Some awesome things about mongoose

Everyone, this here is a mongoose.

I didn't take this picture, but wanted to share it in case you have no idea what a mongoose looks like. I was in the same boat until my trip to Suva on Monday.  What a trip!  I got to see three of these little fellers running across the road in front of our car.  The first time I spooked the driver I was so excited.  They look like giant rats with super-long bodies and a bushy tail that comes to a sharp point at the end.  I dig mongoose!  Sometimes when I'm here it feels like I could just as well be on another planet.  Seeing a mongoose running for the first time was one of those times.  Also, looking up at the stars... I can't get my bearings because I'm upside down!  Anyway, the mongoose... I'm thinking my excitement about mongoose is akin to someone coming to visit in Wyoming and falling in love with with a ground squirrel and then freaking out every time they see one.  I get that.  But mongoose are WAY cooler.  Here's what I've learned.  Mongoose kill snakes.  They used to have lots of poisonous snakes in Fiji, so some geniuses released a bunch of mongoose here and the nasty snakes are all gone. Yay mongooses! Mongeese?  Now they are thriving, and they are vicious hunting machines! But anyway they also sometimes kill chickens.  So that's one strike against them.  Turns out if a mongoose crosses the road in front of you when you're driving that's a sign of bad luck.  That's strike two.  And, I can vouch that this is a thing.  Three little mongoose, and before we got home on Monday night our car died.  We got stuck about an hour away from Lautoka, which was an excellent adventure in and of itself.  We ended up at our driver's "sister-cousin's" place for about an hour until our ride home got there to save us. We started the day at 5:00am and were still waiting for our ride at 9:00pm.  It was a long day!  Sangeeta and the driver had neglected to mention the whole "mongoose crossing = bad luck" thing until after the car died so as to avoid dampening my excitement earlier in the day.

The trip was incredible.  I now have a pretty clear picture of how the university politics work here, which is useful, but not as exciting as the rest of our trip.  My general giddiness about everything I saw led my driver and Sangeeta to decide to take us home around the other side of the island.  That way I could say I drove around the entire island. It was incredible!  The southern part of the island is along the coast where all of the resorts are. This part of the island, between Lautoka and Suva, is where most of the population lives. It's how I pictured Fiji before I came. This is a really cool spot where people like to stop and have lunch -  the tide was out.  

The north side of the island is mountains and rain forest and is now on my list of most beautiful places I've ever seen.  The driving was really slow, which was great! We went through about 20 villages or so along the way.  At the risk of sounding too melodramatic... oh you all already know  how melodramatic I am - it was an experience that changes your soul!  I hope the whole experience of the place it is permanently embedded in my DNA now.  This pic below just shows how every single inch of the place is covered with life.  There's a pic of a traditional Fijian hut below as well.  But those aren't really found anywhere any more.  

We stopped at this beautiful waterfall and pool.

 There is a HUGE river that we passed on the way home and the fresh water mussels from it are a culinary favorite.  If I had a way to keep them fresh or cook them I would have totally bought some.

Some parts of the drive were terrible as well because we saw what remains from the destruction of the cyclone.  Whole villages were destroyed.  The hillsides are dotted with broken tin huts and UNICEF tents.  People are still living in them after all of this time.  Lots of schools are still in tents too. These places have not recovered but the people are so resilient! Whole mountainsides of trees are still flattened and broken.  It's crazy.

Anyway, I'm determined to get back to the mountains before I come home.  The rest of this week I'm starting the work of cranking out 10 new ECE courses.  We'll see how that goes.  When you all google "mongoose" - which you know you're going to do when you finish reading this - you'll find that lots of people enjoy recording mongoose fighting snakes. This should make for a fun distraction for your day!