Kava Kastom of Maewo

Finally, I arrive at my house and am greeted by all my family in my village, which means the entire village was there to greet me. One of my dads, again not my straight father, but another uncle I’m to refer to as papa, introduces everyone rapid fire, and then tells me that he and I are going to drink a shell of kava together and then eat. The custom of drinking kava on maewo is explained briefly to me and we proceed to drink, while I hope I don’t ruin any of the custom rituals while drinking my first shell on maewo. The ritual with drinking kava on maewo is thus: A group of men sit in a circle with large pieces of coral that they use to grind the kava, these stones are called bwasis, you hold your bwasis in your right hand and then hold as much kava as you can with you left hand while grinding your bwasis into it. Below you is a large wooden plate that you grind the kava onto called a tambia. This process takes about 10-30 minutes depending on how much kava, and how practiced you are. The first time I ground kava, it took me 40 minutes, which of course was a source of great hilarity to my family. Once the roots become a large pile of pulp the next phase is milking the kava. First small water is added to the kava pulp and then using your hands you ring as much of the liquid as you can out of the pulp into a coconut shell. These shells are smoothed and used specially for drinking kava and are called min-lasah. After you milk as much as you can into the shell, the next step is called serving, which means that you strain the kava through a coconut husk into another coconut shell and repeat until you’ve done this 3 times, then you wait until everyone has ground and is ready to drink, or in my case you move on to the next step because everyone has already been waiting on me for about 20 minutes. Finally you fill a coconut shell with water and pour this water over the hands of the man that you ground kava for and tell him, Ko mak malloh. Which, roughly means your kava drink. After you serve the kava one final time into the shell you just emptied the water out of and then he can take it to drink. So I washed my grandpa’s hands and passed him his shell then turned and got my hands washed by my uncle (he was my uncle and not my dad because he is the brother of my mom). I took my shell and got ready to drink. I hate the taste of kava, but the effect of it is a very pleasant drunkenness. Before im allowed to drink im told that there is more ceremony involved with the drinking of the kava too. On maewo all the men say a kustom prayer in language and then you kneel down, face south, close your eyes and drain the shell in one go. After you finish drinking your shell you let the last of the kava drip into the pulp that was left behind from making it, and then proceed to throw the kava pulp out into the jungle. Afterwards you go eat quickly because if you wait too long the kava will start working and I’d barely be able to finish a handful of french fries after kava starts working. In my village on Maewo, that is the entirety of the kava drinking custom, but on the east coast, after you finish drinking, you’re expected to yell out Spoy! And wait for a response, if someone responds you’re expected to begin grinding a shell because it means you’ll have someone coming to drink another shell with you, but if no one responds you yell a second time and this time you yell Sve! The first yell is to let people know you’re drinking kava and to come join you and the second yell is to left people know you just finished a shell. Im glad I live on the west coast cause one shell is all I feel up to most times haha.