Fiji Critter Profile - Geckos

We see geckos around the house, both inside and out, on an occasional basis. They come in a variety of sizes and colors: from 2 to 7 inches (5 to 18 cm), and from pale grey to greenish brown. They are typically either standing dead still or zipping past too quickly for your eyes to focus on them. I’m sure there are many more of them than we actually see, as evidenced by the little piles of gecko poop we find on the decks in the morning. We see other small lizards as well – possibly skinks – the principal difference between them and the geckos being that they have smaller heads and don’t try to sell you car insurance.

That's (Pirated) Entertainment

We have no television here at Tobi’s house, and with a somewhat limited internet connection downloading video content isn’t really an option. We didn’t bring any DVDs to play on our laptop but fortunately there are a few stores in town that sell pirated videos of recent theatrical releases. These are sold completely out in the open with no misgivings about silly impediments like copyright infringement whatsoever. And they are an absolute bargain. You can get up to three movies on a single disc for the equivalent of US$1.50. That’s fifty cents per movie! And that’s to own it, not rent it.

Of course, sometimes you get what you pay for. Some movies are high quality copies, but others are obviously produced by some guy sitting in a movie theatre with a camera pointed at the screen (this will remind my father of a Seinfeld episode). This is apparent when the view suddenly tilts in a random direction, or you hear the sound of off-screen coughing or, most hilariously, when the silhouette of someone in the second row appears in front of the screen as he gets up to go get more popcorn, and then reappears a few minutes later to return to his seat. Fortunately, most of the pirated movies are of decent quality. The selection is somewhat limited, especially compared to our beloved Netflix, but we are doing a pretty good job of keeping ourselves entertained.

Scene from "Valkyrie" with Tom Cruise

with an unscripted appearance by some guy in the audience

Rainforests and Tow Trucks

Yesterday Deborah and I and neighbor Semoko drove up to the Wailali Rainforest Reserve, which is about 25 km (15 mi) from town on the main road that climbs up over the backbone of the island. Just as we arrived at our destination steam started coming out from under the hood of the car. After checking it out and seeing no obvious damage we elected to go ahead and walk through the reserve and let the engine cool down.

The reserve was a bit disappointing. As Deborah pointed out, the vegetation didn’t look much different than what was already growing around our house. Also, the colorful tropical birds we were hoping to see were conspicuously absent. The loop trail led to a nice little picnic spot by a small waterfall, but apart from that we were thoroughly unimpressed.

Upon returning to the car we topped off the water (I’m wondering if it was only water in the radiator, and not engine coolant). It started up fine so we headed back to town, keeping a watchful gaze on the engine temperature indicator. It didn’t budge, but after about 10 km (6 mi) the engine got sluggish and we had black smoke coming out of the tailpipe and from under the hood. As I pulled over to the side of the road the engine died completely, and we noticed oil dripping onto the grass underneath. Semoko had a cell phone but, as Murphy’s Law would have it, the phone’s battery died in the middle of my call to the mechanic back in Savusavu. Semoko and I walked up the road following the sound of hammering until we came upon a group of men working on a roof repair, one of whom had a working cell phone with which I was able to reconnect with the mechanic. Although he initially said he was at the sight of another breakdown and wouldn’t be able to get to us for three hours (!) he then decided to try and arrange for a tow truck to take our car to his shop. We ended up waiting in the hot sun for two hours anyway, sitting in the car for shade or using an umbrella as a parasol.

I’ve seen an actual tow truck or two in Savusavu, but when ours finally arrived it was really just a truck with a rope. Fortunately the guys from the garage seem to know what they were doing, tying secure knots and avoiding collisions between the two vehicles. In certain steep downhill sections it was deemed too dangerous to tow so they untied the rope and the truck moved behind us as we coasted like a not-quite-out-of-control bowling ball down the incline. I wasn’t driving our car for this rather scary procedure, thankfully; one of mechanics was. He put it in neutral and made judicious use of both foot brake and emergency brake to moderate our speed. When we reached level ground and rolled to a stop the truck would move in front of us again, they would retie the rope, and tow us to the top of the next hill. This back and forth procedure continued several times until we rolled into the mechanic’s garage just outside of town. It cost about US$42 for the tow – not bad by American standards, I suppose, but pricey for Fiji. (I’m sure we sometimes get the Fijian equivalent of a gringo price, but it’s hard to know when).

We treated Semoko to lunch at a restaurant in town before trying to hail a cab to take us home. Many, if not most, of the cabs won’t go up our steep gravel road, and we had no success finding one that would that day. So in the full heat of the afternoon with full stomachs we trudged up the hill by foot. Eventually we were passed by a taxi driver named Ali with a 4WD truck who lives on our street, although not until we had already walked most of the way. Deborah rode with him the rest of the way anyway, and wrote down his phone number in the likely case that our car is in the shop for awhile and we need a lift to haul groceries or laundry.

