Kava is also deeply imbedded in the culture. Kava bowls are sturdy, round wooden bowls made of varying sizes. Kava bowls have a number of short legs around it. The drink made from Kava is made up with water in the bowl and drunken socially using coconut shells to scoop up the drink. It is a ground natural extract from the pepper plant root and intended for medicinal and slightly aesthetic properties.
Tala or Samoa Dollar (WST; symbol St$) = 100 sene. Notes are in denominations of St$100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 2. Coins are in denominations of St$1, and 50, 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 sene.
The climate is equatorial/monsoonal, with an average annual temperature of 26.5 °C (79.7 °F), and a rainy season from November to April. Savai'i is the largest of the Samoan islands and the sixth largest Polynesian island after New Zealand's North, South and Stewart Islands and the Hawaiian islands of Hawaiʻi and Maui. The population of Savai'i is 42,000 people.