document.write("\x3cdiv class\x3d\x22feedburnerFeedBlock\x22 id\x3d\x22TheMiseriesOfDoctorTutto9ej3lg6rup8kmis8ti8nsmo50s\x22\x3e");
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document.write("\x3cli\x3e\x3cspan class\x3d\x22headline\x22\x3e\x3ca href\x3d\x22http://drtuto.blogspot.com/2008/11/last-post-of-missives-sorry-i-took-so.html\x22 target\x3d\x22_blank\x22 \x3eLAST post of the Missives (sorry I took so long to get this one up)\x3c/a\x3e\x3c/span\x3e");
document.write("\x3cp class\x3d\x22date\x22\x3e11/23/2008\x3c/p\x3e");
document.write("\x3cdiv\x3eI am sitting in a dockside restaurant in Auckland now, having successfully managed the first leg of my return trip. The mussels here are humongous. It is mid day and I made it to my hostel. My flight doesn\x27t leave until tomorrow night at 7:40, so I have a lot of time to kill. Auckland is another beautiful harbor city, and has 1/4 of the whole population of New Zealand. Every city I have been to on this trip has been a harbor town. Perth, Sydney, Wellington, Nuku\x27alofa, and now Auckland. My passport now has three spaces left for stamps. I will have to get extra pages before our trip to Liverpool. OK back to yesterday. As I was saying I am more disappointed that I didn\x27t get better footage of the dancing at the feast, because the costumes were so drastically more interesting. They were hand made and each was different, woven from green leaves of some plant. They also had splashes of other colors mixed in. The outfits at the dinner dance were simple costumes, flowery blouses and grass or matt skirts. And they never did the sit down dance I had been waiting for. I am hoping there are versions of it on the DVD I bought. The live music was great, and some of the dances, surprisingly a number of the male dances were more engaging than I expected. I will look at the footage I took at the feast and see if any of those movies (off of my still camera) are worth while. So back to the school. I was glad I did it. It was weird, talking to a group of students about my life in theater when they had never seen theater in their life. Lyndsey\x27s daughter was in the class, so she actually watched my video twice. After class Susan, the teacher, introduced me to the principal, and we discussed some how the experience I had is a problem with alot of their material. The books they use are often from Britain or America, and many of the situations described have nothing to do with Tongan life. So the teachers have to explain alot outside of the books, or alter the assignments so they are more appropriate. I started to walk back to town, and Ranu (not Gna\x27u, as I was calling her before) said her brother would be back in 1/2 an hour to pick her up, so if I wanted a ride. But I wanted to walk. Ina ny case they passed me as I was walking later and gave me a lift back to town. I decided I wanted to have one more swim before I left this place, so I packed up and headed across the island on my bike again to the far beach. I again got lost, but found my was to another great beach. Very similar to the other ones, with a tall break of coral reef protecting the inner swimming area. I was walking around on the coral, and in this one deep cove there were some brilliantly blue fish with an orange stripe. I so wish I had a mask so I could look at them. Instead they remained beautiful blue blurs under the water\x27s surface. I swam for 30 minutes, then rode to Tavita\x27s house. They were relaxing on the dock, and I sat down with them. Eba brought out some juice. Tavita went and caught a chicken, and they asked if I liked chicken. I said yes, but I was going to the dance tonight, so could the chicken be ready in two hours? they suggested I come back after and eat then. While we are having this conversation, Tavita is holding the rooster by his wings on the dock in front of me. We agree to that. Teki wants me to take down some information. We have talked about me sponsoring Tavita, who wants to come to America for his daughter\x27s birthday. Sponsoring means writing a letter on behalf of a person so they can obtain a visa. So Tika calls his daughter out, who speaks the best english of all of them. I ask her for an address here that I could send things, as well as a list of all of their names. She writes all of this down, as well as the info I needed for the sponsor letter. While she is doing this, Tavita takes the chicken around the corner. I can\x27t see him, but I can see the group of kids watching him, then there is a load Thwak! snd the kids all jerk and graon to the sight of him beheading the rooster. When the daughter is finished writing, I tell Tika that if I am to come back here after the dancing, I