbyes!

Vanuatu is an amazing country - a very green landscape, some beautiful beaches and very under developed. The people are all really friendly and I will definitely miss strangers in the street saying hi! They are also very generous towards 'babydocs' giving us discount on all sorts. The food is probably very good, but as we had no fridge my diet was really poor and I definitely won't miss that!! The country has an odd mixture of old, traditional views, mixed in with some very Westernised ideas - I guess this is a reflection of it's tourism from NZ and Aus visitors and the fact that it's a relatively new country (30 years old) and still has a lot to learn and a long way to go.

So now I'm in Aus and living it up with all the hot showers, fresh fruit and veg and efficient communication systems!!

xxx