Halloween mo Walk about

Wow has it been a while since I have written anything in my journal here. I guess the last time I wrote anything was just before Halloween. So I will try and pick up from there. I know I am going to miss a lot of the emotions that I have gone through, but that is okay. So on Halloween, we put on a celebration here in Mongaliliu. We did face painting, carved pumpkins, set out mats to hand out candy (it did not take long for the pikinini to learn those famous American words: Trick or Treat!), made a shark Piñata, and us guys dressed up in the girls Aelan Dresses. I think everyone had great time that night.

The next night was Friday and we had another Tantric Yoga class down by the beach. This has been a Friday night custom that I am really going to miss when I go to site. When we finished class we sat around playing with fire and storian.

Well Saturday was the big day. It was time for walk about. My Mama woke me up at 0500 so that I would not miss my flight. I think it was very nice of here, but because I had just gone to bed at 0455, I was not exactly ready to get up. Luckily for me, my truck was not leaving until 0830, so I was able to get in a solid 1.5 hours sleep. Leaving for the airport everything seemed so surreal. Noa and I boarded our plane and we were off to land unknown. We arrived about an hour later in the Lenakel Airport where we were met by Noa’s future counterpart and two other volunteers that are currently serving in Tanna.

My site is in middle bush. Middle bush is not exactly what I was expecting. My site is about 1,000’ elevation and it sits on top of a large plateau. Well the first day was spent hanging our and storian with the locals in the village. I will tell you that I was very worried about my first nakamal experience here. I had heard the stories of the gigantic shells of Kava and I had been having serious reactions, like gagging. I had also heard about how they chew the kava here. Well I must tell you it is the best Kava I have here in Vanuatu.

So here is the Nakamal experience: It is large open area covered by an ancient banyan tree, there is a small covered area for when it rains, and men build small little fires to storian on by. When we arrived we sat down and began chatting with some men. We did this while they chewed the Kava. So here I was worried about understanding Bislama and I find out that I will spend every night trying to learn Bislama while they have there mouths overflowing with branches and roots of kava being chewed in their mouth. I mean they actually have sticks hanging out of their mouth. What they are trying to accomplish here is turning the roots into a mush that can them be washed by the young boys. They make one shell of kava at a time and the shell is huge. Imagine the largest coconut shell you have ever seen, that is what they use to drink the kava. In Vila we drink 100 vatu shells that I have to choke down with about 5 big swallows. This kava is about a 500 vatu shell and it takes about 1 minute to drink the whole thing. Luckily, it is the best kava I have had. It goes down like water. After you drink your shell the mood changes. Everyone begins talking quieter and quieter. Then after the last man has drank his kava, everything goes silent, expect for the locust which take there cue and began wailing there songs in the bush. By the way no woman are allowed in the Nakamal. It is men nomo. In fact if they see a woman walking by they will throw rocks at them (or so I have heard, I never saw a woman approach the area.) The women do contribute to the Nakamal experience by cooking food for there husbands to bring and share with the other men. After we drink our shell we grab food that the woman have prepared and we wash out the horrible taste of Kava with some good aelan kakae.