should go and say goodbye to Lyndsey and her family. I then proceed to leave on my bike, and as I am driving down the road there is Tavita, holding the headless rooster and starting to pluck him. We shake hands and I go. Head home, call Lyndsey, and Ebon comes to pick me up. Lyndsey has a friend over named Jo who is another NZ expat. I talk about Wellington,, and she rants about how bad Te Papa is doing and how it is badly managed. I later understand that she is an artist, and figure that most of her miff is with the fact that the center opened and concentrated on bringing in international art shows, instead of showing local artists, like her. I had given the Robert Smithson salt to Ranu at the school, so now I explained what I would like to happen if possible. It seems like a lot of people drive their personal yachts out here, then want to just fly home, so they hire a local to drive their yacht back to their home town (Austalia, NZ). So Lyndsey will keep her ears open, and when that happens next, she will get the person to dump the salt for me on the Minervan reef. I also prepared a postcard, so that when the person dumps the salt, they can write down the date, time and weather, then send it back to me when they get back to Tonga. Let\x27s see if it happens. We talked a bit more, then I had to go to the show. Ebon drove me with all the kids. I told them how the fisherman fishes. i told them I had stayed out on the prisoner\x27s island. They seemed interested and a little put off. They sometimes work with a group that puts on skits to educate the locals about enviromental issues and such, and here I am going around encouraging bad environmental practices, and staying where I didn\x27t belong. But Ebon was also intrigued by how Tavita did it, so I filled him in on what I knew. It was a little awkward, but was OK. I asked them if they would be interested in possibly helping me transcribe and translate some of the conversations I had recorded. So when I dump these sound files onto my computer, if they are good enough I will email it io them and hopefully they can tell me a little of what was said. Next was the dancing show, which I have already described. I then got a taxi to Tavita\x27s. This was the first time I had been there at night and they had bundles of christmas lights that they plugged in around the property for light. I sat and ate the rooster, which was delicious though the white meat was very dry, and they didn\x27t give me something to drink until half way through the meal. Again they had three times as much food as I could eat placed out for me. We talked some more, then The daughter brought out this giant piece of art that they gave to me. They are originally made by people to give to the Royal family when they return from trips. This one was given to Tavita\x27s mother, and now they were giving it to me. It is humongous and beautiful. I want to call it a Taro cloth. When you walk around the streets of Tonga, you always herar this hollow hammering. I first thought it was construction, but later found out it is women beating Taro bark on hollow logs. They pound the bark and make these giant sheets, that they then paint. It is literally hundreds of hours of work to make one of these. I haven\x27t unfolded it, but it seems to be about 2x6 meters in size. What do I do with it, attach it to a wall in my basement space? I thanked them over and over, we took a family portrait, then they drove me home. I packed until 1 am, tried to get the alarm clock widget Peter had sent me to work to no avail, then set my phone and had a restless night, paranoid again that I would miss my plane. Tavita showed up at 4:45, an hour early. i suggested we go ahead and go to the airport, but he said he would sleep in the van and I should just wake him in an hour. I did, we went, and as we drove to the airport the sun was rising. There were more people out and about than I expected. People just trying to avoid the heat. There were a number of joggers at 6AM, again suprising because exercise isn\x27t a common Tongan thing to do. When we got to the airport the sun was up and Tavita helped me with my bags. I gave him the sandles and radio I had bought, as well as my NY Public Radio bag and $50 for Petrol. We shook hands and he left. I had a meat pie and waited for the plane. Well that does it, I am done. I hope you have appreciated the missives. Now I just need a vacation to relax and recover from this experience. For those of you in New York, I hope to see you soon. For those of you in Chicago, I want to get out there some time soon, so will keep you informed. Oklahoma, you have my love, we should talk about when I can come visit there, too. Kisses and crossed fingers that I make it back to NY on time. Love, Joe\x3c/div\x3e");
