Known as the happiest country in the world, Vanuatu residents have a few less teeth to smile with after visiting medical staff extracted over 400 teeth on Tongoa Island in the western Pacific. Charles Sturt University (CSU) final year nursing student Ms Tabitha Pandey recently travelled with 11 other Australian and New Zealand health care workers to take part in a medical camp on the island. “We were amused when we went to look at the centre to find a chicken laying an egg on a bed in the labour ward,” Tabitha reports. “There was no running water or electricity and very little equipment. Despite all this, the camp was a huge success as the locals and travelling medical team pulled together and improvised with what we had.” More than 700 locals were treated by doctors, dentists, eye specialists and counsellors. “Some patients travelled several hours by boat to attend the clinic from a nearby island, which goes to show what little health care is available.”