Lactone Laughs

Featuring: My brother Oko and his nambut ways.

His new name is Aming, which is a joining of Ameng (Nambut) and Ming (tipsikin) in Paama language.  Because when he drinks kava, after about three shells he can't talk anymore.  He just sits there, scratching his head.  No way to communicate aside from grunting.  Which is why he's a ming.  It's a fashion my brother Apeslom and I are trying to curb but Oko is fighting it.   Who likes drinking kava with someone incapable of story?? 

Everyone knows now that after the third shell, even if the kava is weak as hell, Oko shuts down.  On Friday night I went to a fundraising at my Papa Micah's house in Blatinier and when I saw him I asked if the window was closed already or if he could story.  Window i klos finis.  Aming i gohed.

Kava Kulture

Source : 2009 Vanuatu National Population and Housing Census

Analysis:

I find it interesting that the male age group peak drinkership is between 25-29, when 66% of men are hitting up the nakamal, when the peak drinkership for women is in their 40s.  This makes sense as the women you typically find at nakamals are older and...well, we'll save that commentary for another time.  Maybe kava trends follow sexual peaks.  But nothing surprising with this graph in terms of what I have observed after drinking kava for more than five years now.

However, this question does not look at frequency of drinking kava.  It simply asks if one drinks kava.  You could be someone who drinks only on the weekends or special occasions but are grouped in with the kavaholics who drink until 2 or 3 in the morning every day and sleep through to the afternoon.  I think that survey questions about kava use should be focusing on frequency and potentially average amounts drunk.  We should be interested in how kava affects society, so a simple percentage variable won't get the job done.  Also, I would like to look more closely at why less older people drink kava.  Could it be cultural (many older men are conscious of the current abuse of the kava custom) or is it more a result of the health effects of kava?

Makas

A haiku:

one hundred Vatu

slowly chugging kava juice

swallowing six times

A Second Wind for Kava Time

It's a north wind, so that can't be good...

It IS that time again.  The hour approaches and you feel it in your gut/bones/liver.  The gentle quiver of a kavalactone craving pulses through your body around 2 p.m., slowly increasing in intensity until half past 4 when your body tells you to move to the nakamal.  You are a kava junkie, but instead of tightening the rubber hose and tapping the veins (yeah, I watch movies) you let out a deep breath, lean forward, close your eyes, and tilt a shell of the good green juice.  You chug it slowly/quickly and wipe the dribble from your chin (unless you are lucky enough to have a beard to soak it up for you) before sinking into a plastic chair with your favorite wasem-maot.  The fix sets in and you breath deeper, blink slower, and talk lower.  The story is on.

The revised Kava Time blog will now feature original postings in categories such as:

• Drunken Quote of the Night - priceless gems from the mouths of kavaholics
• Kava Kulture - observations, recommendations, facts, and trends
• Lactone Laughs - so funny it chases your drunk away
• Mosquito Alert!! - an advisory on the 'stikim nek' conditions of Port Vila nakamals
• Makas - things that don't fit in the categories above can be found here

Here's to second winds!

                                                     Peter Joshua 2011, holding a stampa 

                                                     of my kava planted 2006