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document.write("\x3cp class\x3d\x22date\x22\x3e11/17/2008\x3c/p\x3e");
document.write("\x3cdiv\x3eWell I have had another busy day and won\x27t be able to tell you about it until I get to Auckland, as I have plans that lead into the late night and won\x27t have time to sit and write things out.-- I do have a little time because I arrived at the dinner show early- I was told 7:30 and it actually starts at 8. So I have been spending time trying to wrap things up. Clarifying the money issues, arranging a taxi to the airport, etc. Doing a little more emailing and buying the last of the things I would like to have as raw material. OK I am sitting at the International Dateline Hotel, and there is a dinner before the dancing. It is about to start. A fellow has been sitting on stage behind a keyboard for the last half hour, and just now has started playing. I think he chose the \x22Smooth Jazz tempo #27\x22 (with a lot of soft hi-hat) for his first mellow intro piece. I guess I will keep writing about the day, and every once in a while interrupt and tell you what is happening now. I bought some music and a DVD with samples of the traditional dancing on it- It also has an interactive Karaoke section, and I believe there is a video game engine- developed section with the dancers in it!! There is a picture of the animated dancers on the back cover, will let you know. OK song #2 is with back country track #19, heavy thump bass. OOPS, he just did it again, changed the tempo to a little more upbeat, so now I guess it is Square dance # 8. I bought a book and a magazine for Davida to give to Manu out on the island. I didn\x27t think he would be interested in reading any of the material I had on me, mostly about robots and microchip programming. I bought him a copy of some type of E! magazine, and a novel entitled \x22The Wooden Sea,\x22 about a guy who suddenly meets himself as a 17 year old boy, and the boy tells him how he has lived his life wrong and how he needs to change it now to avert some future tragedy. I also gave him the three photocopied articles I have read and have been carrying around, I have no idea if they are of interest to him. They are: Notebook: On Message, by Lewis H Lapham I believe out of Harpers (?); The Blue of Distance, sorry but I don\x27t have the author on hand; and After Life by Joan Didion from the New York Times Magazine, about her husband\x27s sudden death, what happened after and how she has coped/ responded to it all. When I was in the bookstore buying a book for him, I was thinking \x22what the hell kind of book do you buy for a guy isolated on a tropical island for the next five years? \x22 I saw a copy of The History of the Peloponesian War but I thought that would be torturous. There wasn\x27t that great a selection. He recommended an old novel to me, Men of the Sea, but I had never heard of it. Any suggestions of what I should have given him? So the buffet is actually quite good. They have a whole roasted pig, and you get a little cut of meat and a chunk of hardened fried skin. There is a nice marinated raw fish salad thing, kind of sevice, A giant fish of some sort that is quite tender, some of the beef wrapped in Taro leaves I had at Davida\x27s, a stuffed shellfish, and various sides, including a salad made of the same raw onions, tomato wedges and cucumber I had the first night. I don\x27t get big chunks of raw onions. The band is now singing as well as playing. Well, the guy is. He must have some type of effects attached to his mike, because it sounds like he is harmonizing with someone. He has returned to Tongan smooth jazz. I bought a new map of Tonga\x27topu, as the one I had got wet and destroyed. after buying all this gak I headed back to Sela\x27s and then went over to Davida\x27s for a bit, to arrange when I should come by later. His father (I now know his name is Tekiteki) [I swear they are doing a Tongan translation of the song \x22Its like starting over\x22] and uncle were making new nets from material he had gotten in NZ. Tevita (the actual spelling of what I have been writing as Davida) showed me some new equipment he had purchased. We sat for a bit and talked, and arranged for me to come by at 4 or 5. I had to go meet with Evan (actually Ebonie, they call him Ebon) to take me to the school to talk to them about what I do. Lyndsey has some type of bad boil on her knee that has incapacitated her, so Ebon picked me up and drove me there. I met the teacher, Susan, who has lived around the world, mostly in Africa, but otherwise in Europe and now Tonga. She and her