It has always been about the kava...

It has.  I drink it every day.  I talk about drinking it all the time.  I think about it when I'm not drinking it or talking about drinking it - who will I drink with today, I wonder, and where will that first shell go down?

So I started writing a kava journal, to record the when/where/with whom of each evening and highlight the sometimes strange conversation topics or interesting unplanned events that go down, because every single moment in this country is an adventure.

Here are a few interesting backlogged entries from my kava journal beginning in early July.

10/07/2010 – Shefa Nakamal with my brothers Colin, Apeslom, and Kelep, and some dude named Andrew from Vutekai.  I used to go to Shefa a lot in 2007 as it is very close to where I used to live then.  It was the first time hanging out with Kelep in a long long time, he has a little baby now and is with a woman named Lolita from Liro.  We all had 3 shells of kava and then 3 Tuskers for kale.  Apes puked again, as he did two weeks before on the same night (from the same kava).  But unlike that night two weeks ago, I did not join in the yacking.  Since Colin likes to tell his story about beating up his girlfriend because he caught her drinking a beer so much, I asked them when it was okay to beat up a girl.  The example Apes gave was, let's say you wake up early in the morning to do some work in the garden, and you tell your woman that you want food to be ready for you when you get back because you know you'll be hungry, and when you come back there's no food ready and your woman is off chatting with a friend.  Then it's okay.  

11/07/2010 – Green Light Seaside and the BP Wharf nakamal, Tawian Aru picked me and Jack (the anthropologist) up and took us over to the wharf for kava.  Aru shared his twisted story about why he is now in town.  He and my brother Oko didn’t get along (Oko cut up his markings for the house he wanted to build on Paama) and he ended up leaving the island.  I remember when I was on Paama, he was really trying to assimilate the best he could.  I think there was resistance to him being there in general, because normally if a woman Paama takes a man from a different island/village, they go to the man’s place and not the other way around.  For some reason, Aru didn't want to make a family on Ambae.  Oko felt competition for land probably and reacted to that with force.  Also, Aru used to be with Oko’s cousin sister, and Esther was the house girl that he cheated on her with (and now has two pikinini with).  Now my brothers don't want me calling him Tawi anymore, and I suppose technically he isn't.  

12/07/2010 – Vanuatu Cultural Centre opened their Independence exhibition with speeches by the first President of Vanuatu in 1980, the DG of Internal Affairs, the MP for Port Vila (Ralph nomo), and the director of VKS Marcellin Ambong.  June headed the committee and also gave a speech.  Probably about 60 or 70 people turned up.  There was good kava from Pentecost provided, and a stringband performed an independence song.  Sael (man Vutekai) was guarding the kava during the speeches.  Prior to the start of the event, Noe, Richard and I went to Reynolds nakamal for a couple shells (the VKS thing didn’t start until 6 and we didn’t want to wait that long).  Richard is interesting, has the mindset of an activist.  He considers himself an archeologist even though he never went to university, simply because that’s what he is interested in and he took a course in it in year 13.  His views on politics were interesting, he knows a lot about politics in the entire region.  Guy wants a revolution.  He and Noe said Ralph may be launching a new party by the end of the year.

13/07/2010 – Hit up Shefa nakamal first with Matthew Kalotiti and another man Mangaliliu named Wari Jimmy, they were interested in the story of my fall in '07.  They left and Wotti’s brother Alfred came by with a cousin brother of his also named Wotti and we just got to know each other really.  Alfred works at TVL and has been trying to help with my internet installation.  Apeslom called from Sophie’s nakamal, so I left Shefa to meet him there.  He was with Papa Lani at Ah Pow bakery who sliced a fresh loaf for me and set the program for Friday night at Green Light nakamal in seaside.  Apeslom told me Sophie’s used to be ‘lucky’ for him in terms of getting laid.  He has changed a lot since, now a father and all.

14/07/2010 – Chiefs Nakamal with Francis, Jack, and Malcolm from VKS.  Stood up by Rebecca Iaken.  Had one shell for 150 vatu and it was strong.  Then two for 100 and three for 50.  Jack and I went down to Green Light in seaside for another two shells for 50.  It was his last kava before heading back to Melbourne.  He is an anthropologist from New Zealand who works mainly on Pentecost.  We talked about the network of anthropologists in Vanuatu, he said it’s strong and supportive and much larger than other countries in the Pacific.  Interest in working/studying in Vanuatu probably comes from the diversity factor as in PNG.