We were just so relieved to have a frustrating day over with and to get back home and take a cool shower. I can’t imagine we’ll be responsible for any of the car repairs, but we hope they aren’t too costly or too time consuming. But we know everything here moves on island time, so our walking legs and the taxi drivers may have to take up the slack for a while.

Waisali Rainforest Reserve

Deborah as the Little Mermaid


Semoko

Blake and Deborah

(photo by Semoko)

Picnic area

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The crippled rig

(photo by Deborah)

Fijian tow truck

(photo by Deborah)

Car Talk

Unlike most house sitting assignments, this one came with a vehicle. That’s a real benefit, especially given the steep gravel road to town we’d otherwise be walking up and down far more frequently than we’d like. Our temporary wheels are a Toyota Hilux 4x4 diesel of unknown year – a well worn but practical vehicle. When we first got here it was pretty hard starting in the morning, then completely non-starting until the mechanic came out and did some magic with a pair of pliers in a fuse box. More recently when Deborah was driving the exhaust pipe decided to meet face-to-face the ground it had only been hovering above all these years. She did her best damsel in distress routine until some locals were kind enough to temporarily re-suspend it for her with some wire. When we brought it in to the mechanic he basically cut off the offending bit of pipe, leaving us with half an exhaust system until he could get a new piece formed (it was an odd twisty shape) in Labassa, which he could then weld into place. For several days in a row the formed piece from Labassa was always scheduled to arrive “tomorrow,” as we meanwhile somehow managed to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Today the repair was finally completed: the new piece was welded in place and a new bracket was fashioned to support it where the old bracket fell off and disappeared. It only took about an hour and cost about US$85, which Tobi will pay. There just aren’t any well-stocked auto supply stores here, so the mechanics are pretty creative in finding inexpensive solutions. Hopefully we won't have to test their creativity anymore in our remaining three months here.

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Our ride

Puppies and Sunsets

Our sense of loss over the departure of kitty has been somewhat lessened thanks to the neighbor Semoko’s puppy. The two of them paid us a visit a few days ago and now the puppy has taken it upon herself to visit us on her own a couple of times since then. We’re not sure what breed she is. Actually she pretty much looks like all the other dogs on the island – call her a generic Fijian mutt. Semoko told us the dog’s name but we either couldn’t pronounce it or couldn’t remember it but Deborah thought it sounded a bit like “Bono” so that is what we’re calling her for now. I’ve included a couple of photos of her below, along with some sunset pictures taken during our evening walks along the road into town. We’re doing those more often, sometimes all the way down into town, sometimes not quite as far. It’s a steep climb but it’s more manageable late in the day when the sun isn’t beating down on us. Deborah always takes her trademark walking sticks and I’m sure the neighbors are getting used to the sight of the strange white people walking by.

[Photo (and sock toy) by Deborah]

Fiji Critter Profile - Earwigs

It’s funny how certain insects – ladybugs, for instance – seem at least benign if not downright cute, while other insects evoke instant revulsion and an attack of the heebie jeebies. Earwigs definitely fall into the latter category. That’s partly due to the name, which conjures up nightmarish visions of six-legged penetration of one’s ear canal. But it’s also due to the earwig’s appearance with its devilishly forked pincer tail. The Fijian variety of earwig is even higher on the creepy scale because it’s black, it’s fast, it will fly right at you, and sometimes when it scampers along it raises its tail and bends it back over like a scorpion.

As far as I know they’ve never bitten us, and are really just interested in fruit. In fact, they are also known here by the more affable name “banana bug,” and we do indeed see them in large numbers on the banana trees. But if one lands on Deborah it immediately provokes what we call her Saint Vitus’ Dance, accompanied by sufficient unintelligible screeching and wailing to convince any bystanders that she is experiencing either spontaneous combustion or an epileptic seizure. Fortunately there are seldom any bystanders apart from myself as she often pulls off her dress in an attempt to expose the offending earwig.

Earwig in pseudo-scorpion mode

Return of the Coconut

The first day Deborah gave Manassa a ride to his house he sent her home with five coconuts from his extensive palm-filled property. These were green coconuts straight off the tree, as opposed to the riper one I stumbled across earlier in the blog. Manassa thoughtfully chopped the husk away at one end to allow easy access to the shell for draining out the coconut water, which Deborah thought was sweeter than in the previous coconut. The green coconuts also gave us the opportunity to try the so-called spoon meat, the soft, jello-like lining inside the shell before it ripens into the more familiar hard white coconut meat. The texture is a bit odd but the flavor is good. Deborah blended it with the coconut water to make a sort of coconut milk which she used in a delectable peanut sauce.

The five coconuts we were given are more than we can use while they are still fresh. I suppose if I had been paying closer attention during all those reruns of Gilligan’s Island I could use the extra coconut shells to make radio receivers, headphones, or at least a handsome brazier for Deborah.

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The green coconut bares its spoon meat