Note for other medical students

I've decided to write a final post for any medical students thinking about going to Helena Goldie as I've noticed I'm getting a bit of traffic from google searches.

I can highly recommend the elective as I really had a wonderful time. It does depend what you're looking for though. 

Helena Goldie Hospital - looking towards the office and operating theatre

The Solomons are very expensive to get to from the UK in terms of flights and whilst buying fresh food at the markets is cheap, it wasn't the cheapest elective I could have had. 

In terms of accommodation I first stayed at Robina House at the hospital which is a really lovely little house, ideal for medical students. All payments go to the hospital as well so staying there is supporting the hospital. However it does mean that if you want to go into town and to go diving/shopping/to the hotel for a drink, it's a 30 min walk (each way) in the heat. With the sun going down at around 6pm every night it also means you have to leave before dark. If you're there with other medical students though you can do the walk in the dark as long as you have a couple of good torches (head-torches are ideal). Just watch out for crabs and frogs on the path.

Qua Roviana Guesthouse

For these reasons, I chose to stay at Qua Roviana, a guesthouse in town for the remainder of my stay. It was a bit cheaper, and in town so meant I could be a bit more sociable in the evenings. I don't think they have a website but if you want to contact them the easiest way would be via the Jen or Graeme at the dive shop. However, if you choose not to stay at Robina House, Helena Goldie hospital will charge you an elective fee so it's worth finding out the costs of everything before you decide.

Here's a link to the hospital website:http://hghospital.jimdo.com/

Medical Stuff:

If you want to go to a 3rd World Country where you get to manage your own patients and run clinics and operate on patients then Helena Goldie probably isn't right for that. There are enough doctors at the hospital to go around really, and so you will not be able to have free reign. However, you will get to assist in operations, and will be asked for your opinion on management of patients during ward rounds. You will also be able to 'essentially' run your own outpatient clinics with one of the other doctors around for help and opinions (to make any final decisions). So you can get a lot out of it if you make the effort. It's a great place to improve your basic examination and diagnostic skills as they don't have even fairly basic blood tests (U&Es, LFTs). 

Drs Graham and Jenny have a blog which they update periodically (as their internet access is very limited) which might help you understand a bit more. I'm sure they'd also be happy to be contacted.

http://grahamandjenny.co.uk/

The best part of my trip to Munda was the diving! The water is generally warm (30degrees even when 30m down), and the visibility is (usually) incredible. If you've never scuba-dived before I can highly recommend learning with DiveMunda. If you are already a diver then you'll absolutely love it and there's plenty to see. If you prefer snorkelling then you really wont be disappointed and it is cheaper. Tetepare Island is a MUST for a visit - really a wonderful example of responsible tourism. And if you're interested in the WWII history of the Island, then get Barney to take you on a tour (and watch the Pacific TV series).

Dive Munda Website: http://www.mundadive.com/home.htm

Sunset from Agnes Lodge

Last days as a Tie Vaka

(Tie Vaka is the colloquial term for foreigners – roughly translated as ‘newly arrived in a boat’)

Honiara chinese: lobster and duck - yum!

I left Munda yesterday with mixed feelings. I was looking forward to spending Christmas with my family for the first time in over 10 years, and Rich’s first hot Christmas (he still thinks it’s weird!). On the other hand, I was very sad to leave all the lovely people that I’ve met and made friends with in Munda. There are some fascinating people living and working in that town, and I was made to feel a part of the community, albeit a fairly transient part. All in all, it felt very strange to get on that plane after a very quick 6 weeks. 

I very quickly cheered up on landing in Seghe when Mia and her boyfriend Zak boarded the plane to join us on the trip to Honiara. We spent the rest of the flight catching up and gossiping about the travellers we’d met in the last couple of weeks. We shared a cab into town, and after settling in to my hotel, I met up with them again that afternoon for some souvenir shopping. Then we all went out for a fantastic Chinese meal. It’s really great to have their company in the city, and I’ve repaid the favour by letting them use the shower in my hotel room because the place they’re staying has got no running water at the moment (it is free though!). First hot water Mia has had in 10 weeks. 

