Friday, April 16, 2010

Fai Kava

Fai Kava?

In Tonga, men gather all nights of the week and sit together and drink kava. It is a drink made from the root of Kava. A young single women stirs the kava in a large wooden bowl and fills cups that the men drink. After hours of drinking kava, men become intoxicated. Women do not participate in the fai kava. These women are called toa. Pronounced Do-Ah in english. It gives women the opportunity to talk to men, but at the same time it gives men the chance to say inappropriate things to the toa. On sundays, the holy day, men do not say inappropriate sayings to the toa because it is Sunday-Church Day!

1 comment:

  1. It's actually spelled tou'a - more closely pronounced like dough'uh, with a pronounced glottal stop represented by the apostrophe. In Tongan it is very important that the glottal stop is used - otherwise it can change the meaning of the word. One way to practice is to say the English phrase uh-oh (meaning oops). The stoppage of the air before each syllable is a glottal stop. After some practice you will be able to effortlessly say tou'a with its glottal stop.

    ReplyDelete

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.