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Kava

© Larry Low

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At the Taveuni Travelodge, I encountered an old friend, Tomas, who kindly invited me to his home for grog and a sing-a-long. I introduced Tomas to my guests, Tricia and Yvonne, who were visiting Fiji for the first time.

Grog, you may wish to know, is island slang for yaqona /yangona / which is known as kava in the islands of Polynesia but in Melanesia it is yaqona.

Tomas said, "Of course, you'll bring them along."

"Give the girls five minutes to get changed," I said.

The two travel agents from Australia, were on a FAM trip to Fiji. Our understanding was that they would defer to my wishes when it came to discretion concerning local customs.

They were still dressed in shorts from our boat excursion to Matangi island which lies off the tip of Taveuni.

Matangi

"Long skirts or slacks," I commanded.

The early part of the evening was fun. The singing transformed perfect strangers into willing participants. We sat on tapa mats around the ubiquitos tanoa and enjoyed a rollicking sing-along. From the porch we looked down through two or three hundred yards of coconut palms and witnessed a full moon casting silvery feathers on the calm waters of Somosomo Strait.

Meanwhile, one of the men was mixing yagona in the tanoa. In the early days, yagona, a fine powder the result of masticating the dried root of the pepper tree, had been wrapped in tapa - bark cloth. Of late two changes have been made in the process. The powder is strained through cheesecloth. Mechanical mastication has replaced chewing by young virgins as was supposed to have been the custom. Today, electric blenders work wonders.

As soon as the yagona was ready, I was served the first bowl, a sign that I was guest of honor. Tricia was next. "When the bilo (cup) /mbilo / is offered, take it in both hands and drain the cup in one go." The bilo is a half coconut shell.

When the cup has been drained. Everyone claps twice and exclaims, "Maca." /Matha/ is not particulary esoteric for it simply means, "It is drained."

For a first timer,Tricia did very well. She did grimace a bit, which is understandable. Yaqona is an acquired taste. She was a quick learner though. She had spun the bilo very smartly back to the server. Yvonne indicated that she would just as soon give kava a miss.

Demurely I said, "Remember our understanding. You only need to drink one cup."

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