husband have worked for various banks and aid agencies, helping develop laws in various countries or otherwise assisting in development. She said that right now there are no laws about waste disposal in Tonga at all. Her husband is working to develop such laws, and she is teaching at this school. Her class came in and I gave a little presentation about myself and my job history, as well as showed them the video of my performance at Tonic. I gave an explanation before hand, and during the show stopped to explain on the chalkboard what I was talking about. I was surprised by how much they laughed at it, and the fact that most of them paid attention to the whole thing. The teacher asked me some questions after, like why I was in a clown suit, and \x22How did I work with the space,\x22 which was a weird question for me, but I tried to answer it. I then went on to talk about the Builders Association show Supervision, and explained the three stories as well as how the screen device worked. Again, more than half seemed actually interested in what I was talking about. The teacher then asked me to describe what it was like to be in the theater, and I asked if she meant as an audience member or performer? She said both, as none of the Tongans had ever seen theater. So I backed up and went to a very basic description o f what theater is, how the audience sits in a darkened space and how the whole environment is created on stage. You could be in Tonga, but the scene inside is a winter in Norway. They sure are stingy with the napkins here. One tiny paper napkin for a big greasy meal. Then I tried to explain what it is like to perform, how it is daunting to be in front of an audience of 900 people, how you have to concentrate, because every little difference in how you perform something affects how it is perceived, and how it is pleasurable, like when you have a certain line that always makes the audience laugh. OK I have to stop here the show is starting. I will have to finish in Auckland. Well I am taking a break from filming because they are doing some silly stuff with canned music. I know that Tongan dancing does not have the grass skirts and the hip shaking, and that is what they are doing right now. Maybe they are doing an all Polynesian review, or have spiced things up for the tourists. Ok The firestick dancing was totally Polynesian Busker juggling. Funny, but good. OK they did a last dance that was really nice. I will talk about the difference between this and the show at the feast tomorrow. I have to go send this, then go to Tevita\x27s to have some chicken he killed for a final meal with me today. Cheers and love, joe\x3c/div\x3e");
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document.write("\x3cdiv\x3eI apologize for the quality of that last one. An undercurrent in the Tonga story has become finances. I have worked it all out now (at least to make it out of Tonga and back to the states), but it has stuck in my craw and stopped me from focussing on telling the story of what has been happening. This is the crux of the financial dilemma: A couple days ago I tried to withdraw $400 Tongan. For some reason the machine didn\x27t work, \x22transaction declined,\x22 so I thought maybe I entered the pin wrong, and tried again. Same result. Went to the bank branch, tried again, no dice. Went inside, asked a lady, she suggested I do $200, and that worked. But the next time I tried to pull some money out, I noticed my balance was quite low. Today I checked my balance on line, and this first two attempts, though they didn\x27t work on my end, worked on the other and my account was down $800 Tongan that I had never received!! I went back to the bank, and the lady said I have to contact my bank and have them contact them, then they can track down the mistake and reimburse me. That doesn\x27t help me pay my hotel and other expenses right now. I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to suss out various options, and finally have solved the situation so that I have enough dough to get out of Compton. So I am now able to relax and continue with the story. OK so I wanted to gather various things, cameras, batteries, toilet paper, waterproof bag, etc. before heading out for the night. Went to stores, gathered stuff at Sela\x27s then headed to Davida\x27s. Then HE had to gather some things, parts for his \x22fishing equipment,\x22 bread for the prisoners, mosquito coils, petrol. so we drove around doing that. And driving around is not a quick process. If you see a friend, you pull over and chat a bit. If someone needs a lift, you stop and converse, then they hop in the back of the truck. So after an hour we get back, load the boat, then