15/07/2010 – Went to a place over near VNPF with a giant "spitting wall" with KT and a PCV from SW Bay Malakula named Igor for two shells, then over to Sophie’s to meet up with Beks and her co-worker friends from Save the Children.  After a couple beers for kale, they wanted to go out to Club 21 but I skipped out.  Can’t hang.  Beks said Lensley, the father of her baby (or babies, but that's a complicated story) is coming back from the island tomorrow.  Interesting relationship she has.  Lensley's a cool dude, works at the Department of Education.  Man Ambae.

17/07/2010 – The white gate at Freshwater Park with Malcolm from VKS and his family.  It was his family's nakamal and all the kava comes from North Pentecost.  It was his treat, so I ended up drinking more than my fair share of around 7 or 8 shells.  The washem-mouth was not exciting in that area compared to the Seaside area, just pieces of cow tongue and baked taro, but the kava was good anyway.  While drinking, the SDA people held worship in the park with a loud speaker for like two hours, and people were shooting off fireworks.  It was the day of the horse races in Vila.  And Malcolm’s uncle, Brian, decided he liked me and wants to adopt me as his brother.  I explained I was already adopted on Paama but he didn’t seem to care.  We’ll see what happens there.  After kava I started walking home and ran into James from Nou village, Apenas’ brother, and his wife who were walking back from Colin John’s family fundraiser.  I called Colin up and ended up walking with them down to a store near the freshwater football field that was still selling beer and kale-d on the stoop until very late.  I was pretty messed up, but it was fun.  Got home and couldn’t find the power to cook something to eat.

19/07/2010 – Bamboo then Ronnies with Amy Chan, the PCV at Vaum RTC in Tahi.  She is my Tawi, since she calls my Uncle Isaah "papa".  Today was lil’ Jamie’s birthday on Paama so I passed a present along with Amy to take back to site (an Obama t-shirt and a little vanity license plate that says America/USA and his name, some goldfish crackers).  Told Amy stories about when I was on Paama: the chicken massacre; the pig story; the cyclone story; the charcoal story, and many more.  She really likes it there, which is good, but she’s concerned about the sustainability of the school after she leaves which is normal for a PCV.  She told me all about the school's trials and different projects they've started.  It's just great to know it's still going, even if it still doesn't feel sustainable.  It was started nearly 7 years ago!

20/07/2010 – Reynolds with KT, Beks, and Lensley.  12 stalls to choose from, which I think is ridiculous, but now the owner doesn’t even sell kava he just rents out the stalls at 1000vt/night.  There are other places doing this system to, so only one has to pay for the license to sell kava and the actual kava makers/sellers just pay rent.  Some dude got so drunk on kava that he fell to the ground and was shaking, knocking over chairs and tables and kicking people.  Gravel.  Ouch.  That lasted for about a half hour, before Lensley called a bus driver he knew to come and carry this guy home.  I went home and picked up some simboro on the way from greenlight seaside.  Tomorrow bakegen.

21/07/2010 – Red Light nakamal at Independence Park with Roger, Benuel, and Kevin from NSO.  I also ran into Aru Huntington and met his brother while there.  Kava from Ambae which explains why so many from Ambae there.  Ndui Ndui area.  Roger is from Malekula though, and he and I went festaem and storied.  He is fresh out of University at USP in Fiji where he majored in geography and demography.  He liked Suva a lot, and Nadi - likes it better than Vanuatu which I found surprising.  He wants to go for a Masters sometime, but rules of civil service are that you have to serve at least two years before you can go.  Benuel came and kept saying, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” over and over and laughing.  I didn’t get it.  Maybe just because it was in English.  Many Anglophones here think English is funny.  Explained the story of my fall again several times.  Took off around 9.

23/07/2010 – Fundraiser at Seaside Paama for James from Nou, drank with Jimmy from Tavie, Eskol from Nou, Colin John from Nou and his brother from a different mother from Epi Stanley.  String band played, the one that wrote Luli Village and Onak Vaoleli Village, they were practicing for the upcoming 30 July competition and they sound good.  Colin was telling me about the black magic going around the Freshwater area lately, one of his uncles hung himself and when they took him to the hospital the doctors said he had been dead for three days already.  They (sorcerers) kill a dude and then singsing (some kind of spell) and walk around as if they were him for a period of time, usually 3 or 5 days, and then the body turns up.  It’s always someone close that knows your schedule/routine.  Oh, and a pregnant lady and her 3-year-old son were murdered in Freshwater like last month, she was clubbed to death and her little boy was stabbed.  The kava was shitty at the fundraiser, so we went up to Green Light seaside for a couple shells and kale-d with a Tusker and this strange chick started following Jimmy.  Pretty sure she was a prostitute.  Jimmy seemed high toward the end of the night, but swore he wasn’t.  Don’t believe him.  All he wanted to talk about was how all the young guys get high all the time, but he doesn’t anymore.  Then later he said he only smokes after the sun goes down.  Stori i jenis finis…

