Dancing and Gun Shot Wounds

Well, last night was a goodie. The Esther Honey clinic team spent the evening being treated by Tata Crocombe and the Rarotongan Beach Resort and Spa staff to an “Island Cultural Night” and feast in appreciation for the work that the Foundation and Esther Honey volunteers do here. It was a great night with a huge Umu (local underground oven) feast with all the trimmings. Needless to say, by the end of the meal, we were stuffed. They even showed us how they prepared the Umu so next time we can do one here at the clinic.

After the food came the dancers who were stunning with their bright smiles and well-coordinated hands. They even managed to pull two of us on stage with about twenty or more other guests to dance with them. Little did they know at the time that they were pulling up the Papa’a Dancer of the Year and Jocelyn, who must have been secretly practicing, because she surprised us all by revealing her hidden dance talent. :P Everyone really enjoyed the night and we are truly thankful for the Rarotongan’s generosity in showing their appreciation of our work.

As always, even if we do go out, we need to have the emergency phone with us just in case an animal needs our help. Luckily we were not needed during our wonderful time at the Rarotongan or later at the Whatever Bar where we went to practice our newly acquired and improved dance skills.

At 12:30am, however, Spike, a dog with a gunshot wound to his rear right leg came into the clinic. EHF Vets Sophie and Eli and our support team worked until 4am trying to stabilize the dog as well as stop the bleeding from the rather large wound.

Luckily the next day was a national holiday which gave the team a bit of time to relax and catch up with sleep. We all went for a quick refreshing dip in the ocean and then allowed rest of the day to just melt away.

Update: Spike was up and about the next day although we are concerned that he may have to lose his leg due to the massive muscle loss from the gun shot. There is also concern that he is too large to cope on three legs for any length of time, but time will tell and we are hopeful.

(All photos from Rarotongan Beach Resort & Spa)