So, today, after a few hours chilling in the best coffee shop (only coffee shop?) in town I shall be heading off to the airport and heading back to Brisbane. It’s been a wonderful few weeks and I’m sad that it’s over – for anyone thinking of doing an elective here, I recommend it very highly. 

Life as a tie vaka has been pretty cool!

The swimming pool at the hotel (a worthwhile extravagance!)

Final weekend in Munda

Friday evening was a fairly quiet one owing to the fact that I’d had my first coffee in 6 weeks the night before, meaning that I wasn’t able to sleep for hours! So I joined my Munda mates for a few sundowners and a bit of banter over the cricket (sometimes it’s good being surrounded by Australians!), but I faded early so that I could be fresh for my final day’s diving.

Saturday was a spectacularly beautiful day and I tried to really enjoy the scenery knowing it would be the last time I went out on the boat to the reefs and nearby islands. The diving was pretty incredible too. Thanks to the excellent teaching of Jen and Graeme, I really felt like a diver in the water, and my dive buddy Sam, who I did my course with was always calm and I think we both felt at ease. We did 2 dives, and saw quite a bit – several reef sharks and bumphead parrot fish (ugliest fish I’ve ever seen), barracuda and clownfish, not to mention a rather scary attack from a trigger fish. Trigger fish are aggressive little things with nasty sharp teeth that will take a good bite out of you (through wetsuits although we weren’t wearing any) about the size of a £1 (AUS$2) coin. I was a little jumpy, but Graeme managed to kick it away quite effectively with his fins.

Dive Buddy Sam

Sam and I both managed our underwater drills with no problems and even the mask removing one was fine for me. So now we are both properly qualified open water divers which is great as it means I can now dive anywhere. I might be avoiding Sharm el Sheikh for the time being though!

One downside of the day spent diving is that I was left with a bit of a farmer burn (I can’t tan so can’t get a farmer tan). It had pretty much faded by Sunday though so hopefully I don’t look TOO ridiculous. Sunday was spent relaxing and playing cards. Incidentally, if anyone is looking for a good card game, ‘Monopoly Deals’ cards are a much better game than Monopoly the board game and I highly recommend them as a Christmas present for your family. Then I sat watching my final Munda sunset with a group of friends over beers and g&ts, giving Roger and the Aussies stick for the cricket (did I mention it’s great being surrounded by Aussies this week?!).

Ah, I’m going to miss Munda! 

Scuba diving....check!

I am now officially a scuba diver - it's something I've always wanted to do and I'm very pleased I have. 
Most people do the 'confined water' dives part of the diving course in a swimming pool but they don't seem to have those here - why bother when you can swim in the sea! So yesterday we went to an island (the picture postcard one with the hammocks - see earlier photos) and learnt the basic skills just off the shore, going deeper as we got a bit more confident. It's a lovely small group, with just one other student and the instructor. I thought I would find it difficult to do things like take the regulator (the thing that you get your air from) out and put it back in, but in fact the thing I HATED was taking my mask off - it's surprisingly difficult to stop yourself breathing through your nose. I managed to do it though and had a really good day.
Today we did proper diving - it was absolutely amazing! We saw a juvenile leopard shark, a couple of reef sharks, some stingrays (eagle) and crayfish, not to mention a huge amount of fish. It was SO much fun and unfortunately it may become an expensive hobby. I am still going to have to get more practice equalising as I spent a lot of time going up and down trying to stop my ears from hurting.
This all means that I can now dive with an instructor, and by next weekend I'll be able to dive on my own (well, with a buddy). 

Lobster Night!

Alex has been here for 7 weeks now, and decided early in his trip to organise a lobster dinner at the lodge/hotel because the lobster here is meant to be amazing. Thankfully for Mia and I, he decided to save it till his last week and the date was set for Thursday, and he recruited a few others – Roger (from the Tetepare office), Chere and Brendan (Australian/Ramsay police members stationed here)

ASIDE: For those of you who’ve known me a long time, you may know that I’m not a big fish/seafood eater. I’m conscious of the fact that this is because the variety of fresh fish/seafood available in (landlocked) Zimbabwe when I was growing up, wasn’t great so I never got into the habit of eating it or even being around it. My brother and I were also very fussy eaters so my mom probably couldn’t be bothered to try and force us.