24/07/2010 – Freshwater White Gate, nakamal blong ol man Pentecost.  Brian, Malcolm's uncle, "adopted" me as his brother today by grinding kava in the traditional fashion, using a coral stone and something blong coconas blong sevem I go long wanwan shell.  He doesn’t drink, never has.  Kava is woman.  He told me the custom story from North Pentecost about the origin of kava: there was a strong man, he killed and ate almost everyone, then his twin nephews killed him and his wife and buried them and kava grew where the wife was buried, and then they saw rats eating it and getting drunk and a light went off in their heads…this shit is good!  We should drink it!  But I was thinking, good thing they didn't see the rats eating human shit...

There was a blackout, lots of fireworks going off in that area and all over town for that matter as it’s close to Independence Day.  They let me know before I left that the Pentecost mafia is my protection now, and to feel free to come whenever.  This one guy from Tanna named Ialu is like the leader of the youth of Freshwater and he hung out for a while, told me to come visit him sometime and to use his name if ever I was in trouble.  Met Willie Virasulu, Pete’s dad from Leone in North Pentecost.  He talked a lot about Pete, said he heard Pete would come back this month to dig up some of his kava.  Talked about black magic.  Lots of ni-Vans in town are afraid of Paama because they think the sorcery there is the strongest.  I always thought it was strongest in Ambrym or Maewo, but that's not what they were saying tonight.

25/07/2010 – Wharf nakamal with Captain Kidley and some of his friends from the tugboat he now heads that goes to New Caledonia and back with crushed coral.  Before he got there though, met this guy named Takao from Vaoleli village, born in Santo, only been to Paama for a few months when he was 8 years old or so, about my age.  Ten years ago he moved to Vila, works as a chef at Flaming Bull.  There’s a nudie calendar hung up in the wharf nakamal.  A troupe of young women wearing tight clothing drove in and made a stir.  Kidley’s doing well, lost some weight claiming it was all thanks to a leaf Uncle Isaah made for him years ago, has three kids with his other younger wife in Santo now, wife number one lives in Mele village with Aman, his son.  He was going to take off to Santo for the Independence celebration, so glad I caught him.  His quote, “fasen blong fak olbaot I finis nao”.  Highly doubtful.

26/07/2010 – Stopped by the Red Light nakamal at Independence Park, nakamal blong ol man Ambae.  Went there to meet up with Aru but he didn’t show until late.  Benuel came, and shortly after there was a woman, I guess she’s the lawyer for maybe Westpak or something, maybe VNPF, and she totally bitched out this young dude that was at the store and told her little daughter to fuck off.  It was heated, he got up in her face and started screaming to scare her and it didn’t work, that lady is not afraid of anything.  The kava was good.  They kept cutting Orchy plastics to cover a lit candle, and it kept catching on fire.  But they kept trying anyway.  It’s colcol now, been wearing a sweatshirt to kava every night.

27/07/2010 – Mele village independence stalls with KT, Junior (Wyclef), Moli, and two Kiwis that were carrying around a bottle of wine.  The stage had this guy from Pango entertaining that night who is famous for some song he wrote about dead babies.  There was also a couple ladies dancing Tahiti style, and a comedy troupe.  The kids were digging it.  I like Mele a lot, it is the biggest village in Vanuatu with about 3,000 people.  Some dude that couldn’t have been older than 16 came up to me and asked me if I smoked weed.  He said his name was “fatso”, from Tanna.  Got some island kakae for $1 to take home, Junior and Moli (man Ambae) took me back home in Moli's bus.  

28/07/2010 – Parliament Park stalls with Alfred Lobu and Alan Simeon, string band competition night.  And the Independence celebration begins in Port Vila!  Tokosawia took first place and Torotua took second, with the boys from Seaside Paama taking third.  Alfred thinks its okay for men to cheat on women because women can forget easily, but it doesn’t work the other way around.  He kept hiding the “Smile” TVL logo on his shirt because for some reason it looks bad if you start drinking kava right after work (?) which I was not aware of. 

