Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you find it interesting or if anything worthy of a read.
My name is Zara, I am a Welsh mental health nurse, residing in Sydney, Australia, currently working as a volunteer mental health nurse in Suva, Fiji.
I'm a little slow starting my blog off, I've been here just over 6 weeks but I'll put that down to Fiji time : )
Fiji is how people describe it. A country full of smiles, beautiful scenery, warm weather, tall people (realistically, at 5"1 and a half, this isn't hard, but still....) and a friendly relaxed atmosphere.
There could be worse places to live for 12 months, I'm sure.
So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience, more so than I had ever anticipated. I don't always realise the magnitude of some of my life decision makings (sorry mum and dad). But I'm comfortable in the belief that working in Fiji is one of the best decisions I have made.
My position I'm Fiji is a community mental health nurse within an already established team. As opposed to a clinical role, it is more educational and mentoring I think is the best way to describe it. As a proud Welsh woman though, I like to get my hands dirty and have already attended home visits and outreach clinics which has been exciting and equally interesting. Over the couple of months I will visit community health centers and nursing stations within Fiji Central Division.
A quick demographic-sort of geography lesson for you.... There's four area divisions altogether - the Northern Division, Labasa is the main town; over in the Western Division there is Lautoka (the 2nd largest city in Fiji), the Eastern Division with Levuka as its main town (with several populated islands to boot) and then Suva in the Central Division, where I am based. Suva is the capital of Fiji, the main port for the country and houses St Giles Psychiatric Unit, Fiji's only psychiatric facility.
Ok team, I'll post another blog update soon,
Bula vinaka!
Zara 😊
