Hi This is Matt, sorry I haven't posted for a while but internet is so slow and hard to get to now it is broken at our guest house! Been through quite alot since my last post so will try my best to catch you up on what has been going on inside and outside the hospital. We've been very hands on in the hospital so far and i've been able to assist in quite a few operations lending a hand holding retractors and even placing a few sutures which was fun as you act...

I decided to spend the day with couple of guys we met at the hostel called Duncan and John and spend the day looking around the island. We found out that you needed to get a Tongan drivers license to be able to drive here so Duncan got one pretty quickly and we hired a car from friendship cafe. When we were sorting it out Matt and Rob had finished at the hospital and so decided to come with us. We all crammed into this tiny car and headed off to the west of the i...

Today was a pretty cool day. We went and bought all ou vegetables and from the local market ad food from a very basic shop (actually that was yesterday I forgot) We actually went to the fish market and bought about 7 really big fish not sure but probably snapper for under 5 pounds. Lennie the woman at the hostel then dropped us all (about 15 of us from all different hostels) down at a hotel called the good samaritan which as a beautiful beach nd the water is over...

My second day on the island of Tongatapu was slightly less impressive then the first. We got up pretty early do go into the hospital and I went on my very first ward round. We got to see all the patients from the day before as well as the new patients on the ward. I ended up chatting away to one lady who spoke very good english only to find out later she was royalty! The main problem in Tonga is Diabetes and most patient in that hospital could have prevented havi...

Well it was certainly the most interesting day of my travels so far! I finally arrived in Tonga at 8.30 am on the 31 August having never had the day of the 30th August 2006 which is so strange. Matt and Toni were at the airport to pick me up and it was really good to see some familiar faces. We got home and within an hour of getting to toni's matt had me dressed and ready for going into the hospital. I was quite excited and it was definitely an offer I could not ...