Cooler with showers today which make the daily life at the hospital much more comfortable. The eye project team were on hand from 7.30am this morning ready to receive new patients from the offshore smaller islands near Taveuni and to remove the dressings and check the surgery from yesterday.
Quite a crowd filled the entrance area of the hospital with yesterday’s patients sitting quietly on benches waiting for one of the surgeons to check that all went well from yesterday. You can see a selection of photos from today at the bottom of this page. Some of these patients were getting ready to have a second eye attended to today. Other new patients were talking softly to each other, uncertain about what happens next.
Patient Stories from Today:
Boikabane Tuateira is from Rabi Island to the north of Taveuni. She was born on this island and is the enormously proud mother to 2 boys and 2 girls. She comes from Uma village on Rabi and made the quite rough crossing in a small boat to come to the hospital today. There were 14 other passengers on board, and they were all a little nervous crossing the Somo Somo straits. Three of her children still live on Rabi with another child living in Suva.
She had her left eye operated on yesterday and to complete her restoration to full sight she is waiting expectantly today to have her other eye attended to. All sunglasses are provided for free by the Rotary Club of Taveuni.
Tubaina Tekabu also comes from Rabi Island and came with others in the small boat across the strait. She, like other patients from the outside of Taveuni will be staying overnight, sleeping on a mattress provided by the eye project. Tubaina has lived for 55 years on Rabi. Her father Tekabu migrated from Gilbert Island in 1945. The Gilbert Islands are the main part of what is now the Republic of Kiribati (“Kiribati” is the Gilbertese rendition of “Gilberts”) The atolls of the Gilbert Islands are arranged in an approximate north-to-south line.
Tubaina lives in the settlement of Fatima village, so named in the Roman Catholic tradition of naming the village after the city or place the founder of the village came from. She has five children, 2 born in Savu Savu and 3 in Labasa.
Eorina Tabee comes from Rabi Island in the village of Tabwewa. (For your interest Rabi has four main settlements – all named after, and populated by the descendants of, four villages on Banaba that were destroyed by the invading Japanese forces in the Second World War. Tabwewa Village, formerly known as Nuku or Kai Nuku in Fijian, is the administrative centre of Rabi.) Thanks to Wikipedia. She and her husband were born on Rabi and her husband is deceased. She has 4 children and now lives with 2 of her children in the village. She is quite blind and looking forward to good sight tomorrow. She has more grandchildren and great grandchildren than she can count!
Tatau Tebobo is from the village of Tabiang on Rabi Island. She was widowed 2 years ago; her husband had a stroke. They were both born on Rabi. Two girls and a boy, all married, and 5 grandchildren comprise her current family. She has cataracts in both eyes, and she will be having one of her eyes treated today. As the result of an accident in her early years she is unable to wear conventional sunglasses and our excellent technicians, Tim Way, is making up a special pair for her.
Iannang Tarama also comes from Rabi and is 33 years of age. He has pterygiums in both eyes and struggles to see. He will be a new man after today. He was born on Kioa and his father came from Rabi.
He is married to Mereba and they have 5 children between the ages of 5 and 10. He says he is very busy looking after his lovely family, farming to feed and care for them.
Uea Lieua was born on Rabi where his mother was born. His dad was born on Tuvalu. He lives in the village of Buakonikai. He has 5 children, the eldest is a girl who wants to be a nurse. He is married to Winni. Uea is a fisherman specialising in catching skip jack tuna and he also farms Dalo, Cassava and Yaqona to sell.
Uea has a nasty pterygium and is looking forward to being able to get back to fishing as soon as possible.
These photos below are from patient movements around the hospital today.
