The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur, but we have finally found a place in paradise that has enough internet to post a blog. Last week we visited Vella Lavella which is situated north of Ghizo. The aim was to deliver the clothing and linen that we had been given by ADRA and the Airlie Beach community. We originally wanted to conduct clinics here as well as it is remote from the islands that have reasonable medical facilities, but before we left Australia, our contacts were not able to secure some medical staff for the task. Fortunately, when we arrived at Suanatali village, there was a nurse visiting family from Bora Clinic. So with her qualifications and our equipment we were able to conduct some basic clinics at Suanatali, Liangai, and Motolu.
Judy was lovely to work with and she asked me to assist her with the clinics, checking blood pressure and sugar levels. At Motolu there were a couple of pikinini’s who had sores to cover, one poor little girl had kicked her toe nail off and the wound was so full of dirt and grime that it took me quite a while just to clean it up. It was obvious that it had been this way for a while as the toe had tried to heal around the grit. Eventually we got it covered to help keep the flies off. Such a simple act of covering a sore can be a major help here as they simply don’t have a bandaid to complete the task. Something us mums take for granted in Australia. Another little boy had little round sores that started as bites. You often see these on both adults and children; they get infected very easily and can take some weeks to heal.
Judy left us at Motolu and got a lift back to Suanatali, we travelled around to the most remote area of the island to a village called Kobeo which is near Leona. Lindon, our friend from last year and guide, travelled with us. This is his village and there is a great need here especially for reading and long distance glasses. Brian was very busy handing them out as people came and storied for a while as he determined which strength was the best for them. Again we were blessed to have an impromptu clinic, this time with Winter as our nurse. Lovely guy who is related to Edward who was our nurse in Vella Lavella last year.
So what started out as just clothing distribution ended up much more and we are thankful to the nurses who gave their time to help out. We met up with friends from last year and made new friends in Kobeo where we had not visited before. The people of these more remote areas are very grateful and shower us with fruit and veggies. They have the most beautiful water cress here. We sadly said goodbye but we are looking forward to going back again, maybe next year.