race out of there, with a younger relation of his, Eba ( I didn\x27t know he was coming along). Eba is my guess 18, very broad and quiet. The sun is starting to set, so Davida is driving slightly slower as it gets darker. Eba and I are sitting low in the front to keep the nose down, but not out on the bow. We get out to one of the islands, and at this point Davida and Eba trade places. The waters are shallow and Davida stands on the bow, feet 18 inches apart, directing Eba with very slight hand gestures. I have footage of him doing this the next day when we were looking for fish. A little finger flick for curve left or right. A hand upward gesture for speed up a little. I only mention this because it seemed like they had done this so many times that they only needed the slightest signal to communicate. So after 45 min or an hour we get to the prisoner\x27s island, where they are waiting because the dogs have warned them, and they pull us in, we dry dock the boat up the beach and unload. At this point Lava\x27ke is having an animated discussion with Davida, pointing regularly to the far end of the island. I so wish I could get my recorder out but there is no way to until we get to the house. When we get there I do, and it is dark now so I pull out my little flashlight, too, sit down and try to set up the minidisc player. At one point I notice it has gone quiet, I look up and Davida is standing over me looking at what I am doing. A conversation ensues, and eventually I hear \x22walkman\x22 and sounds of agreement. I tell them \x22yeah, it is kaput,\x22 because I can\x27t hear anything out of it. They lose interest and start to put together a meal. I figure out I just had the volume down, so I set it up and leave it out in the middle of the yard to record the conversation. Of course then the conversation has drifted away. We eventually eat bread, bananas, and some raw fish that they had been marinating from our catch the other day. It is my favorite. The meaty white fish that they boil is pretty bland, but gnawing on that raw fish is delicious, and this breed especially so. Buttery. The prisoners live a a very communal situation- actually the two prisoners and the warden. I found out that Paul is the warden, and he has to report in three times a day, but actually the solar panels are not charging the battery so they haven\x27t been able to communicate via CB for about two weeks, but STILL they haven\x27t sent out a ship to check in on them. Also I think it is interesting that the warden has to live the exact same life as the prisoners. They sleep in the same room, share the food and chores, etc. Just Paul is getting paid for it. They do get a supply ship every two weeks, but it is late. So after dinner and more sweet tea we all head inside, so Davida can prepare his fishing equipment. I ask if I can video, and at first he says no, but I don\x27t think it was clear, so I point to the camera, and he says,\x22yeah, yeah.\x22 So for the next hour we all sat around as Lava\x27ke holds the flashlight, Eba assists, I film, and Davida performs his magic. I was going to just film the first one, but noted the focus was screwy, figured it out, then went ahead and filmed the second. At the end Davida holds both up to the camera and says \x22Pom.\x22 We go outside to stretch, have a little more tea, then out of the blue Manu starts talking to me in English. Manu is the other prisoner who has basically stayed out of the picture til now. He didn\x27t participate in the fishing, and when we were around the house last time he basically stayed inside. We converse for a long time. Turns out he grew up in LA for 17 years. His natural parents died and he was adopted. Got caught messengering cocaine, and since his adoptive parents never legally changed his name to their\x27s, he was deported. He hadn\x27t lived in Tonga since he was a toddler. A number of years later he got into trouble again, \x22drugs,\x22 and he has five years to spend on this island. He is not as muscular as the average Tongan, and he talks with a half shy, half unsure of his English quality. He asks if Danny White is still with the Cowboys. I said I don\x27t think so. Are the Raiders still in LA? I believe so. Who won the last Super Bowl? I think Kansas City(?), I don\x27t really remember. We talk about when he recognized I was form America when I said thank you to him during the first trip. He tells me about his adoptive parents. His life in Tonga when he got back. About the farming they do on the island. He is actually quite proud of the farm, you can tell in his voice. Sometimes yachts stop by and since he knows English best he gives them tours. He is a little bothered, because there used