I think I will title this episode: Lucy & Ethel Tuna Smugglers

Lucy, have you and Ethel been smuggling tuna again? Awe Ricky, couldn't you just call your friend at the Port Authority office and explain?

So, Ali has this friend Fidel from Ecuador that works on a tuna boat. He came into port today, and called her and said he had some fresh tuna for her. They agreed to meet at the port in Pago Pago so he could give it to her, as they have done on many occasions over the past 6 years.

So at the arranged hour of 12:00 noon, Ali and I drove up to the port gates. We checked in with the Port Authority guard and explained that we were there to meet Fidel to pick up some tuna. We were let in and drove about 25 yards from the Port Authority office to wait for Fidel. After a few minutes Fidel came in on a small boat.

The usual greetings ensued, and after a few introductions, Fidel unloaded a couple of boxes of frozen tuna, and a huge frozen piece of Mahi Mahi (literally the size of the trunk of my body)

into our car. We were just getting ready to leave when a Port Authority officer walked up and said "What are you doing?" Ali explained that we were getting fish from a friend. He said "Where is my fish?" Then a Port Authority truck pulled up and two more officers got out.

One of those officers began to question the men on the boat, none of which are very fluent in english and all of which were reluctant to talk to

anyone in a uniform. Ali was trying to translate for a minute but as things became more heated and another Port Authority truck pulled up with two more officers in it, she decided to call her husband Ma'O for some Samoan help.

While Ali was on the phone and I was

trying to casually take pictures without the officers kn

owing, I heard one of the officers make a deal with Fidel that if he would meet her tomorrow and bring her a fish, the trouble could go away. I saw her take his phone number and tell him that she would be off at noon tomorrow and would see him then. She then said "if you are giving the fish to the women then give it all to them." So Fidel went back aboard his boat and proceeded to put a whole frozen fish (Guillermo, the boat driver's fish) into the back of our car.

(No plastic wrap, no nothing... I don't need to mention what the car now smells like.)

Then we were told to come with the officers to the Port Authority office, (which was literally less than 25 yards away) as was Guillermo, the driver of the small boat that Fidel had come on.

Poor Guillermo kept asking Ali in spanish if he was

being taken to jail. Frankly, for a few

minutes I wasn't so sure that her assurances that we were not all going to jail were very valid. I was thinking that maybe Ma'O was going to be bailing us out, although I had no idea what we could have

possibly done wrong.

Luckily every Samoan has a very important 'cousin' somewhere, and Ma'O is no exception. He is friends with/related to one of the big bosses at the Port Authority, and when we were seated in the office of the guy in charge Ali started throwing his name around. Magically, his 'tuna tune' changed completely. "I am sure this is just a simple misunderstanding," he began saying. "Not a problem Mam" he said. "We aren't here to make things hard for people, just a simple

misunderstanding I am sure."

In the end, the Ecuadorian's were scolded for not letting the Port Authority know that they were going to stop their boat there. It was explained to us that the confusion started when an

officer thought we looked like we might be loading some contraband.

Contraband? Smugglers? Yes, we are definitely smugglers. Only the smartest smugglers disguise themselves as being two of the whitest women on the island, explain to the officers that they are picking up fish, and show passports and sign papers to get into the main port gates, then park directly in front of the Port Authority office, to load their smelly boxes of "contraband."

After a few minutes of Ali explaining back and forth, spanish to english and back, the officer who started all the fuss, looked like he was just sorry to have messed with the crazy, now very wound up, palagi red head with the Samoan husband.

We were promptly let go, as was our new friend Guillermo, who was so happy to be out of there he told us to just keep that big frozen fish.

This is Fidel walking towards us so glad we are coming out of the office, and this is Guillermo's back, he couldn't get out of there fast enough!!

Ali and I drove out of the port gates laughing so hard, and then realized 'What are we going to do with this huge fish?' It is far too big to fit into any refrigerator or freezer.

We decided to call Hena.

Hena lives in a little area with many Tongan families, and we thought maybe she could share it with her family and friends. We pulled up to Hena's house and went in to ask if she wanted some fish. She came out to the car and her eyes grew wide when she saw the big fish.

She began, "My ward is having a dinner tomorrow and they asked me to bring the fish. I don't have any fish and so I called my friends to see if they had any fish and they all said no. Today I was praying to Heavenly Father to help me to find some fish. This is fish from heaven" she said.

Well Lucy, I think this episode turned out pretty well, don't you? Yes Ethel, it was a little more adventuresome than I had planned, but there is nothing quite like delivering fresh fish from heaven!