However, I wanted to try and eat more fish when out here because it’s pretty much as fresh as you can get, and the variety is incredible. I have largely succeeded having eaten a LOT while out here and so I felt like lobster would be a new challenge.

So on ‘lobster night’, we all gathered on the deck restaurant at the lodge and waited for our food to arrive. We were not disappointed! We had a wonderful lime and coconut kind of cerviche (sp) dish to start and then the  lobsters were HUGE. I couldn’t even finish mine, but fortunately the boys were kind enough to offer to help me out. So my first lobster experience was a great one and hopefully I can repeat it – although, I have to say I think I preferred the starter. (such  a pleb!)

Tetepare Turtle Fun:

After a 2 hour snorkel on Sunday morning (very tiring but gorgeous – only 5 sharks this time) we had a quiet afternoon because we were going out to camp on the turtle nesting beaches overnight.

The boat left late afternoon, arriving at the beach in a very eventful way. Because of the big waves, the guides had to skilfully surf the waves in the little motorised boat till we landed on the sand; at which point we had to all jump out and drag the boat up the beach. Because the boat could only take 3 of us at a time, it had to be done 3 times, and we were all soaked and laughing by the end.

By the time we were all out and on ‘dry’ land, it was sunset so we all stood taking lots of pictures until it was time for dinner in our little shack. Dinner was all cooked and laid out from the resort, so no making fires or any of that hassle – roughing it in style – yum! The medics amongst us also spotted the whale vertebrae just dotted around the jungle which nobody else had ever noticed.

Then we all took a walk out to the end of the beach (about a mile down the way) and settled down in the sand for the night, to wait to see if any turtles came to lay some eggs. Whilst we were unlucky with the turtles (as none came overnight), as far as the experience goes, it was well worth the lack of sleep:

The beach sand is volcanic, so is actually black, and it glistened beautifully in the moonlight. The stars were beautiful and it was just so peaceful to lie back and watch them, while listening to the waves on the beach a bit below.

Finally, on the last day, they saved the best activity........Turtle rodeo!! The guides have to measure and tag turtles so luckily for us, they let the guests watch the show. What happens is that the guides stand on the roof of the front of the boat, and look for a turtle in the water (the water is so clear that they can see them). Then they chase it around for a bit i(with the boat) until it gets to a shallower area and close enough for one ranger to literally jump on top of it. Then he kind of hugs it and holds on to the flippers and passes it into the boat. Once they have 2 or 3 like this, they head for a beach to put them down onto so that the measurements and tagging can be done. Such a brilliant experience!

Tetepare adventures (part 1) –

(Pronounced Teh-teh-par-ray)

We set out on our little boat on Friday morning, not really knowing what to expect. We’d been told it was very basic accommodation, and there were millions of insects and flies, but that it was amazing. All of this turned out to be completely true.

Our journey out was fairly eventful spent watching the stunning scenery. We got to see a few flying fish, and then happened to go through a large pod of spinner dolphins who started chasing the boat for a few seconds – magical!

The malaria curing tree

When we arrived on the island, we were greeted by our guides and taken to the leaf huts which were to be our accommodation.  They were basic, but very comfortable and clean, and the hammocks outside were so good to laze around in. Later that day we went for a bush-walk where Tuni (sp) our guide showed us all the bush medicines for curing pretty much everything from malaria, to bone fractures, to high blood pressure. Not so sure about the one that mends bones, but it sounds like some of them might have value. 

We ended our walk at ‘crocodile lake’ where thankfully the largest reptiles we saw were monitor lizards, despite the enthusiastic dog imitations perfomed by the guides. The boat then picked us up and took us back to the dugong zone for us to snorkel. Whilst a couple of people managed to catch sight of the dugongs, they’re really shy creatures and as soon as the rest of us tried to swim closer, they fled. The whole area is a marine conservation area though, so fishing is not allowed, and for that reason, the fish are 2-4 times the size of the other fish in the area.