to be two other guys here, but they are on Tonga\x27tapu because they have to go to court, and the guys on the island are getting behind with the work in the fields. He really wanted to show me the fields if I had time the next day. I told him I was going to LA so if there was anything he wanted me to bring to his folks I could do it for him. He couldn\x27t think of anything off hand, but if he thought of it he would give it to me before I go. This conversation is happening in the brightness of a full moon outside. The other guys are gathered together to our side, having their own conversation, probably glad they don\x27t have to deal with the Palengi for a little bit. Soon after we went to bed. Not sleep, mind you, bed. I was given one of the top bunks. Even though we had the mosquito coils burning, the mosquitos were viscious. You could either cover youself with your sheet and burn up, or leave your self exposed and get eaten up. I tried both methods, I tried ignoring the bites, but nothing. After about two hours, I got up and slathered myself with suntan lotion, which happened to also have insect repellent. But I still couldn\x27t sleep. I feel like I slept for two descent blocks that night, but most of the time I just laid there, listening to Davida snoring, looking out the window at the moonlit landscape. I was woken up at 6am by Eba, and we wandered up and down the coast looking for fish. I couldn\x27t tell what the hell they were looking for. I couldn\x27t see amy ripples, discoloration or movement that would indicate fish. But then all of a sudden Davida is running forward, lighting his \x22tool,\x22 then KABOOM!! And I just got the camera out of the bag. So I missed it!! It was the biggest catch yet, and I filmed the gathering, but no boom. After the fish were corralled, we walked around the whole island, then they decided we should go to the last island in the chain and fish there. Lava\x27ke came with us, and we did the 10 minute boat ride over to the last island. It was the smallest yet, a 60 ft diameter of trees surrounded by a 15 foot ring of sand. Again we circumnavigated, and I spent the whole time futzing with the camera, because it wouldn\x27t let me record, and I was afraid I was going to miss my last chance. Well the chance never came, as they saw no fish. So we piled back in and went back to the original island. We packed up rather quickly, and headed out, so I didn\x27t get my tour. I did get his parent\x27s address, so I will be contacting them and maybe meeting them when the Builders are in LA. Since we still had a fishing tool, we went back island to island with Davida and Eba spying for fish. Since we were going slower, and I figured out how to get the camera working again, I took some footage from the boat, which was great. No fish, so we bunker down for the trip across the deep ocean and back into the harbor. Back at the dock, they pull out all the fish and splash them with buckets of seawater to clean them off. Davida\x27s father suggests I go home to change and come back for lunch. So I head on my bike back to home. I showered and cleaned up, then the rest of the day is boring as I spent alot of time chasing down dollars. I did arrange with Lyndsey to talk to her class tomorrow, and to interview Gary in the evening. I went back for lunch, which was the bland fish and very dry Taro roots. They served me the fishhead and I didn\x27t know what to do with it. I was out of sorts until I figured out the money issue, then I was able to relax. Gary came over, and of course, the minidisc won\x27t record. So we just talked, and it was mostly useless. I kept trying for him to give me details, he kept talking in generalities. He did write down some info for good CD\x27s with Tongan music, etc, but it turned out he is writing a book and the main reason he wanted to talk to me was to see if I could help him get his book made into a movie. His comments about Tongan life were too generic- It was better back then, it is corrupted now. So that\x27s where I am at now. I am going to try to sleep long tonight, then have a low key day tomorrow. Talk to the class, have a meal at Davida\x27s, and hopefully go see some of the Tongan dancing. Then out at 8am on Thursday. So the excitement of the trip may be over. I will post one more time tomorrow, then off to Auckland for a day, and then 20 hours of flights back to NY. I hope that you guys have warmed up the city for me. I don\x27t want to come back to snow or anything. Cheers, Joe PS I apologize for changing tense all the time. I just noticed that I keep switching from past to present tense all over the place.\x3c/div\x3e");
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