Tanna Island is the second most visited island in Vanuatu after Efate. It's active volcano, Yasur, has been known by the rest of the world ever since Captain Cook came through Port Resolution in the late 18th century. Today the volcano is probably about the same as it was back when Cook first saw it, although it's now much easier to get to the top.

We flew from Vila to Tanna last Monday morning in a Norman-Britten Islander. A 10-seater, including the pilot and the chair next to him. We made a stop on Erromango to drop off two passengers and picked up three more . About 30 minutes later we had landed on the west coast of Tanna and began our trip to the other side. After a stop in Lenekal (a small town straight out of the old west) where the owner of our bungalow picked up supplies for the week we began the 2 hour truck ride to Port Resolution. Monday was market day so we passed lots of stalls set up on the side of the road selling local produce, taro and kava. I bought some kava and we continued on our ride.

I won't try to describe the beauty of the volcano rising out of the ash plain or of Port Resolution itself. If you want to hear about that, i'll refer you to my friend Dan Moser's blog. He's a much better writer than I and he has much more time to spend on his blog as he has managed a way to have internet service in his village on Malekula.

But I do want to share two things. First, my experience of chewing kava with some man-Tanna and second, the visit to the top of the volcano. Okay, chewing kava. These days, kava in Vanuatu is normally prepared but cleaning the roots, cutting them into small pieces, putting through a manual meat grinder, mixing it with water, and then straining. Another way that is less common is by stone grinding the kava. Here's a photo of me doing this with my host papa.

(you may notice the bandage on my index finger which was covering up a gash I had just made with my knife...even after being here for two years I'm less competent with a knife than my 8 year old sister) Stone ground kava is prepared by cleaning and cutting the kava, then grinding it in your hand with a piece of coral. This method is more common to the northern islands and can produce stronger kava. Note that in both of these methods, the kava is mixed only with clean water and the mashed up roots.

The traditional way of preparing kava in the southern islands, including Tanna, is by chewing. Basically, instead of using a machine or a stone to mash the roots, you use someone's mouth. Actually, you end up using more than one mouth. Before I go any further, let me describe the setting. It's about 5pm. The sun still has about another hour, but it's already well below the tree line. We (me, evan and the guys from the village) are sitting on some pieces of wood underneath a banyan tree in a cleared and cleaned area that makes up the nakamal. Since the kava is here no women are allowed to pass by this area - very taboo. We're sitting around a big pile of ash that is evidence of the many fires that have been made here. And it's not long before the fire is lit again to provide light, some warmth and a way to light cigarettes.

A friend from the village, Naru, is preparing our kava and in return he'll drink with us. He cleans the kava and then takes a bite of the root. Then he takes another and another. Pretty soon he's got a mouth full of kava that he's grinding for us. Evan and I decide to help out and take bites for ourselves. Not only do I want to try chewing the kava, I figure that I should get some of my spit in the mix. It's kind of like taking a bite of a dry, tough, bad-tasting apple. You chew it, careful not to swallow too much of it, and then spit it out on a leaf. Once there's a good pile, about the size of a burrito, you strain it with some bark from a coconut palm and some water. Then it's ready to drink. And often the boys from the village will be flagged down on their way home from the beach and told to come help chew the kava. They're mostly around 9 or 10 years old, have just been through their circumcision ceremony and are old enough to chew, but no to drink, the kava.

So we drink one and then two big shells, sit around and chat around the fire. And, really, it doesn't seem that big of a deal to take a big drink of this dirty root water that's been chewed by two or three different people.

Now, the volcano. The video does not do justice to the sense of terror we experienced on the top of Yasur. Although you can't see the pool of lava in the volcano, you are standing on the top of the rim watching it erupt and shoot large pieces of molten rock through the air towards and around you. In some of the photos you can see the stones in the air after the explosions. They are large. I think the one that landed closest to us was about 100 yards away. The guides tell you that when it erupts, don't run. Look at the rocks and track them like an outfielder...except that at the last moment you want to get out of the way instead of catching them.

Well, that's it for now. We head back to Vanua Lava tomorrow for our last 4 weeks in the village. We'll have some sad goodbyes, some last kakaes and lots of kava (stone ground, not chewed) over the next few weeks. We'll try to wrap up our projects and pass them on to the teachers at our school. It hasn't yet sunk in that we'll be leaving here for good in about 6 weeks, but it will soon enough.