Face huggers, Fruitbats, and Dinosaur ferns

This is an old post that never made it up last week, its old news but we hope you will enjoy it any way

Our list of amazing plants and creatures...

This week we learned about all the edible and interesting plants that abound in our little garden here at #2 Vunivalu Rd.

We have a Cinnamon tree (the inner bark is the spice), banana trees (not really a tree) Pawpaw (papaya) trees (probably a tree) orchids, spinach, beetle-nut trees, Taro (Dalo) which is a local tuber sort of like a potato that got buff and turned purple, a Star-apple tree (starfruit to

Canadians), Cloves, Aloe, a wide variety of flowers with names like bleeding heart, a black pepper plant, a yellow flower that smells like turpentine and keeps away bad spirits and a fern species that dates back to the time of dinosaurs. We also have two tiny pineapple trees, one of which gave us breakfast.

In addition we have become far more familiar with the local wildlife, it would seem that where in Africa the lion is king in Fiji its the mosquito that reigns supreme. The cockroach you have already heard about, but there are now new and interesting creatures about which we can report. The face-hugger, as seen in the "Alien" films is actually a native of Fiji and a smaller breed of it can be found under beds and in shower stalls all over the nation. I managed to capture one in a jar(pictured below) but we have seen more since. There are also flightless Mongooses...or Mongeese (these are essentially carnivorous squirrels that mated with sea otters and learned kung fu at birth? and last but not least, of all the wonders of nature that can be found in the Suva region, and indeed all over Fiji, Nilu's favourite, stars of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The giant fruit bat. Basically imagine the bats of old monster movies and then increase the size to that of say a small eagle.

back with new exploits and tales of intrigue soon.

PS. Most of flora info was told to us by our friend and landlord Austin who has a farm with his wife Kim out in a rural area called Sigatoka (pronounced SING-a-toka).

Facehugger...ewwww

...and the Coral Songs

So with our last post we neglected to expand on the title.

Last night we attended our first Suva Feast. Chris br

oke a chair and read a prayer, and we were inundated with pioneerish assignments to help this person with JY and That person with Children's classes and talk to this new believer and on and on, you'd think we were here to do service or something. But in amongst the chaos we were treated to some of the most beautifully sung bahai songs either of us h

ave ever heard. The healing prayer almost had Nilu in tears. Say God Sufficeth was sung as a very complex round with each section harmonizing perfectly and in time. The truly amazing thing was that each of these songs were sung by none other than...everyone at the feast, with no conductor or anything resembling a leader, everyone just sprang into tune. Incidentally the music played before the feast got started was Eric and JB's cd.

Later that evening

we went back to the home of Shantini and Omid for a little ice-cream and tea with some of the other friends. Graham our other housemate and principle guide brought his guitar along and started singing various 70's hits when someone suggested Bohemian Rhapsody which apparently Shan and Omid's kids had memorized but no one could remember how it started. Being a devoted Wayne's World fan Chris sang the opening lines and that got the whole process started. A 7-10 person choral version with acoustic guitar featuring a solo by a four year old child who came in with a pitch perfect falsetto and no prompting just sing "I'm just a poor boy nobody loves me" only to be immediately drowned out by the rest of us.

So anyway, singing is a big deal here, which is to say, everyone is good at it, including our kitchen gecko and one of the late roaches from that last post.

Here are some photos of some of our recent activities in no particu

lar order.

bye for now

Nilu and Chris

Cockroaches and the Coral Songs

So, cockroaches. have you all seen the X-files episode where Mulder is in a town that seems to be over run with killer cockroaches but then it turns out that people are just dying of fear of cockroaches, well I am proud to say that we have now faced three roaches larger and scarier by degrees than the largest little beast featured on that episode. Of course we mentioned our harrowing experiences to our housemate Vula, but he was not sufficiently impressed. Where we had employed bug spray, shrieks of terror and the blunt side of a flip flop he generally just picks them up and puts them outside. I would have posted pictures but Nilu had be dispose of the remains immediately. Maybe next time.

New Kids in Fiji-In which we arrive

Coming to you live from the worlds most pleasant military dictatorship, It's the adventures of Chris and Nilu. (crowd cheers) fade in...

(a quick note, this entry might be a little dry, we just want to get everyone up to date)

Where to begin... four long days ago after a 37 hour journey down the coast of North America and accross the mighty pacific ocean... we arrived in the tiny nation of New Zealand which based on my one hour visit consists oddly but conveniently of no more than shower facilities and towel rental kiosks. After participating in the national past time we felt the country had little more to offer so we headed back across the mighty pacific. Four hours later our intrepid heroes found themselves bouncing along the southern coast of Viti Levu (Fiji's biggest island) on the Sunbeam express bus from Nadi (pronounced Naandy) to Suva, the Capital and largest city in Fiji. We were installed in our new home at 2 Vunivalu Rd in a very nice residential neighbourhood just up the hill from from downtown and a 10 minute walk from the Bahai centre.

Naturally we were a little tired...

The next two days were spent getting settled. walking around the neighbourhood, discovering the delicious fruits and local megaphone preachers.

Our landlord and host Kim is a ten year veteran of Fiji, and has been showing us the basics. Food, security, directions, and cheap movie nights. Our house is one unit of a three unit house, We have the largest flat, its the original 2 bedroom house plus a covered patio/breezeway out-back where we share the wireless signal with everyone else.

The other residents are Kim the owner, Vula a local Bahai engineering student, and Graham Hassal a Bahai pioneer currently getting ready to leave for Oz and NZ.

The house and property are fenced and gated, surrounded by gardens with a second patio and pond behind. we have Bannana and Papaya as well as beetle nut, some very interesting flowers and the occasional street dog who manages to sneek in through the fence. the image here is of our garage.

Since our arrival we have had many tiny adventures and are now getting properly busy, hence the general lack of good quality blogging, but rest assured you will not lack for entertainment in the coming days, so stay close

That takes care of the basics, tomorrow, far more harrowing tales of lost luggage, 4 inch cockroaches, the pain and the pleasure of cooking with fresh chillies as well as highlights from the Miss Pacific beauty pagent and a trip to the rifle range with junior youth.

Bula for now

Nilu and Chris

#2 Vunivalu Rd.

Hello massive global audience.

Bula and welcome to our blog where everyday you will relish fresh and gripping tales of piracy, mutiny and just the very best fruit salad you have ever tasted...its out of this world.

We started this a little late, apologies all round, this is in fact our blog from Fiji and from now on we will post or attempt to post a new entry everyday.

The first post will be online in a few hours (fiji time)

See you all then.

PS

Big thank you to our friend "Grace" for our logo image.