29/07/2010 – Parliament Park stall kava, stall 121 was Benuel’s kava bar with fresh stuff from Ambae, saw Sailas from Vaoleli for a bit, then met up with Colin Stephen at the stall for Maewo kava since there was good places to sit down.  He met up with a few of his friends who all wanted to go smoke weed, so he left me there and said he’d be back.  I hung out with Alfred and his uncle, drank a few more shells, had a couple Tuskers, then took off.  Colin called just as I was leaving, tried to guilt me into coming back but that didn’t work. Mare ming ta vare kei!

30/07/2010 – Independence Day!!  Drank kava with Apes and Colin at Parliament Park and then up at Reynolds and Konata Bulu, where we watched the fireworks while listening to the reggae from Saralana stage.  Met Apes’ little girl, Sera, and his woman from Tongoa.  And, the daughter from a mystery papa…about whom Apes doesn’t want to know anything.  Ditched Colin when rain crashed the celebration to hang with Neely at her place, played SkipBo and drank some Tusker, walked home.

1/08/2010 – Freshwater Park, White Gate nakamal with Brian and the gang from Pentecost.  He bought a new phone for 7000vt and it plays ‘clips’ including the Jamie Fox “We Are The World” video.  He has Ga Ga and Lucky Dube and Bob Marley songs on his phone.  Asked the nakamal owner's wife about the bandage on her leg, said that her husband stabbed her a couple years back with a knife and cut her Achilles tendon because she was having an affair with another dude.  Wheelchair for a long time, then crutches, still not good.  Her husband is deformed, with one very tiny arm, and he walks like he had polio.  They have four kids.  Gave Brian a DVD, something action related with Denzel Washington, he said he likes war documentaries.  Brian told me this awesome story of a white boy being shipwrecked and his father was dead or eaten on the ship and a dude from his area in North Pentecost raised him as his own.  Simmy (Jimmy) was his name.  I want to check that out at the Cultural Centre one of these days.

2/08/2010 – Seaside Paama with the men from Luli village who came do dance custom for the mini arts festival this week.  I watched them perform at Saralana field earlier this afternoon.  Missed out on the Independence Forum on trade with John Salong and Roy Mickey Joy, but I’ll hear about it later I’m sure. 

3/08/2010 – Freshwater Park White Gate with Brian’s Tawi James and some dude who was full of stories.  Talked a lot about the matrilineal system that North Pentecost is known for.  Turns out, even though the land is technically the property of women and is passed through them, when there’s a dispute about land it’s not the women arguing in the nakamal.  Basically, they don’t control the land even though it’s really theirs.  Bought a mat from the Lulep mamas who came from the island to sell.  It was woven by a former student of mine, Meriel, who has since had a son from a mystery dude and is with man Lulep now in the village.  Got a ride home from the nakamal from one of my brothers, Kaison.  I didn't know it was him until he stopped at a store to let a drunk passenger go buy more beer and we started to story.  I met him only once in 2005, shook his hand and that's it, so it's no surprise that we didn't recognize each other, but he was all about getting together and drinking a few shells sometime.

5/08/2010 – Reynolds nakamal, with a former student of mine Ham and his friend Fanu.  Got there, and this guy who says he's the PM of Tahiti was playing the uchaleli and singing in French.  Reynold gave him a red mat to shut him up, and apologized for what many drinking kava would find disturbing to their kava buzz, but the guy just kept playing.  Then I asked him about the Tahitian independence movement, if it had gone to referendum, and he was like, "you don't understand human rights like I do", and "I'm going to make sure all the white people leave, and all those opposed to independence leave", and "In my constitution, I will make sure people go to work on time and don't sleep too much"...as he chugged his Tusker.  Some guy was like, so basically you will be a dictator, and he was then trying to explain his way out of it by telling this ni-Vanuatu that he understands the history of Vanuatu better, which the ni-Van understandably took offense to.  One of those crazy nights.  Went home to try to look this guy up, but it turns out there is no PM of Tahiti.  Go figure. 

6/08/2010 – Fundraising at Seaside Presbyterian church for the Luli custom dancers.  Met up with Tawi Samson and his friend Toa from Eratap, and Collin Nepot.  The server was a young guy from Luli who knew me and every time I would buy a shell he would fill it all the way to the top regardless of how much I paid for.  It was strong, and it actually tasted like Paama kava which I haven't tasted in a long long time.  Me and Collin and a newfound papa named Terry from Tahindan drank Tusker at Green Light until like 11:30.  Former Speaker of Parliament Tawi Sam Dan was there but only for a little while.

