Hospital tour and Luganville market

Today started with a bang. The bang of people up early. By early, I mean they were up before 7.30 am. While this is admirable for some, I find that my brain doesn't start functioning until about 9am, so I was on autopilot until then. That means that I really took in very little of the tour of the Medical Santo clinic, but it was wonderful to meet the lovely staff and to see Michael and Amanda so much in their element. The whole medical scene in Vanuatu is an amazing and complex interaction of immense potential with modern technology, hampered by variable presence of personnel, large variability in standard of medical care, with huge cross cultural factors (Doctors can be "western" or "eastern", the latter mainly being China trained), high likelihood of supply chain breakdowns (no reagent for serum sodium in the last few weeks), and poor health literacy.

The clinic hadn't really opened for the day, and after the "registered" practitioners donned their shirts (they registered in February, but official approval is pending), we headed up the path to the hospital.

The hospital tour was conducted by Dr Lawrence, a Nivan doctor who was absolutely lovely and took half and hour away from outpatients to show us around. I actually found the tour depressing because the gap between what is possible and what is practical is so great. I realised that I am not really cut out for medicine in general. I am too much of an idealist. I admired the surgeon who keeps getting sacked from the hospital for protesting about inadequate implementation of safe medical protocol. After a few months of being banned from the hospital the health administrators invite him back.

Michael was excited about the tour of the incinerator out the back of the hospital and he was temporarily devastated that the incinerator seemed to have been removed. Fortunately he was in the wrong place, and there it was... A rusty iron contraption which reputedly housed a partially burnt amputated limb. (Yes the morbid ones in the party had a look... I couldn't). We finished our tour with a visit to the hospital cafeteria which is really just a private convenience store on the premises, where Janice was really looking forward to a cappuccino. Unfortunately this was Michael's wicked sense of humour again.

Janice was so devastated, we had to compensate by heading straight to the Aeteoroa cafe via the clinic where we enjoyed coffees, iced coffees, passionfruit grenadine and fruit salad.

Peter, Trevor and I are on cooking duty so we plundered the local market, the LCM grocery store and a couple of small markets. Who can make guacamole without avocado? Peter and I can! Avocados are all "pinish", as are pineapples, which means the fruit salad will also be a little different to as intended. Never mind. Vanuatu is all about compromise.

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