The next day we set off to have a look at the bat cave. We had originally expected to go to a large cave in the boat, but that one was damaged in an earthquake in January. So we went to a much smaller one, where you had to crouch down all the way to the main cave at which point the idea was you’d scare the bats out and watch them fly around. I am ashamed to say that the thought of hundreds of bats flying at my face in that small space was too much for me and I chickened out only about ⅓ of the way in. Got a good picture of a bat flying at Mia though – one eventually sat on her head for a few seconds. 

weekend away

Well it's been a fairly normal week so far for us. The hospital was a bit subdued on Tuesday because unfortunately 2 patients died on Monday night. They were both acutely ill and we can't think of anything more that could have been done here, but they don't do post-mortems unless there's possible foul play, so we'll never know. 
Otherwise, things just plodded along as normal. Mia went out 'on tour' in the boat with one of the doctors as well as a couple of nurses and the dentist. They visit areas that would otherwise not have any care but because these areas are quite numerous, most only get visited once every 6 months. Apart from one with a district nurse based there, that means that they have to wait for this, or paddle (or get their family members to paddle) the 4-8hrs to the hospital. This explains why many patients present so late in their illnesses. Hopefully I'll be going out on a similar tour with some of the nurses next week if they go. 
I don't think I'll be posting any updates until Monday as a few of us are going to an island called Tetepare about 90mins boat journey from here for the weekend. It's very remote, but is meant to be beautiful, and I'm really hoping that we might see dugongs, or MAYBE turtles nesting!
Hopefully I will have lots to tell, and lots more photos by the time we all get back.

more water sports...

We (Mia and I) actually decided to go into the water today. We joined the divers at their 3 sites today, and while they went down we stuck to the surface snorkelling and marvelling at the sights below. 
The amount and variety of fish we saw was absolutely incredible. I just wish I knew all the names so that I could tell you all. I know for sure we saw clownfish (Nemofish!!), parrotfish, trumpetfish, and angelfish. Beyond that, I'm a bit useless I'm afraid. 
We saw 4 sharks on the first dive/snorkel - all reef sharks fortunately, but by the end I was getting pretty jumpy. Only 2 on the 2nd one. The 3rd one we only snorkelled for about 15 mins because the fish were a bit deep for us to see properly. Still saw one shark in that time though. 
Personally I believe 7 sharks in a day (even if they're small or supposedly harmless) is plenty and in all honesty, the fewer the better! However, there are a lot of mental people here who seem to think that the more and closer the better, and would probably be enjoying it if a big one came up to them with it's jaws wide open. 
Surface intervals - so divers can prevent 'the bends' - were pretty lovely - we were taken to little beaches on the islands for a snack and some water and a bit of a rest. The 2nd one had a hammock which we all enjoyed!

Oh, and don't worry Mom, I was very careful and made sure I had about an inch of sunblock on every exposed bit of skin. I shall sleep very well tonight though!

Water sports

Every outdoor activity worth trying out over here involves water.

Last weekend I went snorkelling, which I loved but unfortunately it tends to involve a LOT of suncream or else I’d end up looking like a lobster or some other scarlet-coloured thingy, and also means that you are just looking at all the pretty fishies and rays (and a shark or 2) from above. So I decided to take the plunge (he he!) and do a diving course while I’m here. I’ve spent the last few days watching the (very dull and corny) videos, and have now finished all the theory parts of the course. Now to actually get in the water.........unfortunately the diving instructors are going on holiday on Monday for 2 weeks so I can’t finish it until they get back. So I’m back to snorkelling in the mean-time but I can handle that.

The water here is absolutely crystal clear, and the visibility is meant to be amongst the best in the world. Even just snorkelling I managed to see a huge array of fish and even the one reef shark (thankfully small and moving AWAY from me). When the group of people diving were 25m below, I was still able to tell who was who and give them a wave. The colour of the water at the shore is a stunning turquoise that I just can’t seem to capture in pictures. Unfortunately, most of the shores on the mainland are rocky and you don’t get the white sandy beaches but a few of the islands have those so the dive boat tends to stop off there for lunch.

This morning, Mia (Aussie Med student) and I decided we wanted to get out and do something on the water, so we hired a little dugout canoe – a steal at £5 for both of us for the morning. We didn’t go far, but it was lovely to see the town and nearby villages from the water.

I have a feeling I’ll be feeling it in my arms tomorrow morning though!