Kava

Kava is a staple drink in Tonga. Typically, anything and everything that has Tongan men in attendance will include the drinking of kava. Being a man in Tonga, I partake by default, and have had it dozens and dozens of times in the past year and eight months. The effects are similar to alcohol, which is why, in the Pacific, beer is sometimes called "European kava." However, while it slows physical coordination, it leaves the mind clear to think. You're physically sleepy, but mentally alert. There's also an increased sense of sense of calm, sociability, and camaraderie, which helps to explain why men here break out the kava bowl at every social event.

Despite all this, I didn't feel that kava deserved more then a mention here (until now). That's because Tongan make it weak. Want to try some yourself? Mix one part dirt to twenty parts water, dissolve in a couple of those cough drops that numb your tongue, and drink a cup every ten minutes for four hours. I've had as many as fifteen shells full (that's right, actual coconut shells, cause I'm cool) yet felt only a mild effect.

Kava has always been a part of Pacific culture, but the use of kava has changed in recent times. In a large way, it's become nationalizing. I don't want to get into a whole thing here about colonization and decolonization and the reason there are so many coups in the South Pacific. The main point of all that is that people and culture vary widely island to island within the borders set by a bunch of European map makers. So many islanders today are trying to look to the things that unite them rather then divide them, and the consumption of kava is one such unifier. In Micronesia, the kava shell even appears on the state’s flag!

So in Vanuatu, kava drinking has become part of the national identity, and kava bars (called nakamal) there are more popular then alcohol bars. And in Vanuatu, kava is different. I'm not clear on if its the age of the roots, or the way it's prepared, but kava in Vanuatu is potent. Troost, one of the authors I mentioned last post, was knocked near-unconscious in Vanuatu by two shells of kava. A friend of a Japanese teacher at my college was temporarily paralyzed by the same amount. So you can appreciate it when I tell you that I had six shells.

In hindsight, five would have been enough. But despite it's weakness, Tongan kava seems to have built up my tolerance. So, after two shells and a wait of twenty minutes with no apparent effect, I was ready for more (with no risk to my wallet, since each drink cost about 50 cents Canadian). And twenty minutes was also more then enough time to make some new Ni-Vanuatu friends who were happy to learn that I was not (as I appeared) Australian. Those darn Australians! My Ni-Vanuatu friends had a much higher tolerance then I, and they had a truck, with which we went bar hopping Vanuatu-style.

Neighbourhood to neighbourhood, sometimes across the street from each other or even four to a corner like gas stations in Canada, were nakamal in Vanuatu's capital Port Vila. Each evening, when it begins to get dark, the owners light red lamps to show patrons that they're open for business. Some that we visited were actual bar-like structures with tables, tin roofs, and food for sale. Others were little more then a woman sitting in her yard mixing a plastic bucket full of kava. But somehow my new friends knew which nakamal in each neighbourhood was the best (measured by the kava's strength, I think), and when it was time to move on to another.

To prove your manhood, you're supposed to drink the entire shell in one go, not sip it like an expensive beer in a dance club. That was never a problem for me, much to the delight of the serving girls. Oh yeah, in Tonga, it's still taboo (oooo) for women to drink kava, but its slowly becoming accepted for women in Vanuatu (though I never saw any who were drinking instead of serving). I downed a third and a fourth in quick succession. but held off on my fifth until late in the evening. Finally I downed it, and was surprised to find that I was still conscious and not paralyzed. So much so that, after being dropped off at my room at the end of the night, I decided to take one more "for the road" at the nakamal across from my hostel. Big. Mistake.

Somehow, I made it back to my room, and even took a bite of some Chinese takeaway I got. I turned on the TV, and lay down for a wide-eyed hour of French television. I vaguely remember a fear-factor type show that included two "little people" as helpers, a master samurai jail keeper, and Merlin (the sorcerer of King Arthur's court). I spent six more nights in Vanuatu, but never had more then five shells of kava again!

And if you're looking to try some kava, these days it's available from Amazon.com.  This one, from Tonga, is quite potent kava of the "vanuatu" variety.  Gather some friends, a pair of pantyhose, a bucket, and you're good to go!