7/08/2010 – Freshwater Park White Gate nakamal, stone ground kava, first ever boot and rally for me.  Drank two, puked, then went back for three more.  I couldn’t move or open my eyes after the first shell went down.  Brian didn't mix water with it at all.  Storian after the boot went from monkeys to evolution to belief in the Bible (which Brian does not, interestingly).  Lots of stuff.  Brian thinks ni-Vans are getting shorter on average.  I don't know if that's possible, but I respect his observation.

9/08/2010 – BP Wharf with Kelep and Captain Kidley.  Met up with Kelep and Lolita buying rice when I was walking out of the NSO, so Kelep and I put Lolita on a bus and made our way to the wharf where we met with Tawi Kidley and his crew from the tugboat.  KT and Alexia (PCVs) turned up a little later.  Talked to Kelep about what Papa Hapi said about me building a house on Paama, and he told me that his line has tons of land due to not having many boys.  Papa Hapi had no brothers, and neither does Kelep.  I proposed that the two of us make the joint investment and build a house we can both share.  He seemed to like the idea, but I told him to think about it more.  He ran the Round Island Relay and his team (VMF) came in third place behind two Tanna teams.  The Tanna teams ran barefoot.

10/08/2010 – Chiefs nakamal (always a great first bucket) with Marcellin, Francis, Joel, the dude at PIPP, a Nepali guy, and the Australian High Comm guy Jay at Finance.  Talked about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning that hit earlier at around 4:15.  I was in the group of a couple thousand people in the seafront area that panicked and ran for the hills.  I mean, it was right after a 7.5 earthquake and police were screaming "10 Minutes, Tsunami!!".  You would run too.  Then I got a ride with Benuel who was looking for me after the earthquake, he had all my stuff, went home to check if there was damage and then went to Seaside to meet up with my crazy Tawi Morris.  He has a short-term memory problem, which I have no experience in how to deal with, so I just keep repeating myself.  That said, one positive is that he keeps forgetting he just bought me a shell of kava and so he just keeps buying me kava until I run away.  I met the chief from Tavulai and had a good conversation about Tomaso structure.  

12/08/2010 – BP Wharf, Shefa, Labor, and Reynolds with Wotti.  A bit of a nakamal crawl, starting at the wharf because the Saratoka was supposed to take all the mamas from Lulep back to Paama tonight and I wanted to pass something to my bro Morris Luli (stick tobak) but it ended up delaying departure until the following morning, so I just had one shell with Tawi Kidley and some guy from the Seaside area I vaguely recognized.  Met up with Wotti and we went to Shefa where the kava was water and some asshole was playing loud music on his laptop in the only shelter that had space to sit, which I can't stand and this is starting to become a thing now, listening to music while drinking kava.  Went to the spitting wall and had a few shells but my back started to hurt and so we hiked to Reynolds for their awesome plastic chairs and decent kava.  It was a late night, Wotti didn't have to work until the following afternoon.  It was the first time I've hung out with him since he returned to Vila from his home island in the Banks group for a month-long holiday.  He really liked being back home.

13/08/2010 – Chiefs with Marcellin, Aminio, Francis, Joel, Noe, and two dudes from Futuna.  Your basic, after work shell, talked to Marcellin about training fieldworkers to pilot the community well-being survey towards the end of the year and he said he'd be up for it, or that I could use them the way the radio station used them for their survey last year.  Seems interesting.  Aminio wants help to start a coconut oil business to provide employment for Pango village youth, so I said I'd help him write something up.  Francis and I settled a financial accounting hiccup between our two budgets.

14/08/2010 – Freshwater Park White Gate nakamal for a few shells with Joe (Wilco) and Gordon (Municipal Police), then ran into Colin Nepot and Papa John from Nou and had a few Tuskers in the park.  Talked about how Apu Iso in Nou has black magic and has done something to Papa Edwin's jaw by blowing on him.  Or so says an oracle boy on Epi.  Used to be a little girl on SE Ambrym that would be consulted on matters like this, so it's interesting to learn that the title has changed hands.  John thinks that Iso is the reason there's nobody left in Nou village.  And the reason his wife is sick.  Met Mama Elizabeth and she said she's shooting for early retirement due to an illness with her ear.  That means there is no nurse manning the clinic on Paama.  Fundraiser next Saturday at their place in Freshwater, so I'll be there.