The Road Less Traveled : Kava

For this post I want to talk about the South Pacific phenomenon that is Kava. Kava plays a huge role in South Pacific culture, and Tonga is no exception. There is alcohol in Tonga and Tongans do drink it, especially younger Tongans, but for most men kava is a social gathering and the drink of choice all in one. For those of you who don’t know, kava is made by mixing the powdered root of the kava plant with water. Kava looks uncannily similar to muddy water, and slightly numbs your tongue when you drink it.

Though some Tongans work and many don’t, all Tongans have plenty of free time, and that time is usually spent drinking kava. Whenever I walk around the villages, I can almost always see the men drinking kava in one of the halls, especially at night and on Sundays. They sit around in a circle, with one man mixing the kava in the kumete (a big bowl of kava) and pouring the kava into individual cups. The kava is then passed out to each of the men, who are sitting cross-legged on the floor.

The men spend several hours a day drinking kava, and consume a ridiculous amount of it. To give you an idea how much kava they drink, I drank 5 bowls in an hour sitting last week and that was with the men only giving me every other bowl to drink. Those who are wondering what happens during kava that makes it so awesome, the answer, I’m sorry to say, is nothing different from hanging out in America. All you do is drink, smoke, watch tv, snack, and gossip (Actually…now that I write it, it does sound pretty good). It is a great way to practice my Tongan and get to know the people in the community, however, so I try to go at least once a week.

If this post seems heavily male centric, that is because it is. Women, with few exceptions, are not allowed to drink kava. The only time a woman takes part in kava circle is when she serves as a tou’a and hands the cups of kava to the men without drinking it. Though I have not seen a tou’a yet while I have drank kava, I have heard that the women are often made fun of and flirted with, which is why they rarely agree to do it. Sometimes a woman will serve kava as part of a fundraiser, or a girl will serve kava for her boyfriend as a kind of date.

Further, kava is particularly different from alcohol in one interesting way. The more alcohol you drink, the more you build up a tolerance, and the less each individual drink affects you. Kava is the opposite. The more you drink kava, the more easily it affects you. When I mentioned earlier that I only drink 5 bowls in one sitting, it is not because I feel a buzz from the kava but because the water in the kava can make me sick if I drink too much.

Kava is definitely an interesting experience and I expect to take part in many more kava circles over the next two years. If any of you come to the South Pacific, I would highly advise joining a kava circle to experience it for yourself.

In other news, next Friday, October 19^th is a very big day for me. During our lunch break, they are going to tell us which village we are going to live in for the next two years. Though I will be happy wherever I go, I am both excited and nervous to get my placement, as this will encompass the core of Peace Corps experience. My village is my entire world for the next two years, and there are several sites on the island of Vava’u, due to what I would be doing in the specific school and community as well as the location, that I would definitely prefer to get. For now, however, it is out of my hands, so I am just going to sit back and anxiously wait for the 19th. I will do my best to post my placement here when I get it.