Kava Culture Vanuatu 2015

[nabanga]

You'd be amazed how many expats that have been there 20-30 years can't speak or understand bislama. The grammar may be very basic, but with all the different intonations and stuccato speeds it is often spoken at it isn't surprising you didn't follow it.
I found the nakamal the best place to learn though - people talk slower and the kava lowers the inhibition that can come with trying to speak a new language. A couple more weeks and you would probably have it down.

 

[ta-va]

Fantastic photos, Shakas. What a tropical Paradise! How warm is the sea in those parts? good for swimming? And how did the trad-prep spit-grog taste? - and effects? Loving this thread - thanks so much.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

**updated the first page with days 5 and 6....plus a couple links for tanna.
hopefully i'll have time to post tanna stuff tomorrow.

@ta-va ocean water was pretty warm maybe 75-80 f
traditional tanna kava prep. didn't seem to have any distinctly different taste than most of the other stuff I had around the islands.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

**updated the first page with day 7 in tanna...had already posted a couple of the pics that night, but here's some more

 

[kasa_balavu]

Incredible. Love the photos and commentary, @shakas.
If you don't mind me asking, are you in Vanuatu purely for pleasure, or did you go there for work was well?

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

Incredible. Love the photos and commentary, @shakas.
If you don't mind me asking, are you in Vanuatu purely for pleasure, or did you go there for work was well?

It would be nice if I had to stop in for work every once in while, but this was all pleasure......and kava.

 

[verticity]

That is interesting. Bislama seems so simple on paper, but I've heard it spoken; there was a news web site or something that had a Bislama language option, and, yes, incomprehensible to me in aural form. It's definitely not pidgin English; it's really it's own thing (a Creole language technically). But I am a bit surprised that no one spoke English... that's one of the nominal national languages of the country.. maybe including English and French as national languages was just to appease the former colonial "owners" of Vanuatu.

 

[verticity]

@sɥɐʞɐs - One thing I'm curious about is: what were the bathroom facilities like. This is a serious question. Was there running water at or near the nakamals? If not, do they use outhouses or something?

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

@sɥɐʞɐs - One thing I'm curious about is: what were the bathroom facilities like. This is a serious question. Was there running water at or near the nakamals? If not, do they use outhouses or something?

I had the same question, normal hotels have normal toilets. Normal for the Aus. NZ region anyway, they have a button for half flush and full flush, but otherwise normal. Once you're out of town staying at a guest bungalow in a village, you're more likely to have a bucket flush outhouse. You scoop water from a barrel and put it in the toilet bowl. At these places, you do the same thing to shower. Water from a barrel, in the stall next to the toilet. You can also run across bush toilets, which are even more simple.
I never saw toilets at nakamals, but I also never looked, I've heard some have them. Nakamals will sometimes have water spigots to wash your shells out with.

As for the English, everyone spoke it, but vocabulary was limited (to varying degrees) and the accent can be prohibitive of completely understanding everything. I heard a local tour guide who spoke great English and seemingly perfect French, but that wasn't the norm. Everyone could speak the basics though, you just might need a repeat sometimes.

 

[verticity]

Interesting, so presumably there is a septic tank underground, so running water is not needed...

But what is a "bush toilet"?

And if there are no toilets at nakamals.. and kava has a diuretic effect.. where do people pee? (Serious tag)

 

[kasa_balavu]

Interesting, so presumably there is a septic tank underground, so running water is not needed...
But what is a "bush toilet"?

In the Pacific Islands, the two types of toilets that don't require running water are:

1. Pit/bush toilet. It's basically a walled structure containing a wooden throne with a hole in the center over a deep pit. Called a dunny/outhouse in Australia.
2. Pour flush - similar to a normal toilet, except that you pour a bucket of water into it when you're done.

The second one has the advantage of the water seal to keep odors in and flies out. I used a pit toilet a few times growing up, and I deeply regret responding to your post and just now remembering the experience. Having flies rise up from the putrid depths of the pit to land on my arse is something I'd thought I'd blocked out of my memory for good.

 

[nabanga]

Almost all the nakamals in town do have a toilet, usually normal flush toilet connected to a septic tank ( no reticulated sewer in Port Vila). Some smaller Vila nakamals do not have a toilet on premises, but do have one that can be used in the adjacent house for example. It's a condition of getting a license to open a nakamal in Vila to have running water and a toilet.
Some are better than others - from full modern clean bathroom in some of the expatty kava bars, to hideous stained toilet bowls stinking of ammonia, with skidmarks up the walls and leaves from an overhanging tree for paper. The lack of a light actually helps in these ones..

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

There Vert, two responses from people who have actually lived in the area, I'll just add this; I also had a bus driver who had a shell, stepped into the grassy area on the side of the nakamal and peed there, and similarly, stopped the bus on a long road and stepped into the brush to pee. I'm not sure how normal that it is there, but it makes sense considering the abundance of trees and bushes.

Tanna

​

 

[The Kap'n]

@sɥɐʞɐs if you remember nakamal @ home's old website they had a page listing the criteria required to qualify as a true blue expert kava enthusiast. I believe, sir, that you now qualify.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

@sɥɐʞɐs if you remember nakamal @ home's old website they had a page listing the criteria required to qualify as a true blue expert kava enthusiast. I believe, sir, that you now qualify.

I've gotta say that I was quite proud when my Tanna born bus driver I kept using to take me to nakamals told me 'you drink kava like ni-Vanuatu'.

 

[HeadHodge]

I've gotta say that I was quite proud when my Tanna born bus driver I kept using to take me to nakamals told me 'you drink kava like ni-Vanuatu'.

I'm thinking of those 'you just might be a red-neck' jokes by Jeff Foxworthy.

Maybe something like: 'If you speak bislama in your sleep.....' 'You just might be a ni-Vanuatu'

 

[Steve Mariotti]

My god, @sɥɐʞɐs what an incredible thread.

Thank you so much for allowing us all to live vicariously through you during your visit to the kava center of the universe.

"You drink kava like a ni-Vanuatu" is incredibly high praise, indeed.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

**edit - added a few pics from last couple days in vanuatu...at the bottom of the Tanna post.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

I didn't have time for all the camera fuckery I originally intended on, but I did manage this, although it didn't come out quite clearly:
Back when my avatar was: ,
@Henry went to a nakamal in vila, put my avatar on his phone, got a shell and took a pic:

Sooo, with my tendency to send things down the rabbit hole,
I went to the same nakamal, grabbed a shell and took a picture...of the picture...that Henry took of my picture:

I suppose next time @Henry is in Vila, he could now take a new picture, of my picture, of his picture, of a picture of me...

 

[Bubba Bula]

What a wonderful experience you had. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share all of this with us shakas.