Day 9 - An afternoon of unexpected delights..

Today was up there with one of the best (I do realise I will be saying this a lot throughout the trip!). Morning in hospital was eventful, we arrived on the ward round at 8am, and a woman was admitted to the antenatal unit with a seizure, this is due to eclampsia, a serious complication in late pregnancy, it is rare to see eclampsia in UK usually women present with pre-eclampsia and are treated appropriately so it does not get to the late stages, we followed this lady to ITU and witnessed her management, we then were able to follow her to theatre and observe a cesarean. The surgery was very similar to in the UK same technique and equipment. The mother and baby should be fine. We then had some teaching with one of the doctors about Gynae problems and did some vaginal examinations, felt a fibroid (uterine non cancerous growth) which are common in Sri Lanka and much larger than UK, and felt an endometrial cancer.

After hospital we caught the bus straight to Hikkaduwa , a busy beach side town, we went snorkelling straight from the beach and saw a massive turtle!! It was absolutely huge about1.5m + we were given some seaweed to feed him with, he came up so close it was incredible. Some local boys were getting very close hugging and directing him which we weren't so keen on but he seemed happy to be fed and apparently comes everyday so can't not like it that much! We didn't expect to snorkel today let alone see a turtle so that was a bonus.

Hikkaduwa was one of the worst hit areas by the tsunami in 2004, we went there to visit the museum, it was a small building full of photos, passages written by survivors and articles about the disaster, it really was heartbreaking, very emotional to read all the personal stories about the disaster, it was devastating to the area. It was hit by 2 waves, the sea first receeded by 1.5km causing fishermen to run Into where the sea was to catch fish which had been stranded, they did not realise what was coming.. 2 large tsunamis followed, the 2nd larger than the first and flattened the whole of Hikkaduwa and galle. The tuk tuk driver who took us there showed us a scar on his arm, that morning his mum had gone to market when the waves hit, he swam out to find her and got cut by some glass in the water, luckily his mum was found alive. In hospital last week a lady rachel examined was expecting her 4th child and the late age of 42, over 10 years after the last child, on her notes it said all of her 3 children were killed in the tsunami. Just awful.

We met one of our friends from the hospital Nadine who is a German elective student and went for a drink, then we headed back to the fort. Jess and Catherine went to surf again, while Rachel and I went back to shower and had a walk around the fort. We found this gorgeous little hotel called mango house, it was like an oasis behind a gate with luscious gardens and beautiful decor, we sat and had a cup of Sri Lankan tea and the owner came over to talk to us, he was English and had just opened the hotel with his wife 6 months ago, very interesting guy, had a nice chat to him and he gave us our tea on the house!!

Went for a quick dinner then had a beautiful home made ice cream from a little family run shop, and sat and chatted to the owner, all the locals are so friendly! We have noticed that the locals are so genuine, never just after money like in some countries, they are always really interested and helpful.

Beautiful end to a beautiful day