confused roosters, mysterious substances

I've moved into a new house until I go to Gizo - on Tanuli Ridge. I'm living with three other volunteers; Ben, Steph and Gen. The house is pretty cool, and there's an extended hours canteen at the top of the exciting driveway where we can pop up to buy odd bits and pieces, or just gather gossip.

Good points = nice people, handy location (don't have to walk all the way through town on my way to work), ultimate frizbee.

Bad points = confused rooster next door, who wakes me up at around 4 most mornings, lack of internet.

We have weekly dinners for the volunteers, and anyone else who wants to come along. Last night I was all excited about making chick pea curry. I hadn't managed to get into town to stock up on spices, but I knew there were at least some at the house. Hunting through the cupboards I happily added some cumin or garam masala or something (bit hard to tell when everything's a bit stale), and a good whack of what I thought was ground coriander. Tossed in highly prized tinned tomatoes etc., tasted and was shocked by a very distinctive bitter flavour. After a few more tastes to work out what the bitterness was I realised my mouth was numb, and came to the conclusion that the coriander was kava in disguise. Probably not Fijian judging by the potency. I managed to salvage the dish by rinsing the sauce off and starting again, but everyone did seem pretty mellow by the end of the evening...